Archives départementales du Var Archives

POST 165: MORE ABOUT ERNST MOMBERT, DEPORTED FROM FRANCE TO AUSCHWITZ WITH MY AUNT SUZANNE MÜLLER, NÉE BRUCK

Note: In this post, I examine newly acquired documents obtained from France’s Ministère des Armées related to a man named Ernst Mombert arrested and deported from France to Auschwitz with my aunt Suzanne Müller, née Bruck in August-September 1942.

POST 23: MY AUNT SUSANNE’S FINAL JOURNEY

POST 119: THE FRENCH CONNECTION, ERNST & FRANZ MOMBERT

As I write this post, I’m reminded of what the mother of one of my former girlfriends told her when she was working on her doctorate, “you’re learning more and more about less and less.” Such is the case of a man related by marriage to my family who I introduced in earlier posts, Ernst Mombert (“Ernest” in France); he was arrested in Fayence, France in August 1942, along with my father’s beloved sister, Suzanne Müller, née Bruck. (Figure 1) Their fates were already known to me.

Figure 1. My aunt Suzanne Müller, née Bruck (1904-1942), murdered in Auschwitz

However, recently I’ve learned more about Ernst thanks to a French student from Toulon, France, Julia Saintgermain. (Figure 2) In commemoration of the 80^th anniversary in 2022 of the mass deportations of Jews from the Var department of France, where both Toulon and Fayence are situated, as a school project Julia and her schoolmates researched some Jewish victims of this extradition. Julia selected Ernst and Suzanne and came across my blog in the process. Julia contacted me and eventually supplemented what I’d uncovered. I will discuss these recent discoveries. What I learned about Ernst in small part informs me about my aunt’s final weeks, so it is materially relevant.

Figure 2. Julia Saintgermain, the French student who researched some of the Jews deported in August-September 1942 from the Var region of France, including Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne

A little context. My aunt Suzanne (1904-1942) was married to an older gentleman, my uncle Dr. Franz Muller (1871-1945) (Figure 3), who was 33 years her senior; he had two children from a previous marriage, Peter Muller-Munk and Karin Margit Muller-Munk. Because of Franz’s and Suzanne’s age difference, her “stepchildren” were roughly the same age as her. Franz’s daughter Margit was married to Franz Mombert (“Francois” in French), Ernst’s brother, and the two co-owned a fruit farm in Fayence, France. After my aunt and uncle were forced to leave Fiesole, Italy, outside Florence, in September 1938, after earlier fleeing Berlin, Germany in late 1935 or early 1936, they took refuge at Ernst and Franz’s farm in Fayence, France.

Figure 3. My aunt Suzanne with her husband Dr. Franz Müller in Fiesole, Italy in 1938

While researching Ernst Mombert, Julia stumbled on Posts 22 & 23 where I introduced him to readers. She initially asked whether I knew how he’d wound up in the various detention camps in France he is documented to have been incarcerated in during the war (more on this below). As I discussed in Post 119, I’d only been aware he’d been briefly detained in a place called “Le Camp de La Rode” near Toulon, so was unable to answer her question though I was equally intrigued.

Julia obtained a file on Ernest Mombert from France’s “Ministère des Armées” in November 2022, which she graciously shared. (Figure 4) In this post I’ll discuss several new things I learned from this dossier. I would reiterate two points I’ve made in previous posts. First, the assistance of readers and people whom I refer to as “my boots on the ground,” particularly native German and French speakers, has often given me access to documentary evidence I would likely never have found on my own. Second, I find it illuminating that extensive files often exist on Jews murdered during the Holocaust, as though documenting their deaths was more important than celebrating their lives and accomplishments. I acknowledge there may have been pragmatic reasons for post-mortem documentation, such as resolving estate issues.

Figure 4. Cover of “Ernest Mombert” dossier from the “Ministère Des Anciens Combattants Et Victimes De Guerre,” Ministry of Veterans and Victims of War

The Ministère’s file includes documents from their archives of the so-called “Ministère Des Anciens Combattants Et Victimes De Guerre,” Ministry of Veterans and Victims of War. I’ll discuss some of these records beginning with the most recent and working my way backwards.

In Post 23, I talked about my aunt and Ernst’s arrest in Fayence in August 1942 by the Vichy (Figure 5), and the overarching geopolitical environment surrounding the timing. In that earlier post, I also highlighted the last three “postcards” (Figures 6a-c) my aunt ever sent following her arrest; the postmarks and dates on the cards provide clues as to the exact date of her and Ernst’s seizure and the route by which they were ultimately deported to and murdered in Auschwitz. Because her first card was dated the 26^th of August 1942 from a place near Fayence called Draguignan, 19 miles to the southwest, I assumed she’d been taken prisoner several days prior. It turns out that according to the dossier, this is the precise date Ernst and Suzanne were detained and began their final journey. My aunt clearly wasted no time communicating with her husband following her arrest.

Figure 5. Letter dated the 23rd of December 1945 from Ernst Mombert’s brother, Francois, to the French authorities providing details on his brother and my aunt’s arrest and requesting information on their whereabouts

Figure 6a. My aunt Suzanne’s first card sent from Draguignan on the 26th of August 1939 following her arrest the same day

Figure 6b. My aunt Suzanne’s second card sent from “Les Milles,” postmarked the 29th of September 1939 following her arrest on the 26th of September

Figure 6c. The last communication from my aunt Suzanne following her arrest by the Vichy French postmarked from Avignon the 2nd of September 1939

On one page in the report dated the 13^th of August 1946 (Figure 7), the following telling sentences are written: “Arreté 26/8/42 par la gendarmerie de Fayence comme Israelite. Étranger, deporté de Drancy le 7/9/1942, depuis sans nouvelles.” Translated: “Arrested the 26^th of August 1942 by the Fayence constables as a Jew. Foreigner, deported to Drancy on the 7^th of September 1942, no news since.” This page along with one or two others in the dossier from the Ministère des Armées confirm the date that Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne were arrested in Fayence. This passage begs dissection.

Figure 7. Page in Ernst Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” dated the 13th of August 1946 with the passage that has been parsed

First some historical background. Nazi Germany captured France during WWII following the abbreviated Battle of France that lasted from only May 10, 1940, until June 25, 1940. The occupation of France by Nazi Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country. The remainder of Metropolitan France was the rump state of Vichy France headed by Marshal Philippe Petain. Fayence was in this so-called unoccupied “free zone” (zone libre). Vichy France adopted a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany which entailed helping the German authorities deport Jews to killing centers, explaining why Franz and my aunt were arrested by the Fayence constables rather than their Nazi overlords. In November 1942 Germany and their Italian allies finally occupied Vichy France, the zone libre.

A 2017 article I came across by Paul Webster, entitled “The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation,” speaks to this tragic French collaboration:

“Even some pro-German states took a stand. Fascist Hungary resisted Nazi demands to hand over Jews until the country was invaded in 1944. Italy had anti-Semitic laws, but nevertheless defended French Jews in south-eastern France, which was occupied by the Italian army, and thus saved thousands of lives.

The last example is the most relevant to the tragic French experience, whose consequences are yet to be resolved. More than 60 years after a collaborationist French government helped deport 75,721 Jewish refugees and French citizens to Nazi death camps, the national conscience has still not come to terms with the betrayal of a community persecuted by French anti-Semitic laws.”

