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[adminis …] trator and sequestrator of the Krupp property,
because during the occupation the factory had been leased and the material sold
to Friedrich Krupp A. G., Essen.
The offices of the Société Austin which had been ousted
by the Krupp firm were reestablished in a little building in Liancourt.
Mr. Rothschild, who in
July 1940 had fled to Lyon, remained in this city until October 1942.
Ever since the first
provisional administrator was appointed, Mr. Rothschild had always contested
the measures taken by the Germans and by Vichy against him by referring to his
Yugoslav citizenship. In September 1942 after the authorities in Vichy had
forced him to reside at St. Felicien (Ardeche), Mr. Rothschild tried to escape
from the threats to which he was exposed and attempted to reach Portugal via
Spain. Unfortunately he was arrested in Spain right after having crossed the
border, was put in prison and at the end was returned to France.
He settled down in St.
Felicien from where, 2 months later, he was sent to the camp for foreign
workers at St. Privat (Ardeche) where he stayed 3 weeks. Due to my
representations with the Prefect of the Ardeche Department he was then
discharged from the camp and went to live in Cleon d’Andran (Drone) in the
zone occupied at that time by the Italians.
He stayed in Cleon d’Andran until
February 1944 when he was arrested by Andre Francis and his gang of the Parti
Populaire Francais and delivered into the hands of the Germans in the prison of
Montluc in Lyon.
After a
short stay at Montluc and at Drancy he was sent on 7 March 1944 to Auschwitz
from which camp he never returned nor ever gave a sign of life.
During his short stay in
the prison of Montluc, Mr. Rothschild succeeded in sending a short letter to
our mutual friend, Mr. (Maitre) Levigne in Lyon.
The letter, which I myself read, carried
the following post-scriptum:
“This blow is due to Damour and Sandre. Precise information."*
Mr. Rothschild,
therefore, had the proof in prison that he had been denounced by Damour and
Sandre.
Throughout the
German occupation Mr. Damour was an attorney of the Commissariat for Jewish
Affairs at Lyon, and in this capacity he had to deal with Mr. Rothschild, who
criticized all the provisional administrators appointed by the Germans and by
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* A photostatic copy of Mr.
Rothschild’s letter from prison was attached to this affidavit. and a
translation thereof is reproduced at the end of this affidavit.
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