Stew Ross, Author at Stew Ross Discovers

Child survivors of Auschwitz (Photo - 1945), Belarussion State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons. — Child survivors of Auschwitz (Photo – 1945), Belarussion State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Born in Poland, Jacob Bresler, 16-years old, survived 5 concentration camps. He lost his entire family to the Holocaust. After spending 2 years at the Landsberg DP (displaced persons) near Munich Germany, Jacob moved to the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Samuels took him into their family and treated him as their son. Jacob went into the US Army, became a television producer, restaurateur, and successful businessman before retiring.

Jacob was fortunate—he was one of very few children who survived.

Shortly after World War II ended, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) produced a series of radio broadcasts with the purpose of attempting to locate relatives of the children who survived the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. If the children found their living relatives, most of the stories did not have happy endings like Jacob’s story. Most of the children were rejected or treated shabbily by their relatives.

I am researching the material for my fourth book, Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters?–A Walking Tour of Nazi-Occupied Paris (1940-1944) . There are many stories contained within those 4 years of occupation—many of the stories are not very nice. In fact, there are many disturbing stories.

One of the most disturbing is the story of deportation of young French children. The Vél d’hiv raffle or Grand Roundup took place in Paris over 2-days starting 16 July 1942. A total of 12,884 Jews were arrested and moved to Vél d’hiv (a giant bicycle racing covered arena). From there, they were moved to a detention camp known as Drancy located on the outskirts of Paris. This was their last stop before being herded into the cattle cars and taken to Auschwitz. Between 17 and 30 September 1942, 34 convoy trains carrying 33,000 French Jews left Drancy for the extermination camp.

July 1942 was the month the Nazis decided to deport Jewish children regardless of age. The French government known as Vichy agreed. Their reasoning was that they didn’t want the children growing up and figuring out the government’s complicity in having their parents and families murdered. The ages of the deported children ranged from babies to teenagers.

More than 11,000 children from Paris were deported to the extermination camps during the period of occupation. It is estimated that only 300 survived.

Jacob Bresler, 86-years young, continues to this day to search for members of his family.

Read the entire BBC article: Tracing the children of the Holocaust

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Bubonic plague victims in mass grave. Photo (2011) by S. Tzortzis. Wikimedia Commons.

You all know me by now. I couldn’t pass up this one.

On the corner of Rue Réaumur and Boulevard de Sébastopol in the second district of Paris stands a Monoprix supermarket. In January 2015, archaeologists discovered the building sits on top of a medieval cemetery.

Rows after rows of complete human skeletons (316 in total) were found buried in a mass grave. It turns out this was near the site of a medieval hospital called Hôpital de la Trinité. The occupants of this grave ranged from babies to the elderly (remember, in medieval times, elderly was often no greater than 40-years of age). Hospitals during the Middle Ages were not like the ones we know (i.e., places to cure the sick). They were primarily places where the poor could get food and a place to sleep.

Medieval burials in Paris were done in large pits. Once the pit was filled, it was covered up and a new pit was dug. During this excavation, they found 8 separate pits. The main pit contained 175 occupants. The lead archaeologist, Ms. Isabelle Adadie, indicated there was no trauma to any of the skeletons thus leading to the question of how these individuals died. DNA testing will reveal a lot. If it is found that all the skeletons are from a narrow time frame around the mid-1300s, it could be the bubonic plague that took their lives.

As most of you know from my prior blog posts, all the cemeteries located within the city limits were closed down in the 1800s with the remains transferred to the Paris Catacombs. As the archaeological team points out, Paris has been continuously occupied, and as such, excavations are difficult. A great example of this was the excavation during the construction of I.M. Pei’s pyramid at the Louvre. They discovered the foundations of the great royal palace and sections of the wall built by King Charles V.

One of the city’s archaeologists points out that over the centuries, Paris was continuously flooded. As they rebuilt, the soil was compacted and the level of the city slowly rose. Just think of what still lies below the surface on the Île de la Cité and other parts of Paris.

The archaeologists were very excited to find skeletons and not your average run of the mill ancient building. I guess it’s sort of like finding the remains of the English King Richard III buried under a church parking lot or the remains of the naughty nuns from an old English nunnery.

Anyway, stay tuned, as more information becomes known about these folks.

Please visit the complete NY Times article A Grisly Find Under a Supermarket Illuminates France’s Medieval History.

Please note that I do not and will not take compensation from individuals or companies I mention or promote in my blog.

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Author: Stew Ross

The Children Who Survived

Stop the Presses: Skeletons and Not Buildings

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