As a half-French, half-German Jew, this last paragraph explains my highly ambivalent attitude towards the French, namely, their unwillingness to acknowledge and apologize for their complicity in the persecution and murder of Jews during and immediately following WWII.

In the file, Ernst is characterized as “étranger,” foreigner. (see Figure 7) While clearly a Jewish refugee from Germany, by the time of his deportation, he had owned land and been a farmer in Fayence since 1933. (Figure 8) Like my father, Ernst was characterized as “apatride,” stateless (see Figure 7), so thereby not afforded the protection that long-term residency should have bestowed.

Figure 8. Archival record from the “Archives Départementales du Var” in Draguignan, France placing Ernst Mombert’s acquisition of his fruit farm in Fayence on the 1st of December 1933

Another page in the dossier from the Ministère des Armées dated the 20^th of July 1946 uses the words “NON RENTRE” (Figure 9) as regards Ernst Mombert’s whereabouts at the time. Translated as “not returned,” this is a highly charged expression, as I learned. It was a transparent effort by French authorities to avoid culpability for the fate of deportees, most of whom had been transported by the French using their railway system to the German collection center of Drancy outside Paris, a known transit point to the concentration camp of Auschwitz. There can be no doubt the French knew most deportees had been murdered and would never return.

Figure 9. Page in Ernest Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” dated the 20th of July 1946 using the words “NON RENTRE,” not returned

This leads me to a brief discussion in a historical fiction book by Anne Berest my wife Ann is currently reading, entitled “The Postcard,” that coincidentally speaks to this very point regarding the French government. Quoting:

“‘After the war, Myriam wanted to file an official record for each member of her family.’

‘What kind of record?’

‘Death certificates.’

‘Oh. Yes. . .of course.’

‘It was extremely complicated. It took almost two years of dealing with endless bureaucratic red tape for Myriam to file a record. And bear in mind: at the time, the French government still wouldn’t officially use the terms “killed in concentration camp” or “deported.” The term they used was “not returned.” Do you understand what that meant? The symbolism?’

‘Yes. The French government was saying to the Jews, your families weren’t murdered because of our actions. They just. . .haven’t come back.’” (2021:255)

As Anne Berest implies, the hypocrisy is breathtaking.

The fact Ernst Mombert never came back is reflected on several pages in the dossier, including a document dated the 30^th of October 1946, titled “Acte De Disparition,” Deed of Disappearance, or the date he went missing. (Figure 10)

Figure 10. Page in Ernst Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” with his “Acte De Disparition,” Deed of Disappearance, dated the 30th of October 1946 declaring he was deported on the 7th of September 1942

In the case of four of Anne Berest’s “not returned” relatives, it took until October 26, 1948, for them to be officially declared “missing.” The next phase of her ordeal then began with her fight for official death certificates, which only a judgment by a civil court could render in the absence of bodies. When the judgment was eventually handed down on July 15, 1949, seven years after her relatives died, stunningly, the official place of death of her relatives was Drancy, as it would also have been for Ernst and Suzanne. In other words, the French government didn’t recognize that they died at Auschwitz. Thus, the deported went from “not returned,” to “missing,” to “deceased on French soil.” (2021: 255-56) The official death dates were the date the deportation convoys left Drancy. In the case of Ernst and Suzanne, who were aboard the same convoy, their death dates would have been recorded as the 7^th of September 1942 when the transport left Drancy.

In Anne’s case, the Ministère Des Anciens Combattants Et Victimes De Guerre even requested the trial court prosecutor to specify the place of death as Auschwitz, but they rejected this request. Additionally, the court prosecutor refused to say at the time that the Jews had been deported because of race, but rather said it was for political reasons. It took Anne until 1996, after vigorous lobbying, that official recognition of “death by deportation” was granted and the death certificates were amended. (2021: 256)

In the case of Ernst’s certificate of death, his death judgment was rendered by the Draguignan civil court on the 17^th of July 1947, but there is no mention of “death by deportation” since the judgment was made well before 1996. (Figure 11) My aunt’s death certificate was similarly issued by the Draguignan civil court more than two years later, on the 21^st of September 1949. (Figure 12) The certificate states she was deported to Poland, but again no mention of “death by deportation.”

Figure 11. Handwritten page in Ernst Mombert’s French “Ministère des Armées” file from the civil court in Draguignan declaring Ernst died

Figure 12. My aunt Suzanne was officially declared dead by the civil court in Draguignan on the 21st of September 1949

TRANSCRIPTION OF ERNST MOMBERT’S DECLARATION OF DEATH (see Figure 11)

en marge à gauche est écrit :

“transcription du jugement, déclaration du décès de Mombert Ernest”

sur la page est écrit :

“Mairie de Fayence, arrondissement de Draguignan”

“Le 7 décembre 1947, 10 heures, nous, maire de la commune de Fayence avons procédé à la transcription du jugement déclaratif du décès ci-après.

d’un jugement rendu par le tribunal de première instance de Draguignan établi le 17 juillet 1947.

Il a été extrait ce qui suit :

Par ces motifs, le tribunal sévit de première instance de Draguignan, après en avoir délibéré en jugement conformément à la loi

Déclare le décès de Mombert Ernest apatride d’origine allemande né à Frisbourg en Brisgau (Allemagne) le 9 juillet 1911 du mariage de Paul Mombert et de Gieser Cornelie, domicilié en dernier lieu à Fayence (Var)

déporté le 7 septembre 1942

ordonne la transcription du présent jugement sur les registres courants de l’état civil de la commune de Fayence (Var) et du lieu de naissance de Mombert Ernest

Dit que mention en sera faite pour être en besoin sera ainsi jugée et prononcé à Draguignan en audience publique tenue au Palais de Justice de ladite ville le 17 juillet 1947

par messieurs Basque président, Beleret juge doyen, madame Parivet Thierrot juge en présence

de monsieur Clagnier juge suppléant occupant le siège du ministère public

assistés de monsieur Mailhare greffier

Enregistré à Draguignan le 22 juillet 1947

folio 29, case 290 pratis

le receveur Jeanne Cairrail et de cette transcription nous vous dressons la présente note que nous avons signée à la requête de monsieur le procureur de la République suivant note du 4 courant

approuvons la rature de 55 mots rayés nuls”

TRANSLATION

In the margin on the left is written:

“Transcription of the judgment, declaration of the death of Mombert Ernest”

On the page is written:

“Fayence City Town Hall, Draguignan district”

“On December 7, 1947, 10 a.m., we, the mayor of the municipality of Fayence, proceeded to the transcription of the declaratory judgment of death below.

Of a judgment rendered by the Draguignan Court of First Instance established on July 17, 1947.

The following has been extracted:

For these reasons, the court is in the first instance of Draguignan, after having deliberated in judgment in accordance with the law.

Declares the death of stateless Mombert Ernest of German origin born in Frieburg in Brisgau (Germany) on July 9, 1911 from the marriage of Paul Mombert and Gieser Cornelie, last domiciled in Fayence (Var).

Deported on September 7, 1942.

Orders the transcription of this judgment on the current registers of the civil status of the municipality of Fayence (Var) and the place of birth of Mombert Ernest.

Said that mention will be made to be in need will thus be tried and pronounced in Draguignan in a public hearing held at the Palace of Justice of said city on July 17, 1947.

By gentlemen Basque president, Beleret judge dean, Mrs. Parivet Thierrot judge in presence.

