Elly Sherman’s extraordinary story first came to my attention because her niece wrote to me about a claim she is making on her grandmother’s behalf for ’compensation of loss of personal property at the behest of La Commission pour l’indemnisation des victimes de spoliations interervenues du fait des législations antisémites en vigueur pendant l’Occupation (CIVS) at 1, rue de la Manutetion 75116 Paris, France.’ Elly, a native-born Austrian Jew (whose mother was German by birth) had moved to Paris in 1933 with her mother and sister, and they ended up putting all their possessions in a storage facility along with other foreign nationals who then left abruptly with the clothes on their backs and began the long walk down to Marseille. There, as Elly’s account relates, a day short of being sent away to a concentration camp, their lives were spared by the heroic actions of Hiram Bingham, the American Consul in Marseille who defied the orders of his government and issued exit visas to desperate Jews and was subsequently relieved of his official duties for these actions.
Her niece wondered whether I had come across any reference to storage facilities where the Parisian refugees might have left their worldly belongings before embarking on their arduous journey to the south of France. Since Elly was only 14 at the time, she has no recollection of the name of the facility and all her contemporaries who might have remembered are all gone now. She is trying to provide the French authorities with as much accurate information as possible in order to establish a strong case for compensation for her aunt.
It is my great hope, that this website will reach others who had family members in a similar situation or this experience might resonate with someone who recognises this story and would be able to help us with Elly’s claim. Please do contact us if you have any advice you can offer or have similar family experiences which might help enlighten us as to how to uncover further information.
Read Elly Sherman’s story about her escape from France by clicking here.
Hanna Diamond
November 2012