Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup


The Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup was a Nazi raid and mass arrest of Jews in Lyon's Sainte-Catherine street by the Gestapo. The raid, ordered and personally overseen by Klaus Barbie, took place on 9 February 1943 at the Fédération des sociétés juives de France, then located at the number 12 of this street. The Nazis not only chose the day the Federation normally gave free medical treatment and food to poor Jewish refugees to catch as many people as possible, but they also set up a mousetrap by forcing arrested Federation employees to encourage further people to come to the 12 Rue Sainte Catherine.
A total of 86 Jewish people were arrested, 84 of whom were then sent to the Drancy internment camp. Ultimately 83 people were deported to the extermination camps of Sobibor and Auschwitz, and to a lesser extent to Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Majdanek. Of those arrested, two escaped before deportation, one was released from Drancy, and only three survived the extermination camps. A number of victims belonged to the French Resistance. The Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup was one of the main charges against Barbie at his trial. Malvine Lanzet, then 14 years old, the prisoner released from Drancy, testified at the trial in 1987. Further written testimonies were given by the few surviving witnesses.

Context

In 1943, the offices of the fifth chapter of the Union Générale des Israélites de France were located at 12 Rue Sainte-Catherine in Lyon. Officially, the UGIF was an organisation created by the collaborationist government of Vichy France under the auspices of Nazi Germany. In Lyon, it resulted from the merging of two pre-war entities: the Comité intergouvernemental pour les réfugiés, created in 1938 to help Austrian and German Jewish refugees settle in France; and a branch of the French Jewish Society. During the war, it was nominally placed under the control of the Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs.
The UGIF actually acted in secret for the social assistance and welfare of Jewish people, receiving funding from the American Quakers and, as the Nazis believed, from a Geneva-based Jewish society.
The association provided shelter and general help to refugees from all over Europe arriving in Lyon since before the war. The UGIF also provided counterfeit papers and helped smuggle people abroad, in particular to Switzerland. The organisation included a number of non-Jewish helpers as well, who provided temporary housing for some refugees. These activities became known by the Nazis and served as a pretext for the Gestapo to raid the UGIF premises in Lyon, although their actual aim was simply to round up and send as many Jews as possible to the extermination camps.

Roundup

Events

On Tuesday, 9 February 1943, the Gestapo, acting under the direction of Klaus Barbie, who was personally present, decided to arrest the members of the UGIF in Lyon and set up a trap to arrest all people visiting them. They chose a Tuesday because this was the day that the UGIF gave free food and administered medical treatments to the needy.
Gilberte Jacob, one of the few survivors of the roundup reported at the trial of Barbie that she was at her reception desk when, in the early afternoon, three men armed with revolvers arrested her. In total 30 people were present in the UGIF offices when a dozen Gestapo men dressed in plain clothes arrived.
In the following hours, the Gestapo forced the UGIF receptionists to answer calls as usual and to especially encourage people to visit the UGIF that day. Four or five Gestapo members plus Barbie interrogated everybody.
The Gestapo trap worked and soon two rooms were filled with 80 people. The Nazis took all their belongings.
Among the arrested people were Victor Szulklaper and Michel Kroskof-Thomas, who both managed to convince Barbie that they were not Jewish thanks to counterfeit documents. Kroskof-Thomas explained his presence by arguing that he was a painter. After he was let go, he tried to warn as many people as possible not to go to the Union office. In 1983 he provided crucial testimony in which he reported that Barbie was personally present at the UGIF premises on the day of the roundup. In 1985, he also formally identified Barbie in prison. Also initially arrested was Annette Grinszpan and her baby son René Grinszpan, then 8 months old. Using counterfeit papers she passed as Alsacian, but ultimately Barbie sent her away because her baby was crying loudly.
On 8 February 1943, Léa Katz-Weiss, then 16 years old, had overheard that a roundup was going to take place in the Grande synagogue de Lyon the next day. Looking for Rabbi Schonberg to warn him, she went to the UGIF offices in the afternoon of the 9th where she was arrested. She managed to convince a Gestapo officer to let her go in exchange for her coming back the next morning to the Hôtel Terminus, so that she could warn her ill mother of her impending departure. Eva Gottlieb, receptionist at the UGIF used counterfeit papers to claim she was unrelated to the UGIF and was only bringing back a Beethoven music score to a friend, so she was consequently let go. Both Eva Gottlieb and Annette Grinszpan gave written testimonies at the trial of Barbie.