Of Mr. Clagnier substitute judge occupying the seat of the public prosecutor’s office.

Assisted by Mr. Mailhare clerk.

Registered in Draguignan on July 22, 1947.

Folio 29, case 290 practices.”

The receiver Jeanne Cairrail and from this transcript we give you this note that we signed at the request of the Public Prosecutor following note of 4 current.

Let’s approve the erasure of 55 null crossed out words.

Let me turn to another topic referred to in the Ministère’s document file, namely, the places and dates in France where Ernst Mombert was interned (Figure 13):

Figure 13. Page in Ernst Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” listing the places and dates Ernst Mombert was interned between 1939 and 1942

LES MILLES (4 September 1939-25 October 1940)

GURS (26 October 1940-15 May 1941)

FAYENCE (26 August 1942-7 September 1942)

DRANCY (7 September 1942 deported to Poland)

These are the internments Julia Saintgermain first asked me whether I knew anything about. As I mentioned above, prior to obtaining the dossier documenting the above internments, the only place where I’d found a fleeting reference that Ernst had been held was “Le Camp de la Rode” near Toulon. I found this in a publication by André Fontaine entitled “Quelques Camps du Sud-Est 1939-1940.” Because I can find no mention of this as an internment camp, I think it may simply have been a collection or transit point.

I suspect Ernst was detained here very, very briefly, possibly only from the 4^th of September 1939 until around the 16^th of September 1939. Let me explain my reasoning by providing some context.

Let me review what I discussed in Post 119. WWII began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The next day, France decreed a national mobilization. Internment sites for nationals of the German Reich (i.e., German, Austrian, and Czech emigrants) were planned and requisitioned in every French departement. By the 3^rd of September, the French Minister of the Interior sent a telegram to each prefecture concerning the “concentration of foreigners from the German empire.” Immediately notifications about the planned roundups were circulated and posters put up in the town halls. All male nationals of the German Reich between 17 and 50 were required to report for incarceration. Male nationals from the department of Var were initially detained in La Rode near Toulon. This city is on the French Riviera located 74 miles southwest of Fayence.

Now according to the Ministère’s dossier Ernst was detained in Les Milles as of the 4^th of September 1939. André Fontaine very specifically places Ernst in Toulon at La Rode, so sometime around the 4^th of September Ernst turned himself into the French authorities there. Why then is Ernst shown as incarcerated in Les Milles on that precise date? If, as I theorize, La Rode was never more than a collection or transit point, technically a “subcamp” of Les Milles, the place of Ernst’s initial incarceration may simply have been recorded as Les Milles.

André Fontaine remarks the following on the transfer of the German Reich nationals to Les Milles from Toulon: “On September 16, 1939, the departure from Toulon was announced: a truck took the luggage at 6pm and the train left at 9pm. The arrival was only the next morning in Aix-en-Provence [Editor’s Note: location of Les Milles], after 15 hours of train to cover 90 km [Editor’s Note: 55 miles].” On these grounds, I surmise Ernst was among the detainees transferred from Toulon to Aix-en-Provence on the 16^th of September 1939.

Based on when nationals of the German Reich were required to report for internment, sometime around the 4^th of September 1939, and when detainees were transported from La Rode to Les Milles, the 16^th of September 1939, circumscribes Ernst’s detention dates in La Rode, so I think.

From the dossier, we learn that Ernst was incarcerated for over a year in Les Milles (Figures 14-15) until the 25^th of October 1940. According to the timeline provided, Ernst’s next internment was in Gurs, a large concentration camp in southwestern France, located 385 miles west of Aix-en-Provence. Ernst’s internment there started the day after it ended in Les Milles, the 26^th of October 1940. It seems highly unlikely the distance between the two places could have been covered in one day. The reason for Ernst’s transfer from one camp to the other is unknown, though it took place many months after the Vichy government signed an armistice with the Nazis on the 22^nd of June 1940. Had the Nazis intended to deport the Jews to Drancy from Gurs, as they later did, they could just as easily have done so from Les Milles, as they also later did.

Figure 14. Camp Les Milles where Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne were interned on their way to Drancy and Auschwitz

Figure 15. Camp Les Milles where Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne were interned on their way to Drancy and Auschwitz

According to the dossier, Ernst’s internment at Gurs ended on the 15^th of May 1941. Whether Ernst was released or escaped from there is unknown though clearly he returned to his farm in Fayence, where the file claims he was last interned from the 26^th of August 1942 until the 7^th of September 1942. These latter dates are in error. The last three “postcards” written by my aunt following her and Ernst’s arrest on the 26^th of August 1942 confirm this. Her cards were dated and/or postmarked, respectively, from Draguignan on the 26^th of August, from Les Milles in Aix-en-Provence on the 29^th of August, and from Avignon on the 2^nd of September. For whatever bureaucratic reason, Ernst’s stops on his way to Drancy, outside Paris, were all recorded as part of his incarceration in Fayence.

Ernst Mombert was incarcerated twice in Les Milles in Aix-en-Provence, the first time supposedly beginning on the 4^th of September 1939 until the 25^th of October 1940, then briefly a second time simultaneously with my aunt around the 29^th of August 1942. I can only imagine how Kafkaesque it must have seemed to Ernst to be returned to a concentration camp he thought he’d escaped from.

Except for the period between the 15^th of May 1941 and the 26^th of August 1942, Ernst was almost continuously incarcerated in France from September 1939 until he was deported to Auschwitz in September 1942. First, following Germany’s invasion of Poland on the 1^st of September 1939, as a German Jew refugee living in France, he was incredulously perceived and incarcerated as a possible quisling. Then, after Germany conquered France, he was interned as a Jew which led to his untimely death in September 1942. (Figure 16) Though my aunt’s route to Auschwitz followed a different pathway, her fate was identical. (Figures 17)

Figure 16. Commemorative plaque at Camp Les Milles bearing the names of deportees killed, including “Ernst Mombert”

Figure 17. Commemorative plaque at Camp Les Milles bearing the names of deportees killed, including my aunt “Suzanne Muller née Bruch,” with the surname misspelled

REFERENCES

Berest, A. (2021). The Postcard. Europa Editions.

Fontaine, André. Quelques camps du Sud-Est, 1939-1940 [réfugiés allemands], Recherches régionales. Centre de documentation des Alpes-Maritimes, 1988, 29e année, n° 3, p. 179-206.

(https://criminocorpus.org/en/tools/bibliography/bibliography-copy/ouvrages/97683/)

Webster, Paul. “The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation,” BBC, February 12, 2011.

BBC – History – World Wars: The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation

POST 119: THE FRENCH CONNECTION, ERNST & FRANZ MOMBERT

Note: In this post, I supplement what I have learned about the French brothers who owned the fruit farm in Fayence in the Vars region of France. This is the last place where some of my family, including Ernst Mombert and my beloved aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck, took refuge before they were arrested by the Vichy French in late August 1942; from here, they were transported to Drancy, outside Paris, and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 7, 1942, a trip on which they likely killed themselves, or, upon arrival, were murdered. I also provide some historic and geographic context for some of the events that affected my family.

