The Psankiewicz family lives at 26 rue Duris in the 20th arrondissement. Abram and Chana emigrated from Poland in the mid-1920s. They met in Paris where Chana and her sister Ruschka had decided to make a stopover before emigrating to the United States with their parents. Each met her future husband there so they stayed in France. Abram and Chana have two girls, Louise and Rachel, who attend the school on rue de Tlemcen at the time of the war.
On May 14, 1941, Abram was a victim of the Green Ticket round-up and sent to the Beaune-la-Rolande camp. On July 16, 1942, French police officers come to arrest Chana and the children. They are taken to the Bellevilloise, from where Chana forces her daughters to escape. A period of wandering follows for Louise and Rachel as they watch their family inevitably vanished.
In 1995, Rachel participates in the Shoah Foundation's initiative and finally tells her story. From that year on, she has never ceased to testify especially in schools. Just like an agile seamstress, she tirelessly mends the holes that punctuate the memory of History.
In 2018, Rachel publishes Nous étions seulement des enfants, which she dedicates to her children and grandchildren. In November 2021, she receives from Serge Klarsfeld the insignia of Officer of the Legion of Honor for her memorial mission in schools. On that day, the mischievous little Rachel made one hell of a mockery of those who wanted to erase her story.
Testimony from Rachel Jedinak
"From that moment on, we were able to tell. Our suffering was recognized. Then, the floodgates that we had kept closed opened one by one. And my past came back to me in successive waves" (Nous étions seulement des enfants, pp. 92).
This is what Rachel writes in her 2018 book entitled We Were Only Children in reference to the historical statement President Jacques Chirac made on Sunday, July 16, 1995.
In the interview Rachel gave for the Shoah Foundation in August 1995, we witness the nascent resurgence of the memories she had buried so deeply over the years. Now that her voice was finally being listened to, she confided both fragments that were well anchored in her memories - her leitmotiv "And I remember" recalling Perec's anaphoric text – as well as the blanks that still obscured her memory at that time. This was only the first wave.
During the twenty years or so that separated the two testimonies, the cathartic backwash of her liberated memory conjured back up places and faces, shed light on moments that had been blurry until then and polished up the details.
Album Photo
Abram and Chana Psankiewicz in Paris, 1928.
Handwritten note in Yiddish on the back of the photo reads: 'My dear brother, here is now a picture as a souvenir - your brother Abram Psankiewicz'
Wedding picture of Chana and Abram. Paris, 1928.
Abram, Chana, Louise and Rachel circa 1934
Rachel circa 1936
Louise and Rachel in March 1942
Paul and Maurice Psankiewicz with their school awards.
Paul Psankiewicz circa 1940
Rachel's paternal grand-mother, Hendla Psankiewicz
Rachel's paternal grand-father, Nachmann Psankiewicz
Rachel's maternal grand-parents, the Zytos, who emigrated to the U.S.
Abram, Maurice and Larbel Becker in Beaune-la-Rolande. January 1942. 'As a souvenir from here and hopefully becoming free again, we send you a photo'
Abram and Maurice in Beaune-la-Rolande. April 1942.
Abram and Maurice in Beaune-la-Rolande. April 1942.
Abram in Beaune-la-Rolande. May 1942.
Abram in Beaune-la-Rolande wearing his makeshift shoes. June 1942.
Certificate of Non-Rapatriation issued in April 1946. It indicates that Abram was deported to Germany in June 1943
Death certificate issued in 1952 indicating that Abram died in Beaune-la-Rolande.
Revision of Abram's death certificate issued in 1999 and indicating he died in deportation, in Auschwitz (Poland).
Death certificate of Chana issued by the Red-Cross.
Blog Post by Mélanie
On the evening of June 15, 2019, I recorded the details of my serendipitous encounter with Rachel - in my Mnemosyne notebook - to try to preserve its magic. That day, I felt as if an interstice had opened up and allowed me to slip into the past, into my past. Since then, every time we call or see each other, Rachel gives me the greatest gift of all: she allows me to see my grandmother's eyes again and to sense her comforting warmth.
Readings
Sciences-Po, "Chronology of repression and persecution in Occupied France, 1940-1944", read here.
Sciences-Po, "The Vélodrome d'Hiver Round-up, 16-17 Juillet 1942", read here.
Sciences-Po, "The Drancy camp", read here.
Sciences-Po, "Aloïs Brunner", read here.
Yad Vashem, "Vél' d'Hiv Round-up", read here.
Transcription of selected extracts from George Wellers's testimony at the Eichmann Trial (9 May 1961), read here.
Report after the inspection of the Pithiviers camp by the regional Prefect (Nov. 1941 and Jan. 1943), read here in French.
Report after the inspection of the Beaune-la-Rolande camp by the regional Prefect (Nov. 1941), read here in French.
Report after the inspection of the Drancy camp by the regional Prefect (1943), read here in French.
Archives du Loiret, "Les camps du Loiret", read here in French.
Enfants sans parents: la mobilisation identitaire en France au lendemain de la Shoah, read here.
Green Ticket Round-up photographs,See here.
Videos
Micheline Cahen, Red Cross social worker in Beaune-la-Rolande, describes the conditions in the camp: watch here in French.
Micheline Cahen recalls the deportations and the closing of the camp: watch and read translation here.
Marcelle Duval, volunteer for the Red Cross, recalls what she saw in the Vélodrome d'Hiver after the July 16, 1942 roundup: watch here.
Transcript in English of Marcelle Duval's testimony: read here.
Annette Monod, Red Cross social worker, describes the conditions in the camps of Pithiviers, Beaune-la-Rolande and Drancy: watch and read here.
George Wellers at the Eichmann trial: Arrival of the Vel d'Hiv children at the Drancy camp: watch here.
USHMM - Film on the Lamarck Asylum (1938): watch here.
Film shot clandestinely in the Beaune-la-Rolande camp (1938): watch here.
From Akadem, a video on the looting of Jewish apartments in Paris (in French): watch here.
Demolition of the Vélodrome d'Hiver: watch here.
Additional Links
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) Collections
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) Holocaust Encyclopedia
Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center