This is an amazing set of pictures, taken during World War II while the family was in hiding in the hamlet of Chéronnac in the Limousin region of France. If they had been discovered by the Germans they certainly would have perished. Yet here we have Eliane's 1943 birth certificate and snapshots taken in June of the same year.
Eliane's birth certificate.
This is a true act of the faith in the future. The birth certificate---filled out in Limoges, see near
the bottom of the certificate---was signed by Eliane's father, using his real name as opposed to "Albert
Durand", the name that appeared on his
false ID card. Not only that, but his place of birth (Haiger, Germany} appears. If he had been
questioned or if someone at the hospital had spoken to the Gestapo, that would have been his end and
probably
that of the rest of the family.
And speaking of the Gestapo, Coralie Weill said that when she travelled to Limoges she had to pass by a
Gestapo checkpoint.
The next pictures were taken in approximately June of 1943, right in the middle of the war. Here we have the family nonchalantly posing for a snapshot.
Arlette, Franziska Katzenstein, Eliane.
Eliane and a picture of the family's house in Chéronnac as it appeared in 1996. On Eliane's right is Simone Villard.
Coralie Weill. Arlette, Eliane, Albert.
On one of our visits to Vayres, Simone Villard (a wartime friend of the Herz family) showed us Albert Herz's hiding place near Chéronnac where the Herz family was living. Given the German accent when he spoke French, he would have preferred not being questioned by the authorities.
This 1944 formal portrait was taken in Rochechouart, which is at some distance from Chéronnac, but still in the Limousin. We can tell that it dates from 1944, because Eliane is approximately a year old. The war was still raging at this time.
For the various reasons described in Ma Famille the Herz family left France and arrived in New York on September 7, 1958.
Here are some photographs from the period 1958-1964.