POST 23: MY AUNT SUSANNE’S FINAL JOURNEY

In Post 22, I explained to readers the circumstances that led my uncle and aunt Dr. Franz and Susanne Müller to depart Fiesole, Italy, a Tuscan village located outside Florence, around September 16, 1938, in favor of France. Adolph Hitler visited Florence on May 9, 1938, escorted by Italian Duce Benito Mussolini. On the heels of this visit and at the bequest of Hitler, Fascist Italy began to enact racial laws directed primarily against Italian and foreign Jews resulting in many leaving the country, including my aunt and uncle.

My uncle Dr. Franz Müller’s first marriage resulted in two children, Peter Müller-Munk and Karin Margit Müller-Munk. Peter, who dropped the umlaut in his surname upon his arrival in America in 1926, went on to become a world-renowned silversmith and industrial designer in Pittsburgh. Peter’s sister Margit Müller-Munk departed Germany, probably in around 1933 or 1934, and wound up getting married to Francois Mombert on December 4, 1934, in Fayence, in the Vars region of France.

The Mombert family originally hailed from Freiburg, Germany, and in Germany Francois was known as Franz, hereinafter referred to by his German name. The circumstances that led Franz and Margit to settle in Fayence was the result of Franz’s younger brother Ernst (known as Ernest in France) buying a fruit farm there. Archival records from the Archives Départementales du Var (www.archives.var.fr) in Draguignan, France, place Ernst’s acquisition of the property in December 1933 (Figure 1), which suggests that Ernst departed Germany soon after the Nazis seized power on January 30, 1933. It’s unknown why Ernst purchased property and settled in Fayence, since there’s no evidence he knew or had family living there. He could not envision the lengths to which the Nazis would eventually go to eradicate Jews, so probably felt that purchasing a property in a small town in France and eventually becoming a French national offered some security and would afford him some level of protection. As a related aside, there is no evidence Ernst Mombert ever obtained French citizenship.

Figure 1. Archival record from the “Archives Départementales du Var” in Draguignan, France placing Ernst Mombert’s acquisition of his fruit farm in Fayence on the 1st of December 1933

Little is known about Ernst Mombert. I came upon a fleeting reference to him in an obscure French publication entitled “quelques camps du sud-est 1939-1940,” “Some Camps in the Southeast (of France) 1939-1940,” by André Fontaine. I initially misconstrued who was being detained in these internment camps thinking they were established by the Vichy French to imprison Jews following Germany’s conquest of France in June 1940. While in fact many Jews were interned in these camps, they had been established by the French authorities for a different reason.

Some brief history. WWII began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The next day, France decreed a national mobilization. Internment sites for the nationals of the German Reich (i.e., German, Austrian, and Czech emigrants) were planned and requisitioned in every French département, the administrative divisions of France. By the 3^rd of September, the French Minister of the Interior sent a telegram to each prefecture concerning the “concentration of foreigners from the German empire.” Immediately notification about the planned roundups were circulated and posters put up in the town halls. All male nationals of the German Reich over 17 and under 50 years of age were required to report for incarceration. Male nationals from the department of Var were initially detained in le camp de la Rode near Toulon. Toulon is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base, located 74 miles southwest of Fayence, France. (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Generalized map showing the distance from Fayence, France, where Ernst Mombert owned his fruit farm, to Toulon, where he was initially incarcerated in “le camp de la Rode” in 1939

Judging from André Fontaine’s publication, it appears the gathering and detention of nationals of the German Reich took place in short order. Swept up in this roundup were many Jewish refugees, incredibly, a handful of French legionnaires, siblings of soldiers who were in the French Army, and even an Alsatian who had never been to Germany and spoke no German (i.e., Alsace–Lorraine is a historical region, now called Alsace–Moselle, located in France. It was created in 1871 by the German Empire after the region was seized during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. It reverted to French ownership in 1918 following WWI). Very quickly, the legionnaires were released, and the Austrian and Czech nationals were separated from the Germans resulting in the Germans being more closely guarded. The irony is not lost on most readers that many of the German nationals that continued to be detained were Jewish refugees and anti-Nazis, many more anti-Nazi than the French.

André Fontaine includes a short description of Ernst Mombert, which I quote here mostly because of the physical characteristics he describes: “MOMBERT Ernst, philosophe de valeur. Il est très brun et atteint de strabism; il vient de Fayence où il a une plantation d’arbres fruitiers. Son frère Franz n’est pas au camp.” (1988:184) Translated: “MOMBERT Ernst, a noted philosopher. He is very darkly complected and is cross-eyed; he comes from Fayence where he has a fruit tree plantation. His brother Franz is not in the camp.”

The duration of the German nationals stays in the camp de la Rode in Toulon appears to have been a short one. André Fontaine reports that on September 16, 1939, a train carrying the prisoners departed Toulon in the direction of Camp des Milles, outside Aix-en-Provence. (Figure 3) The latter was a French internment camp, opened in September 1939, in a former tile factory near the village of Les Milles, part of the commune of Aix-en-Provence. I will have a little more to say about Ernst Mombert’s connection to Camp des Milles later.

Figure 3. Generalized map showing the distance from Toulon, where “le camp de Rode” was located, to Aix-en-Provence where Camp des Milles is situated and where Ernst Mombert was moved to around the 16th of September 1939

André Fontaine describes (1988:185-186) the detainees’ arrival in Camp des Milles: “Le 16 septembre 1939, on annonce le départ de Toulon: un camion prend les bagages à 18 h et le train part à 21 h. L’arrivée n’a lieu que le lendemain matin à Aix-en-Provence, soit après 15 h de train pour effectuer 90 km. Deux camions attendent à la gare. Les soldats ardéchois se montrent accueillants, serviables et souriants, surtout quand ils comprennent qu’un Allemand vient de les prendre comme les Millois pour des Arabes en raison de leur teint basané et de leur chéchia rouge; l’un d’eux s’exclame: ‘des Arabes de l’Ardéchiou !’

Arrivés à la tuilerie, ils trouvent la grande cour vide car les internés se sont barricadés ; ne leur a-t-on pas annoncé des prisonniers nazis !… Les officiers et les sous-officiers sont en train de déjeuner. A 14 h, c’est l’ouverture des bureaux où sont employés des internés. E.E. Noth, devenu homme de confiance, dit à propos de Kantorovicz : ‘Celui-là, c’est vraiment un réfugié !’

Lorsqu’un nouveau convoi est attendu, une forte effervescence règne dans le camp. Très tendus, les militaires recommandent aux internés de se méfier des arrivants, membres de la cinquième colonne : ‘Restez dans vos dortoirs, fermez les volets; la grande porte sera close.’ Ils doublent la garde, installent des chevaux de frise devant le poste de police. Au début les détenus se demandent quels nazis ils vont devoir affronter. Et à chaque détachement ils guettent derrière les volets et voient arriver au loin des pauvres hères, amaigris, courbés, pâles, assoiffés. Ils n’ont rien d’ennemis redoutables. Parfois même ils reconnaissent certains d’entre eux. Mais il est interdit de pousser les volets pour leur parler.”

Translated: “On September 16, 1939, the departure from Toulon was announced: a truck took the luggage at 6 pm and the train left at 9 pm. The arrival was only the next morning in Aix-en-Provence, after 15 hours of train to cover 90 km. Two trucks were waiting at the station. The soldiers from the Ardèche were welcoming, helpful, and smiling, especially when they understood that a German had just mistaken them, like the Millois, for Arabs because of their swarthy complexion and their red fez; one of them exclaimed: ‘Arabs from the Ardéchiou!’