Fate of the prisoners

At the end of the day, the Gestapo had arrested 86 people, of whom 62 were men and 24 women. In the early evening they were forced into two trucks and sent to Fort Lamothe, a military casern that served as a temporary prison as the normal Montluc prison was full. They were left there, crammed into two rooms without food or water for two days under the control of the Wehrmacht. Two people, David Luksemberg and Driller Siegfried managed to escape during this interval in the early morning hours of 11 February 1943.
The 84 prisoners still in German hands were sent by train convoy to the Drancy internment camp, north of Paris. At some point, Malvine Lanzet was released from Drancy, possibly owing to her youth and placed in the care of the UGIF in Paris. The remaining 83 people were deported to the Extermination camps of Sobibor, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Majdanek. Among these, only 3 survived.

Victims

Complete list of people arrested during the Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup with their age at the time of arrest, given in alphabetical order:
  1. Berthe Ackerman, 22 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  2. Bronia Andermann, 36 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  3. Israël Bach, 54 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  4. Simon Badinter, father of the French politician Robert Badinter, 47 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  5. Leizer Bleiberg, 43 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  6. Emmanuel Bloch, 68 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  7. Isidore Bollack, 72 years old, killed in Auschwitz
  8. Julius Brender, 44 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  9. Wolf Brull, 62 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  10. Chuma Czerwonogora, 32 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  11. André Deutsch, 34 years old, was bringing 30,000 Francs to the UGIF for poor refugees which were stolen by the Gestapo. He was killed in Auschwitz.
  12. Sigmund Dickmann, 33 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  13. Noel Domnicz, 22 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  14. Gisèle Dornheim, 45 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  15. Emmanuel Edelmann, 35 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  16. Albert Engel, 53 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  17. Israel Epelbaum, 47 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  18. Jacob Esskreis, 65 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  19. Jacob Ettlinger, 39 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  20. Salomon Feldhandler, 35 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  21. Pierre Freidenberg, 42 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  22. Erna Freund, 54 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  23. Icek Frydmann, 34 years old, killed in Majdanek.
  24. Georg Fuchs, 37 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  25. Osias Fuhrer, 53 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  26. Walter Fuhrer, 18 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  27. Régine Gattegno, 19 years old, member of the French Resistance, killed in Sobibor on 30 Mars 1943.
  28. Kalman Gelber, 42 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  29. Joseph Goldberg, 40 years old, killed in Majdanek.
  30. Michel Gorodistan, 42 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  31. Aurélie Gottlieb, 51 years old, member of the French Resistance, killed in Auschwitz on 28 June 1943.
  32. Heinrich Grad, 44 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  33. Esther Grinberg, 32 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  34. Paul Guerin, 13 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  35. Franz Hirschler, 52 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  36. Isaac Horowicz, 33 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  37. Gilberte Jacob, 30 years old, deported to Bergen-Belsen she survived the war and was a witness at the trial of Klaus Barbie.
  38. Ryfka Jelem, 41 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  39. Samuel Kohn, 42 years old, member of the French Resistance, killed in Auschwitz.
  40. Salomon Kruman, 41 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  41. Ruchla Landau, 41 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  42. Pierre Lanzenberg, 43 years old, dermatologist, member of the French Resistance, killed in Sobibor.
  43. Anna Lanzet, 43 years old, mother of Malvine Lanzet, killed in Auschwitz.
  44. Malvine Lanzet, 14 years old. After she arrived in Drancy, she was released on June 12, 1943 and went to an orphanage in Paris where she was cared for by the Union. She was a witness at the trial of Klaus Barbie.
  45. Annie Lederer, 27 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  46. Hans Lichtenstein, 41 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  47. Sidonie Lichtenstein, 37 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  48. Marcelle Loeb, 19 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  49. Ephraim Loebel, 57 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  50. Michael Max, 52 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  51. Gerson Merker, 54 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  52. Norbert Muntzer, 34 ans, killed in Auschwitz.
  53. Chaim Peretz, 57 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  54. Jacques Peskine, 61 years old killed in Auschwitz.
  55. Lola Rappaport, 21 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  56. Klara Reckendorfer, 45 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  57. Jean-Jacques Rein, 23 ans, killed in Sobibor.
  58. Kurt Reis, 42 years old, unknown fate.
  59. Alexandre Reznik, 47 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  60. Feiwel Ring, 33 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  61. Marcus Rokotnitz, 42 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  62. Herta Rosenbach, 35 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  63. Abraham Rosenberg, 64 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  64. Zeli Rosenfeld, 48 years ols, unknown fate.
  65. Irma Rosenthal, 64 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  66. Henri Rosencweig, 25 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  67. Menachem Safran, 42 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  68. Madeleine Schick, 22 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  69. Bernard Schneebalg, 43 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  70. Simha Schkira, 50 years old, unknown fate.
  71. Joseph Soudakoff, 52 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  72. Betty Steigmann, 36 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  73. Armand Steinberg, 32 years old. Dentist, he was deported to Auschwitz and then to the Dachau concentration camp, surviving both ordeals. His testimony was read at the trial of Klaus Barbie. He was interviewed for the documentary Les Témoins impossibles in 1987.
  74. Jules Steinmuller, 48 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  75. Joseph Sztark, 31 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  76. Rachmill Szulklaper, 31 years old, brother of Victor Szulklaper who was released owing to good counterfeit papers in his possession identifying him as a French citizen. Deported to Auschwitz, Rachmill survived the war and died in 1984, on the eve of the trial of Klaus Barbie.
  77. Benno Taubmann, 33 years old, killed in Sobibor.
  78. Feiwel Taubmann, 60 years old, murdered in Sobibor.
  79. Sally Taubmann, 63 years old, murdered in Sobibor.
  80. Victor Tlagarza, 43 years old, murdered in Auschwitz.
  81. Juliette Weill, 21 years old, member of the French Resistance murdered in Sobibor.
  82. Hermann Weinstock, 47 years old, killed in Auschwitz.
  83. Maier Weismann, 57 years old. The day of the roundup, he was bringing 225,000 Francs in funds from the US to help poor refugees in Lyon. This was stolen by the Gestapo and he was killed in Sobibor.
  84. Elias Wolf, 65 years old, killed in Auschwitz.