When they arrived at the tile factory, they found the large courtyard empty because the internees had barricaded themselves; had they not been told that there were Nazi prisoners! The officers and non-commissioned officers were having lunch. At 2 p.m., the offices where the internees were employed opened. E.E. Noth, who had become a trusted man, said of Kantorovicz: ‘This one is really a refugee!’

When a new convoy was expected, the camp was in an uproar. The soldiers were very tense and advised the internees to be wary of the arrivals, who were members of the Fifth Column: ‘Stay in your dormitories, close the shutters; the main gate will be closed.’ They doubled the guard and set up frieze horses in front of the police station. At first the prisoners wonder which Nazis they will have to face. And with each detachment they watch behind the shutters and see poor, emaciated, bent, pale, thirsty men arriving in the distance. They are not fearsome enemies. Sometimes they even recognize some of them. But it is forbidden to push the shutters to talk to them.”

Just a few observations about Mr. Fontaine’s description of the German nationals’ arrival at Camp des Milles. The French clearly sought to have the current detainees believe the new arrivals were hard-bitten Nazis of the German Reich living “underground” in France as members of a Fifth Column even though the current detainees were also Germans; the truth is that many of the new arrivals were foreign refugees, including Jews who’d sought to escape the Nazis. One of the existing detainees even recognized one of the new arrivals as a real refugee, not a Fifth Columnist. Curiously, the new German arrivals were guarded by soldiers from the Ardèche department of southeastern France who had been mistaken as Arabs because of their swarthy complexion and the red fez hats they wore; the existing detainees had also mistaken them as Arabs.

Mr. Fontaine tells us that the nationals of the German Reich were held in various camps in the southeast of France including Fort Carre (Antibes); Camp de Forcalouier (Forcalquier); Volx Camp (near Manosque); Camp des Mées (Les Mées); Camp de Marseille (Marseille); Camp des Garrigues (north of Nimes); Le Brebant (in Marseille); Camp de Carpiagne (south of Marseille); and Camp de Loriol (department of Drôme). While not entirely clear, it appears that detainees from some but not all of these camps were transferred to the larger camp at Camp des Milles, the former tile factory. Such was clearly the case with Ernst Mombert. (see Figure 3)

I was particularly interested in learning when or if the German nationals were released from detention to try and get an understanding of when Ernst Mombert might have been liberated. A little more history is relevant.

The Battle of France began on May 10, 1940. The Battle of France, also known as the Western Campaign, the French Campaign, and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands during the Second World War. It ended just six weeks later, on June 25^th, when the French government capitulated to Nazi Germany after a disastrous, humiliating defeat. By that time, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg had also fallen to the Germans, leaving Adolf Hitler in complete control of Western Europe. On June 22^nd the French signed an armistice with the Germans, near Compiègne. The armistice provided for the maintenance of a quasi-sovereign French state and for the division of the country into an occupied zone (northern France plus the western coast) and an unoccupied southern zone referred to as Vichy France. France was made responsible for the German army’s occupation costs. The French army was reduced to 100,000 men and the navy disarmed in its home ports.

According to André Fontaine, almost all the former detention centers were dissolved in May 1940; this would roughly correspond with the beginning of the Battle of France. The former detainees incarcerated in Antibes, Camp des Milles, Les Mées, Manosque, Marseille, and Forcalquier were taken to the camp of Albi (Figure 4), where most were liberated, under the pretext they had been part of the French army. From supposed Fifth Columnists to members of the French Army is very much a stretch. Are we meant to understand that the German detainees were released and immediately mobilized into the French Army at the beginning of what is called the “Phoney War?” The Phoney period began with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France against Nazi Germany on the 3^rd of September 1939, after which little actual warfare occurred, and ended with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on the 10^th of May 1940.

Figure 4. Generalized map showing the distance from Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence) to Albi, where Ernst Mombert may have been released from detention in around May 1940

Other former detainees fell into the hands of the Germans at the end of the Battle of France. If they were not of Jewish descent and volunteered to return to the Reich they were not mistreated. The Jews, however, were transferred to the Dachau concentration camp.

Again I quote André Fontaine (1988:205-206) on the fate of some of the other detainees: “L’émissaire d’Eleanor ROOSEVELT, Varian FRY, et son “Comité américain de Secours (CAR)” permettent l’émigration d’environ 1500 personnes et les Oeuvres juives “Hicem” beaucoup plus. Les Etats-Unis font appel aux grands savants comme les prix Nobel MEYERHOF et REICHSTEIN. Le Mexique accueille les communistes. Mais à partir du 3 août 1942, la “solution finale de la question juive” décidée par la conférence de Wannsee en janvier 1942 trouve son application après les déportations de la zone occupée dans tous les grands camps de la zone sud. Le Vernet (Ariège), Gurs, les Milles, Rivesaltes (Pyrénées orientales). Des rafles ont lieu dans villes et campagnes. Des milliers de familles entières de juifs étrangers (pauvres ou riches mais souvent érudits ou tout au moins de valeur) arrivés depuis 1936 sont transférés à Drancy (puis Auschwitz) et ce dans la France dite libre du maréchal PETAIN. On livre des enfants de deux ans, d’anciens militaires français; tous s’étaient placés sous la protection de la France, dite terre d’asile. On ne peut que déplorer ces faits sans s’empêcher de penser au mot de Romain ROLLAND : “Intelligence – Amour !“

Translated: “Eleanor ROOSEVELT’s emissary, Varian FRY, and his ‘American Rescue Committee (CAR)’ allowed the emigration of about 1500 people and the Jewish Works ‘Hicem’ many more. The United States called upon great scientists such as the Nobel Prize winners MEYERHOF and REICHSTEIN. Mexico welcomed the communists. But from August 3, 1942, the ‘final solution of the Jewish question’ decided by the Wannsee conference in January 1942 found its application after the deportations from the occupied zone in all the big camps of the southern zone. Le Vernet (Ariège), Gurs, les Milles, Rivesaltes (Pyrénées orientales). Roundups took place in towns and countryside. Thousands of entire families of foreign Jews (poor or rich but often educated or at least valuable) who had arrived since 1936 were transferred to Drancy (then Auschwitz) in the so-called free France of Marshal PETAIN. Children as young as two years old, former French soldiers, were handed over; they had all placed themselves under the protection of France, the so-called land of asylum. One can only deplore these facts without stopping oneself from thinking of Romain ROLLAND’s words: ‘Intelligence – Love!’”

Ernst Mombert did not meet his fate at Dachau. The circumstances and timing of Ernst Mombert’s liberation or escape from a detention center are unknown. What is clear is that he returned to his fruit farm in Fayence probably sometime in early to mid-1940, before he was again arrested in August 1942, this time by the French collaborators, the Vichy. Ernst was arrested at the same time as my Aunt Susanne in late August 1942, probably on the 26^th of August. According to a brief reference I found on the home page of “AJPN.org,” “Anonymous, Just, and Persecuted during the Nazi period in the communes of France,” “the roundup of foreign Jews by the Vichy police in the Alpes-Maritimes, the Basses-Alpes (54 people) and the Principality of Monaco” took place precisely on the 26^th of August 1946. (Figure 5) These roundups took place in one of the 18 administrative regions of France known as “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” which includes the department of Var and the commune of Fayence. (Figures 6a-b)

Figure 5. Screen shot from the “AJPN.org” website stating that “the roundup of foreign Jews by the Vichy police in the Alpes-Maritimes, the Basses-Alpes (54 people) and the Principality of Monaco” took place on the 26th of August 1942

Figure 6a. Map showing the 13 administrative regions of metropolitan France including “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” in the southeast of France

Figure 6b. The administrative region of “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” circled where the department of Var and the commune of Fayence are located

Ernst Mombert’s fate mirrors that of my Aunt Susanne. They were arrested on the same day, taken briefly to Draguignan (Figure 7), detained for some days at Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence) (Figure 8), transported to Avignon (Figure 9), then to Drancy (Figure 10), outside Paris, before being deported to Auschwitz on the 7^th of September 1942 (Figure 11); on Serge Klarfeld’s list of deportees their names appear on the same page. (Figure 12) There is perverse irony that Ernst Mombert having been held in Camp des Milles for being a citizen of the German Reich in 1939 and a supposed Fifth Columnist would again find himself interned here in 1942, this time for being Jewish, on the way to his ultimate fate.

Figure 7. Generalized map showing the distance from Fayence to Draguignan, the first place the train carrying Ernst Mombert and my Aunt Susanne stopped for half-an-hour after being arrested by the Vichy French on the 26th of August 1942

Figure 8. Generalized map showing the distance from Draguignan to Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence), Ernst and Aunt Susanne’s second stop on their way to Drancy, outside Paris, and ultimately to Auschwitz-Birkenau

Figure 9. Generalized map showing the distance from Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence) to Avignon, Ernst and Susanne’s third stop on their way to Drancy

Figure 10. Generalized map showing the distance from Avignon to Drancy, outside Paris, Ernst and Susanne’s final stop before being deported and murdered in Auschwitz

Figure 11. The original Nazi list of deportees to Auschwitz from the 7th of September 1942 with “Ernest Mombert’s” name (from Arolsen Archives)

Figure 12. Serge Klarfeld’s recreated list of Jewish deportees to Auschwitz from the 7th of September 1942 with the names of “Ernest Mombert” and my aunt “Suzanne Muller” on the same page; my aunt is incorrectly shown as having been born in “Ratisbonne” rather than “Ratibor”

Contemporary witness accounts from the day Ernst and Susanne were arrested in Fayence indicate that my aunt was in hiding when the Vichy French showed up. She might have been able to escape had she been willing to forsake the older inhabitants of the fruit farm that included Ernst and Franz Mombert’s mother, as well as my grandmother and uncle. By my count, seven people were living on Ernst’s property at the time, though some of the younger ones may have joined the French Resistance. Regardless, this is not who my aunt was, and she would never have allowed anyone to be deported in her stead, so she turned herself in. It is an enduring mystery why all the Jewish residents at the fruit farm were not arrested simultaneously, though it is self-evident they would all eventually have been murdered had the Nazis prevailed during WWII.

As I related in Post 22, my wife Ann and I visited Fayence in 2014, then again in 2015, to learn more about my family’s connection to the town. Ernst Mombert’s brother, Franz survived WWII. Ownership of the fruit farm his brother had owned passed to him on September 6, 1947. (Figure 13) In 2014, my wife and I showed up unexpectedly on the doorsteps of the current owner of the property, a Mme. Monique Graux, who has since passed away. She related that she and her husband had purchased the farmhouse, which dates from around 1740, in the early 1960’s from a gentleman who bought it from Franz Mombert but owned it just briefly. Franz Mombert’s first wife, Margit Mombert née Müller-Munk, died in Fayence on the 22^nd of March 1959, and sale of the property seems to have occurred after her death. Following disposal of the estate in Fayence, Franz remarried and moved to Switzerland, living first in Ascona (Figure 14), then to nearby Muralto (Figure 15), on the outskirts of Locarno. Franz passed away there on the 29^th of January 1988.

Figure 13. A French real estate record showing that exclusive ownership of the fruit farm in Fayence was transferred to Franz (Francois) Mombert on September 6, 1947, slightly more than five years after Ernst Mombert was deported to Auschwitz

Figure 14. The apartment building in Ascona, Switzerland where Franz Mombert lived with his second wife after he sold the fruit farm in Fayence in around 1960

Figure 15. The apartment building in Muralto, outside Locarno, Switzerland, where Franz and his second moved following their departure from Ascona

While Ernst was the only member of his immediate family who was a direct victim of the Nazis, there are Stolpersteine, concrete cubes bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution, for Ernst, Franz, and their parents in Giessen, Germany (Figure 16), the last place the Mombert family lived in Germany before emigrating to France. Interestingly, there also exists a memorial in the administrative region of Île-de-France, centered around Paris, bearing the names of “Ernest Mombert” and other victims of the Shoah, “a structure erected in honor of someone whose remains lie elsewhere.” (Figure 17)

Figure 16. The “Stolpersteine” for Ernst and Franz Mombert and their parents in Giessen, Germany, the last place they resided before emigrating to France

Figure 17. The memorial in the administrative region of Île-de-France, centered around Paris, bearing the names of “Ernest Mombert” and other victims of the Shoah

REFERENCES

AJPN.org. “Anonymous, Righteous and Persecuted during the Nazi period in the communes of France”

Fontaine, André. Quelques camps du Sud-Est, 1939-1940 [réfugiés allemands], Recherches régionales. Centre de documentation des Alpes-Maritimes, 1988, 29e année, n° 3, p. 179-206.

POST 22: MY AUNT SUSANNE, NÉE BRUCK, & HER HUSBAND DR. FRANZ MÜLLER, THE FAYENCE YEARS

Note: This post is the next chapter in my Aunt Susanne and Uncle Franz’s story, following their departure from Fiesole, Italy around September 16, 1938. Their exodus came on the heels of enactment of racial laws by Fascist Italy beginning in 1938 enforcing discrimination mainly against Italian and foreign Jews. The final destination, at least in the case of my Uncle Franz, was Fayence, France, 230 miles almost due west as the crow flies across the Ligurian Sea. Why my aunt and uncle fled here was a decision shrouded in mystery, but one I eventually worked out with the assistance of an American researcher studying Dr. Franz Müller’s renowned son, Peter Müller-Munk.

Figure 1-View of the countryside surrounding Fayence across the tiled rooftops

Fayence is located in France’s Var region. (Figure 1) It’s a charming small town of medieval origin that was once fortified and is considered one of a series of “perched villages” that overlooks the plain between the southern Alps and what’s called the Esterel massif, which borders the Mediterranean Sea between Cannes and Saint-Raphaël. Fayence is slightly more than 40 miles west-southwest of the beautiful seaside town of Nice, along France’s Côte d’Azur. Nice is where my parents met in 1946, and a place I spent some enjoyable summers with my maternal grandmother. I’ve been told my grandmother even took me on an outing to Fayence as a child, though I have no recollection of this. But, like Fiesole, Italy, Fayence is a place I associate with my aunt and uncle.

Following my aunt and uncle’s departure from Fiesole, likely in the company of my grandmother and my father, I presume they traveled by train through Nice on their way to Fayence. Since my father had an aunt and cousins who lived in Nice, they may even have spent a few days there along the way. Unlike Fiesole, La Mairie or L’Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) in Fayence does not appear to have maintained immigration or emigration logs during this period, so it’s impossible to pinpoint my relatives’ arrival there. Suffice it to say, by early October 1938, they were likely in place.