The four survivors from the 84 arrested were:
  1. Gilberte Jacob, later Gilberte Lévy, witness at the trial of Klaus Barbie;
  2. Malvine Lanzet, later Malvine Kessler, witness at the trial of Klaus Barbie;
  3. Armand Steinberg;
  4. Rachmill Szulklaper.

And the two prisoners who escaped from Fort Lamothe :
  1. Siegfried Driller, born September 16, 1896 in Vienna ;
  2. David Luksemberg.

    Legacy

Following the roundup, the Nazis definitively closed the premises of the UGIF at the Rue Sainte-Catherine.
In April 1943, the head of the UGIF in Lyon at the time of the roundup, Robert Kahn, was sacked and replaced by Raymond Geissmann. Geissmann chose new collaborators and relocated the UGIF to the 9 Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville. In spite of this, from then on most of the help to Jewish refugees came from elsewhere, for example from the office of the Rabbi of Lyon as the 5th chapter of the UGIF had been weakened by the roundup.

Barbie's trial

In 1983, Serge Klarsfeld accessed the archives of the Union générale des israélites de France which had been brought to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York shortly after 1945. Thanks to these documents as well as the list of arrivals at the Drancy camp on 12 February 1943, Klarsfeld managed to establish a complete list of names for the 84 victims.
The order signed by Barbie for the roundup was subsequently uncovered, which meant that the events of the Rue Sainte-Catherine were included at the trial of Barbie in 1987. Klarsfeld compiled these documents in the book La rafle de la rue Sainte-Catherine à Lyon le 9 février 1943. The roundup of the Rue Sainte-Catherine was therefore instrumental in securing Barbie's life sentence.

Commemorative plaque

On 13 February 2011, on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the roundup, a commemorative plaque was put in the Rue Sainte-Catherine with the names of the 84 people arrested on the 9th February 1943. The plaque, donated by the Association des Fils et Filles des Déportés Juifs de France, was unveiled by the senator and mayor of Lyon, Gérard Collomb.
Above the names of the victims, it bears the text:
"A la mémoire des Juifs raflés par la gestapo, le 9 février 1943, dans les locaux de la Fédération des Sociétés Juives de France et du Comité d'assistance aux Réfugiés,
12 rue Sainte Catherine Lyon 1er : 86 personnes furent arrétées, 80 furent déportées dont 3 survécurent."

"In remembrance of the Jews rounded up by the Gestapo on 9 February 1943 at the premises of the Fédération des Sociétés Juives de France and the Aid Committee for the Refugees, 12 Rue Sainte Catherine, Lyon 1: 86 people were arrested and 80 were deported of which 3 survived."

A yearly commemoration takes place in Lyon in remembrance of the events of the 9th February 1943. On the morning of the 21st October 2019, the plaque was defaced with half of the names of the victims covered in black ink.