Figure 2-Ms. Jewel Stern, art historian, who has spent many years researching Dr. Franz Müller’s son, Peter Müller-Munk

I learned why my aunt, uncle, and grandmother settled in Fayence because of my family tree on ancestry.com. One day, I was contacted via my tree by a woman from Coral Gables, Florida, Ms. Jewel Stern (Figure 2), wanting to speak with me about my uncle. Ms. Stern was trying to learn all she could about Dr. Franz Müller’s renowned son, Peter Müller-Munk. She explained that not only did my uncle have a son by his first marriage, but he also had a daughter, Karin Margit Müller-Munk, a fact I was unaware of. She was married to a man named Franz (“Francois” in France) Hermann Mombert, who with his brother Ernst owned the fruit farm in Fayence where my family sought refuge in 1938. Margit’s brother came to America in 1926 and went on to become a world-renowned silversmith and industrial designer in Pittsburgh, thus, he was known to me unlike his sister, who died relatively young and anonymously in Fayence. Ironically, through Ms. Stern I learned a lot about my own extended family.

Figure 3-My father, Dr. Otto Bruck, in his French Foreign Legion uniform in December 1941 in Constantine, Algeria

Among my father’s pictures are two sets of photographs from Fayence, the first taken between September and November of 1941, the second precisely on March 2, 1947. Some context is necessary. With few other options available to my father after leaving Fiesole, Italy, barely a month later, on October 21, 1938, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion in Paris. He was stationed in Saïda and Ouargla, Algeria (Figure 3), as a member of the “1ère Batterie Saharienne Porteé de Légion.” Because of his Jewish origins, my father, like all other Jewish enlistees at the time, was given an alias; during his time as a legionnaire, he was known as “Marcel Berger.” (Figures 4a & 4b) Because my father spoke fluent French he easily passed as a Frenchman.

Figure 4a-My father’s French Foreign Legion dog tag using his pseudonym,”Marcel Berger”

Figure 4b-Reverse of father’s French Foreign Legion dog tag showing “Marcel Berger” was born in Strasbourg, France on December 6, 1907

Figure 5-Taken in November 1941 in Fayence, one of my father’s last pictures of his sister Susanne

Between September and November of 1941, my father visited the south of France while on leave from the French Foreign Legion (FFL). It was during this time that he last saw his sister Susanne (Figure 5) and took photos in Fayence. (Figures 6 & 7) What imbues this visit with historic interest is the fact that as a soldier in the FFL, he was able to travel, likely under his pseudonym, across “enemy” lines from Algeria to France. One must assume such travel was possible only because the FFL was ostensibly allied with Vichy France—a regime that, until November 1942, was most powerful in the unoccupied, southern “free zone” centered on the commune of Vichy. In theory, Vichy France also represented the French Colonial Empire, of which Algeria was a part, so this may explain how my father was able to travel between Africa and France in the middle of WWII.

Figure 6-My father’s October 1941 photograph showing Rue de la Bonnefont headed up to the left

Figure 7-My photograph taken at the same intersection in Fayence as Figure 6 in July 2014

Figure 8-My father’s French Foreign Legion regiment on deployment in Amguid, Algeria

As an aside, the Vichy Government, which had enacted anti-Semitic laws in the 1930’s and 1940’s, would occasionally send one of their envoys to liaise with FFL military units based in North Africa, ostensibly to root out Jews; during these visits some commanders, perhaps because of their antipathy and disdain for the Vichy Government, sent their foreign regiments on random deployments deep into the Sahara. (Figure 8) Regardless of the reason, this likely saved Jewish lives, including my father’s life.

The second set of pictures from Fayence was taken on March 2, 1947. (Figures 9 & 10) My father and one of his first cousins visited the Mombert family with whom my grandmother was still living to celebrate her 74^th birthday the next day. At the time, my father worked as a dentist in Nice, an intriguing story that will be the subject of a future Blog post. The two sets of pictures from Fayence, along with letters and documents I’ve located, indicate seven members of my family once lived there. These included my Aunt Susanne, my Uncle Franz, my grandmother “Mummi,” as she was known, Francois and Margit Mombert, along with Francois’s brother Ernst and their mother, Nellie Mombert. Their vital data is summarized in the table at the end of this post.

Figure 9-My grandmother and father in Fayence on March 2, 1947, a day before my grandmother’s 74th birthday

Figure 10-On March 2, 1947 in Fayence seated left to right: Cornelia “Nellie” Mombert, my grandmother, and Hansi Goff (Jeanne Loewenstein); Francois Mombert (standing)

Figure 11-Peter Müller-Munk’s iconic industrial design of the Texaco gas pump

Ms. Stern spent over 20 years studying and collecting the works of Peter Müller-Munk and learning about him and his family; her goal, which came to fruition in 2015, was to develop a special exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh on Peter’s amazing works. (Figure 11) To learn about Peter’s father, Ms. Stern enlisted one of her Parisian friends to travel to Fayence, visit L’Hôtel de Ville, find Dr. Franz Müller’s final resting place and that of his daughter (Figures 12, 13 & 14), obtain copies of their death certificates, take pictures of the fruit farm where my aunt and uncle had lived, and more. Ms. Stern graciously shared all this information with me, and, in turn, I rounded out my uncle and aunt’s story by providing pictures, documents, and history about their lives in Berlin and Fiesole. It was mutually beneficial.

Figure 12-The Cimitiere Ancien where Dr. Franz Müller & his daughter Margit Mombert are buried

Figure 13-The eroding tombstone of Dr. Franz Müller & his daughter Margit Mombert

Figure 14-The barely legible names of Dr. Franz Müller & his daughter on their tombstone

In 2014, my wife and I retraced the steps taken by Ms. Stern’s friend and visited Fayence. Additionally, Ms. Stern told us of an elderly local woman who had once worked for Francois Mombert beginning in 1941 when she was 15, so we planned through our contact at L’Hôtel de Ville (Figure 15), Mme. Claudine Clary (Figure 16), to interview this Mme. Marie-Rose Siri. Immediately upon our arrival in Fayence, we spoke with Mme. Clary, who, among other things, explained where my uncle and his daughter are buried and told us their graves will soon be evacuated if their tombs are not restored and maintenance fees paid. (Figure 17)

Figure 16-Director of Fayence’s L’Hôtel de Ville, Mme. Claudine Clary

Figure 17-Posted sign on the tombstone of Dr. Franz Müller & his daughter saying their graves will be evacuated

Our visit with Mme. Siri and her daughter, Martine Siri (Figure 18), had been pre-arranged. My fluency in French meant I could converse directly with Mme. Siri. I was particularly curious about one picture taken in Fayence (Figure 19), showing my aunt and uncle eating lunch with his daughter and son-in-law, Margit and Francois Mombert. A young lady is serving them, and I was curious whether Mme. Siri recognized herself, but unfortunately not. As a young girl, Mme. Siri did household chores and helped harvest and package fruit for eventual sale in Cannes; the farm produced apricots, peaches, apples, and later artichokes and strawberries. Mme. Siri recalled that Ernst Mombert, who had severe “strabisme,” or crossed eyes, was nonetheless able to work in the orchards.

Figure 18-Mme. Marie-Rose Siri, right, with her daughter Martine in 2014

Figure 19-Margit Mombert, Dr. Franz Müller, my Aunt Susanne & Francois Mombert being served lunch in Fayence

Mme. Siri fondly recalled Francois. She remembered collecting mushrooms with my Aunt Susanne, and my aunt’s ability to discern edible fungi. Poignantly, Mme. Siri told the story of when my Aunt Susanne was arrested by the Vichy in late August 1942; she was in hiding at the time, and the officials left word that if she did not present herself to the authorities, they would instead arrest one of the elderly members of the family. This is not something my aunt would ever have countenanced so she turned herself in.

Mme. Siri mentioned something intriguing, specifically, that Francois Mombert and possibly also his wife were part of the French Resistance. When the French collaborators came to the fruit farm along Chemin Banegon in late August 1942, they only arrested my Aunt Susanne and Ernst Mombert even though the three elderly members of the family were certainly present. Why all the Jews at the farm were not seized then is unclear.

While Mme. Siri’s memories of my family’s years in Fayence are few, what she was able to recall brought them to life, if only dimly.

Figure 20-Street on which the Mombert house was located

Before leaving Mme. Siri, she and her daughter explained how to get to the nearby house once located along Chemin Banegon (Figure 20) where the former Mombert homestead is located. I was very interested in seeing the place. In doing family history, chutzpah is sometimes required. Showing up unannounced on the doorsteps of a stranger’s house situated in a rural setting in a foreign country is an example. To say we startled the current owner, Mme. Monique Graux, would be a mild understatement. Fortunately, Mme. Graux was intrigued by the nature of our unplanned visit, and, entirely because of my wife’s warm and sympathetic countenance, invited us in and showed us around her home, inside and out. (Figures 21 & 22)

Figure 21-Me kneeling by Mme. Graux, current owner of the house where my family once lived in Fayence

Figure 22-The former Mombert farmhouse located on a renamed street called Chemin du Fraisse

Mme. Graux claimed she and her husband purchased the house along Chemin Banegon around 1960 from a gentleman named M. Lebreton, who’d owned it for only two-and-a-half years and bought it from Francois Mombert. Mme. Graux never met Francois Mombert nor his wife, so could tell us nothing about them. She explained the house dates from 1740 and was historically used to tan animal hides. Given that Margit Mombert died in Fayence on March 22, 1959, sale of the house before her death strikes me as a bit improbable. Curious as to when Mme. Graux and her husband purchased the farmhouse, I asked Mme. Clary about obtaining a copy of l’acte de propriété, the deed of ownership; the notary company informed her I could not get it because I am not related to the current owner.

Figure 23-M. Alain Rebuffel (left) standing alongside me in his winery

Near our hotel was a winery where we wanted to do a tasting. As Americans traveling abroad, we typically stand out, so it intrigues the French when they hear someone obviously American speak their language with only a hint of an accent. Such was the case when we visited this winery, and the owner engaged me in conversation. The reason for our visit to Fayence came out, and the owner, M. Alain Rebuffel (Figure 23), remembered his grandfather talking about knowing my family; he recalled his grandfather was more kindly disposed towards Jews than his grandmother, who wanted nothing to do with them. Interestingly, Mme. Clary told us her father similarly remembered my family.

Figure 24-M. Roger Faye (left), custodian of the Cimitiere Ancien

M. Rebuffel suggested we speak with his uncle, M. Roger Faye (Figure 24), who is the custodian at the cemetery where Dr. Franz Müller and his daughter are interred and lives in the adjacent house. Upon our visit to the cemetery, we examined and photographed the now crumbling tomb of my uncle and his daughter. Then, we called on M. Faye, who mentioned that several years earlier he had evacuated a tomb belonging to a member of the Mombert family, whose name he could not remember. I ultimately worked this out when I discovered an on-line biography about Francois and Ernst’s father, Paul Karl Mombert. He was a professor at the University of Giessen in Germany, who like my Uncle Franz, was fired in 1933. He was imprisoned by the Nazis, but eventually released; he died from cancer shortly thereafter, on December 1, 1938, in Stuttgart, Germany, and his ashes were sent to Fayence. There is no doubt that the Mombert tomb evacuated in Fayence was that of Paul Mombert.

Figure 25-Real estate register page showing Ernst Mombert purchased property in Fayence in December 1933 & that land was transferred to his surviving brother in 1947

Following my return to the States in 2014, I contacted the Archives Départementales du Var in Draguignan, France to inquire about Fayence real estate records and determine precisely when Ernst and Francois Mombert purchased the property along Chemin Banegon. Fortunately, the historic records have survived and place acquisition of the farm in December 1933. (Figure 25)

Figure 26-Real estate register page for Francois Mombert

As mentioned above, Ernst Mombert was arrested along with my Aunt Susanne by the Vichy collaborators in August 1942, and neither survived. The real estate records reveal a minor, but interesting historical fact. They indicate that on September 6, 1947, exclusive ownership of the farm was transferred to Francois Mombert (compare Figure 26 to Figure 25), that’s to say, almost five years to the day after Ernst Mombert was deported to Auschwitz. In the case of my Aunt Susanne, deported to Auschwitz the same day as Ernst, it took the Comune de Fayence seven years, until 1949, to officially declare her dead. (Figure 27) The wheels of bureaucracy grind slow.

Figure 27-My Aunt Susanne’s Declaration of Death issued by the Comune de Fayence in 1949

Figure 28-Francois Mombert & Karin Margit Müller-Munk’s Marriage Certificate dated December 4, 1934

Ms. Stern learned much about Peter Müller-Munk from the personal papers of his aunt, Marie Munk, one of the first female lawyers in Germany. Marie became a judge in 1930, but, like many Jews, was dismissed from her judicial position in 1933. She eventually came to the United States, obtained her law degree here, and had a notable career as a women’s rights activist. Marie Munk’s papers are archived at Smith College, and in one letter, the date of her niece’s marriage to Francois Mombert on December 4, 1934 is mentioned. Unknown initially when and where they’d been married, it took Ms. Stern and me a long time to track this down. On a second visit to Fayence in 2015, in passing, I mentioned this date to Mme. Clary who immediately checked her office records and located Francois and Margit’s marriage certificate. (Figure 28) Interestingly, after Margit’s death in 1959, Francois Mombert continued to correspond with Marie.

The next Blog post will be the final chapter about my Aunt Susanne’s abbreviated life.

Below readers will find the vital events of the seven family members I’ve determined lived in Fayence.

NAME	EVENT	DATE	PLACE

Else Bruck, née Berliner	Birth	March 3, 1873	Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
	Death	February 16, 1957	Manhattan, New York
Cornelia “Nellie” Mombert, née Gieser	Birth	1880
	Death	1963	Freiburg, Germany
Ernst Mombert	Birth	July 9, 1911	Freiburg, Germany
	Death	~ September 1942	Auschwitz-Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland
Franz (“Francois”) Hermann Mombert	Birth	February 21, 1909	Freiburg, Germany
	Marriage	December 4, 1934	Fayence, France
	Death	January 29, 1988	Locarno, Switzerland
Karin Margit Mombert, née Müller-Munk	Birth	September 23, 1908	Berlin, Germany
	Death	March 22, 1959	Fayence, France
Franz Robert Müller	Birth	December 31, 1871	Berlin, Germany
	Marriage	April 18, 1931	Berlin, Germany
	Death	October 1, 1945	Fayence, France
Susanne Müller, née Bruck	Birth	April 20, 1904	Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
	Death	~ September 1942	Auschwitz-Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland