From Tunis to Auschwitz: The long journey of Gaston David Nataf

Written by Danielle Laguillon Hentati, reviewed and completed by members of Gaston David Nataf’s close family.

 

Portrait [2]

In the gap between the paving stones, in the dry moss

there scuttle the ants

active, alive

in the place that once knew

pure death,

a death factory

Relics in our time, do such places have memories?

by the body that sways

in time with the voice

by the gasp that opens

the gaze of the heart

to grant this place

a memory

preserved in silence [1]

 

 

May 8, 1945. The Second World War came to an end in Europe. 115,500 people deported from France were never to return from the death camps. Among them was Gaston David Nataf, who shared the same fate as so many other deportees: arrested in Paris, interned in Drancy, died in Auschwitz. Yet these three events reflect only the end of his life. We wanted to know more about this man who remained in the limbo of time, and retracing his life story has been possible thanks to documentary sources[3] and the invaluable testimony of a member of his family [4].

 

A family in flux

Gaston David Nataf was born on February 11, 1892 in Tunis[5],  the capital of the Regency of Tunisia that had been a French protectorate since 1881. His parents[6] were of Tunisian nationality, the descendants of two upper-class, cultured families.

His father, Ange Mardochée (1864 – 1926), the son of Elie Haï and Semha Fitoussi, was a civil servant at the Tunisian Central Treasury. “He was descended from a family of noblemen that included several important leaders and rabbis, but above all elders in the community”[7].

His mother, Maïa Borgel (1867 – 1940), was the granddaughter of Borgel (1814 – 1898), the chief rabbi of Tunisia, and the daughter of Abraham (1850 – 1928) and Dora Borgel (1854 – 1924).

The Borgel family was “descended from a religious family which had raised rabbis and chief rabbis for more than two hundred years”.

Eliaou Borgel, the chief rabbi of Tunisia from 1883 to 1898[9],  “lived a life of kindness and benevolence and spent most of his fortune on charity”[10]. He had supported the efforts of the Universal Jewish Alliance for the Development of Secular Education because he saw the schooling of Jewish children as a means of political and economic emancipation for the community.

His eldest son Abraham, who was also a rabbi, served as Chief Rabbi of Tunisia during his father’s illness and also after his death, until a successor was appointed[8].

 

“In the years following the establishment of the Protectorate, Tunisian Jews were dragged into a movement towards Westernization that was to transform their way of life as well as their way of thinking”[12].

From the marriage of Ange Mardochée and Maïa Nataf, 6 children were born: three boys and then three girls. All of these children were educated in this new context, which Mordecai Smaja describes as follows:

 

Young people’s enthusiasm for secular education and their love of progressive science has overturned everything that religion and tradition have taught for centuries among the Tunisian Jews: nothing has withstood this tide of modern ideas; even the religious beliefs of the older generation have been badly shaken[17].

 

The eldest child, Élie (1888 – 1962), became a lawyer, having been educated at the Carnot high school in Tunis and then at Faculty of Law in Aix-en-Provence in France[18]. He later became the Master of the Tunisian Bar Association (1938 – 1945) and the President of the Jewish Community of Tunis (1934 -1938 and 1947-1951).

The second son, Albert (1889 – 1979), also having studied at the Carnot high school in Tunis and then at Faculty of Law in Aix-en-Provence, became the Managing Director and then Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Tunisia.

Gaston, the third son, followed in the footsteps of his older brothers and studied at the Carnot high school.

The three girls, on the other hand, went to the High School for Girls, where two of them were awarded the higher-level certificate.

Tunis was at that time expanding rapidly as a result of the large increase in the population of Europe, a birth rate that exceeded the mortality rate, and a steady influx of new waves of migrants. In just a few years, the capital became a city of two parts: the old Tunis, which remained an Arab city, and a modern Tunis that soon established itself as a European-style city[21]. While the poorer Jewish people continued to live in the hara [22], both the middle and upper classes moved out to the new suburbs. The Nataf family lived at 1, avenue de Lyon, near the prestigious avenue de Paris, which led to the Belvedere.

 

From one war to another

The year 1914 marked a decisive turning point in Gaston’s life.

At the age of 22, although he was not “obliged to do military service, as he was a Tunisian Jew”[23], he was “Enlisted as a Volunteer for the duration of the War” in Tunis on August 21, 1914 “for the duration of hostilities”[24], with the help of Georges Bouzanquet and Marcel Laffont. He fought on the “home front” in France, where on November 15, 1914 he was assigned to the 81st heavy artillery regiment, and then on June 30, 1918 to the 283rd heavy artillery regiment[26], These regiments were involved at the front lines in the battles of the Somme, Verdun, Moronvilliers and Villers-Cotterêts. In a report by a Colonel Gautier, he was described as follows: “This gunner is a good subject, intelligent, animated by a fine spirit and can render good service. His conduct, morality and his mode of service are very good.” This earned him a commendation on the front in the Order of the Regiment[26] in June 2017, along with the French War Cross with a Bronze Star.

In addition, he applied for naturalization on December 19, 1914 “out of affection for France and to enjoy the rights granted to the French”[27]. His application was accepted, since he had volunteered during the war, had an adequate knowledge of the French language and expressed no political opinion: he was thus naturalized as a French citizen by decree on June 4, 1915.

Demobilized in August 1919, Gaston returned to Tunisia, but the homecoming proved difficult, as it did for all of the French soldiers who had lived through the war. Traumatized by the four long years that he had just experienced, he felt like a stranger to the world he had known before.

He then decided to settle in Paris, because he loved France, for which he had fought voluntarily and of which, like his brothers, he had become a citizen. While in the capital, he at first worked for a maternal uncle, Jacques Borgel (1883 – 1947), who owned a wholesale business dealing in Oriental fabrics. Aside from his professional life, he made the most of the pleasures afforded him by the “Paris of the Roaring Twenties”. However, struck by a desire to see the world or perhaps simply due to an opportunity he was offered, he left for Latin America where, for a few years, he represented the House of Cartier. This new job enabled him to amass some capital and, on his return to France in around 1928-1929, to invest in an industrial business. Unfortunately, the great economic depression of 1929 ruined his expectations.

In 1933, he was living at 16, allée de Thérin in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, an average-sized town with a population of nearly 57,000, located in the Seine department of France[28]. It was there that he married[29] Georgette Sarazin[30]. Present at the wedding were Jacques Borgel, his uncle, and Alfred Memmy[31], a Paris businessman.

 “He rarely came back to Tunisia but every time he did,(according to my father’s recollections), he arrived loaded with gifts for his nephews and nieces, looked after his mother, to whom he was very close, bought lunch for his brothers and sisters in a well-known restaurant in Tunis, and then left after a few days because he was so nostalgic for Paris”[32].

The couple and their daughter, Maïa-Marcelle, then moved to Lille, where there was a well-established Jewish community[33] but with which he does not seem to have mixed. He regularly visited Paris for business, where he met his nephew Marcel, then a student at the Paris Faculty of Law.

 

Life in occupied Paris

The sound of boots…

Following Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on September 3. Plans for the evacuation of the civilian population had been drawn up between 1926 and 1939 to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled movements of people from the North, as had occurred during the First World War. Some 865,000 Northerners had been involved[34].

At the interface between coercive and protective measures, the purpose of the evacuations was to clear the way for the military in the border area and to protect the population from air and ground attacks that could pose a threat to the population. Evacuations were temporary, initiated and supervised by both civilian and military authorities, and related to a population on the move within its own country (Lemmes et al., 2014: 16) Like all such population movements, the September 1939 evacuations led to disorganization and disruption in the daily lives of the people concerned, which was felt at several levels. In addition to the cultural disorientation, problems of professional integration, accommodation, food, and also communication strongly influenced the morale of the evacuated population (Forcade et al.,2018)[35].

It was in this dramatic context that Gaston and his family left Lille for Paris. As early as January 1940, it seems that he was hired as a sales representative at Dreyfus, a metallurgical company located at 173-175, rue du Faubourg Poissonnière. There he felt safe, for the time being.

However, on Monday, June 3, 1940, for the first time since the beginning of the war, bombs began to fall on Paris. Between 3 and 14 June, panic spread rapidly among Parisians, three quarters of whom decided to get away as soon as possible. Photographs and witness accounts portray the roads crowded with cars, bicycles and wheelbarrows, into which were piled a few hastily-gathered belongings.

June 1940. The Paris Exodus[36]

From then on, one piece of bad news followed another. On June 8, the French front had completely disintegrated. On June 10, at the height of the rush, the French government left Paris for Bordeaux in great haste. Then on June 14, when Paris had been declared an open city the previous day, German troops entered the capital. The authorities signed a ceasefire at 7.30 a.m., which marked the beginning of five years of occupation. This occupation was characterized by shortages and rationing, which became a part of everyday life for the residents, by the suppression of political and military resistance against the Occupying forces, by reprisals against civilians and by expulsions.

Jews are not admitted[37]

Anti-Semitic policies were implemented by the Institute for Jewish Studies as soon as it was established, on May 11, 1941. The persecution of Jews took various forms, including the Aryanization policy, the confiscation of cultural assets and also attacks on synagogues (in particular during the night of October 2 to 3, 1941), followed by roundups, including the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundup of July 16 and 17, 1942, which was the largest mass arrest of Jews during the Second World War in France and involved 13,152 people, including 4,000 children under the age of 16[38]. They were all interned before being put on the death trains to Auschwitz. This roundup marked the beginning in France of what the historian Léon Poliakov called the era of “methodical extermination”, the “final solution”, which was adopted by the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, near Berlin[39].

Although, in 1939, he had a heart of steel and infinite confidence in the values of France, Gaston gradually lost this faith following the introduction of the Statute on the Jews and the first round-ups. In September or October 1942, he decided to send his wife and daughter to seek refuge in Tunis, with the intention of joining them in November.

Too late! In November 1942, French North Africa became the stage for major military operations that marked a turning point in the Second World War. On November 8, Allied troops landed in Algeria and Morocco, in what was known as “Operation Torch”. In response, the Nazi authorities occupied the Free Zone in France and, on November 9, established a foothold in Tunisia to support the retreating Afrikakorps in the Libyan desert. Links between France and Tunisia were disrupted.  Now alone in Paris amidst the turmoil, Gaston no longer took precautions. Was this out of defiance, of recklessness, or desperation? “It is said that he strolled around Paris wearing his military medals on his chest, convinced that France would not allow the arrest of a veteran who had enlisted to defend it.”[40]

 

Drancy – Auschwitz

In July 1944, Gaston was living at 64, rue Rennequin in the 17th district of Paris. He no longer worked for M. Dreyfus, but he was “civilly requisitioned”, which is to say that he had been detained for Service du Travail Obligatoire (Compulsory Labor Service). On July 20, 1944, he was arrested by the Gestapo in Paris on the grounds that he was Jewish. Witnesses to the arrest were a Mr. Pagano, of the Tunisian Office in Paris, and Charles Dangelzer, General Manager of Crédit Industriel et Commercial in Paris. According to the “Jewish Files” at the Drancy internment camp, Gaston Nataf was interned the same day in Drancy and given the number 25,301. The money he had on him, five thousand one hundred and thirty-seven francs, was taken from him and he was given receipt no. 6523, as recorded in search logbook no. 157[41].

The notorious Aloïs Brunner[42] was in charge of the camp. Thus, “With the implementation of the Final Solution in France, [the camps] became the anteroom of death for the Jews in France.”[43]

Having first been an internment camp for communists in 1939-40, then a prisoner of war camp for English soldiers, Drancy had been a transit camp for gathering Jews since August 20, 1941. Serge Smulevic recalls:

The night of December 10, 1943 – I have just disembarked from the bus from Paris to the Drancy camp, having arrived on a train that brought us from Nice to Paris. We more or less know what is going to happen to us.

I arrived in a large, poorly-lit room with a large, very long desk, where young men my age had set themselves up and began to interrogate us: “Surname, first names, date of birth, nationality” and the most frequent question “Do you have parents?” and “Where are they?”

Not a German in the room. The young people did their job well. They compiled very accurate records. There was a lot of trust.

Then suddenly I heard: “Hey, Serge! They got you too?” And I recognized Teddy Artztein, sitting at the table, calling me towards him […] Denunciation was already working well in Drancy.

Next we got a receipt for the money that was taken from us, but we managed to hide some of it. Then we were taken to the dormitories: real iron beds, mattresses and grey blankets…. […]

The next day, I got up early, went down to the main courtyard and turned around to look at the huge horseshoe-shaped grey building […]

Not a German in sight, only dozens of French guards, including several on the rooftops pacing up and down, rifles on their shoulders. We walked around this vast courtyard in complete freedom, alone or in groups, men on their own or with women and children.[44]

Internees in the courtyard at Drancy[45].

On July 31, 1944, Gaston David was deported to Auschwitz Birkenau, according to the original deportation convoy list.

Did he know that with him on the convoy were some children from the Zysman boarding house, known as “the house of happy children”, at 57 rue Georges Clemenceau in Saint-Maur des Fossés?[46] During the night of July 21-22, 1944, on the instructions of the S. S. Captain Aloïs Brunner, 28 children between the ages of 4 and 11 had been arrested, along with two members of the staff: Lucie Lithuac, the cook, and Miss Lévy, the manager of the Zysman boarding house. Just because they were Jewish. None of them ever came back.

Convoy n°77 was to take 3 days and 3 nights to cover the 750 miles between the internment camp and the extermination camp. Of the 1310 deportees on Convoy 77, 836 were sent to the gas chambers as soon as they arrived.

The Director of Research Services at the Department of Veterans Affairs wrote to the family in September 1956:[47]

“But, given that the Auschwitz camp was an extermination camp, it is to be presumed that Mr. Nataf died despite no proof of his death having been provided … a verdict of death was declared on 11/12/1950 by the civil court of Tunis, ruling that the death of Mr. Nataf occurred on 31/7/1944, in Germany. … the judgment is transcribed into the civil status registers of the French Consulate in Tunis”

This declaration of death was later rectified, on 18 May 1995, in a publication in the French Official Journal. It was brought forward to 5 August, 1944, in Poland..[48]

This “official” date is probably not accurate, however, since statements that the family obtained from survivors suggest that Gaston was admitted to the Auschwitz camp and survived until the start of the “long march”, during which he died.

 

An empty space

Confronted with the unresolved absence of her husband, Georgette Nataf was unable to grieve. After all, mourning is not limited to one single episode which, under normal circumstances, involves coping with the absence of the deceased person within, and by, the entire family unit. But in the case of a “Non-Returner”, overlapping difficulties render mourning impossible: there is no grave, no visible, physical symbol of death, the family feels cramped, and, on top of that, administrative hassles still need to be dealt with. Nothing can alleviate the suffering; nothing can fill the gap left by the absent person.

In 1944, Georgette was in Tunis.

The first few deportees came back: first Messrs. Lipp, Silvera, Cartier, then Serge Moati, and then, on the 22nd of September, Maitre Duran-Angliviel, a very well-known and well-respected figure in Tunis. We began to hope for the return of all of the other prisoners of war, deportees and internees. But the reports that were beginning to circulate hinted at the worst. Serge Moati gave several lectures, during which he spoke of the tragedy of the Jews under the German occupation [49] [50].

She was waiting for news, but none of them could give her any since none had returned from Auschwitz[51].

On August 11, 1945, the family placed a missing person notice in the newspaper ʺLibresʺ. In response, they received a statement from a Mr. Massine, a former deportee who was undergoing treatment at Bichat Hospital, who said he had seen Gaston during the evacuation of the camp on January 18, 1945, at the Gleiwitz railway station (Gliwice, in Silesia)[52]. The family clung to this hope, but in vain. A year later, his brother, Maitre Élie Nataf, wrote a letter[53] to the Ministry for Prisoners, Deportees and Refugees asking for information. The reply from the Ministry ends with a sentence that makes the blood run cold: “If this person has not been able to write up to now, nor to communicate his whereabouts, I am unfortunately not in a position to tell you about the fate that befell him at the hands of the Germans”[54]

From then on, one administrative procedure followed another. It was Charles Dangelzer[55], a friend of the family who lived in Paris, who undertook the first formalities. On April 24, 1946, he sent a Request for Research to the “Political and race-related deportees” office, asking for the certificates of arrest on grounds of race[56] provided by Alfred Memmy et René Sarrasin[57]. Some months later, Georgette Nataf received a certificate[58] stating that Gaston David Nataf had not been repatriated. Then, on December 11, 1950, the Civil Court in Tunis delivered a declaratory judgment of death, which led to the entry in the civil status registers[59]. It was only after these preliminary formalities that on April 10, 1952, Georgette Nataf was able to submit an application for the title of Political Deportee. At the same time, research continued, but came to a standstill on that fateful day when the convoy left Drancy bound for Auschwitz, on July 31, 1944. This was the last tangible trace of Gaston.

On April 5, 1954, the title of Political Deportee was awarded to Gaston David Nataf, and as a result, the Department of Veterans Affairs sent card no. 1.1.75.0199 to Georgette in order that she could exercise her rights as his widow.

Although all of the administrative procedures were nearly over, Georgette Nataf was still hoping for the return of her husband. This can be confirmed by a letter[60] from the French Red Cross, which Georgette Nataf had contacted for help in the search for her husband, addressed to the Director of the Tracing Service at the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs, asking whether Gaston was on the list of people who were still in Russia. The answer was no, and the letter referred to the declaratory judgment of death[61].

The file was finally closed on September 14, 1979, when the Secretary of State for Veterans certified Gaston David Nataf “Mort en déportation”, “Died in Deportation”.

Georgette Nataf’s final tribute to Gaston was the testimony she gave at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, on September 28, 1980.

Perhaps at peace at last, Georgette Nataf died on November 10, 1995 in Pacé, in Ille-et-Vilaine (France). 

 

Note

This tragic story should prompt us to reflect on the need for inter-generational remembrance of the deportees. The memorial process is enriched by ceremonies and carried on by inscriptions on war memorials and other “stone sentinels”. These are actual “places of memory”, which bring together former deportees, families of the deceased and public figures, people who accompany schoolchildren during the ceremonies so that the younger generation understands and then, in its turn, continues to honor and pass on the memory of the deceased. Monuments dedicated to those who died remain the ultimate safeguard against oblivion.[62]

 

The name of Gaston David Nataf has thus been engraved on the Wall of Names at the Shoah Memorial in Paris[63] and on the War Memorial at the Jewish cemetery of Borgel, in Tunis.

The War Memorial in Tunis ©Danielle Laguillon Hentati

 

 

References

[1] An extract from: Abdelwaheb Meddeb, Auschwitz. A poem written at Auschwitz in May 2003, during a trip that brought together Jews, Christians and Muslims from different countries. Revue Esprit, juillet 2003, pp. 6-8. http://www.crif.org/fr/alireavoiraecouter/Poemes-d-Auschwitz-d-Abdelwahab-Meddeb1555

[2] Photographie in : DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston 21 P 519 872.

[3] DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston 21 P 519 872 ; Archives nationales de France, Ministère de la Justice, Dossier de naturalisation n°14586 X1914. Ces deux dossiers m’ont été transmis par l’association Convoi 77.

[4] Witness statement of Claude Nataf, Gaston David’s great nephew, April 2020. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him most sincerely for the lengthy testimony he kindly gave me.

[5] En fait, son acte de naissance est un acte de notoriété, établi par le juge de paix du canton huit de Tunis, le 22 novembre 1901. Source : Dossier de naturalisation Rapport.

[6] Family tree of Michèle Tron – Nataf: published on Geneanet https://gw.geneanet.org/mtron?lang=fr&pz=delphine+marcelle+elisabeth&nz=nataf&p=ange+mardochee&n=nataf

[7] Witness statement of Claude Nataf. April 2020.

[8] ʺLes funérailles du grand rabbinʺ, La Dépêche tunisienne 13.12.1898

[9] Eliaou Borgel was chief rabbi of the Tunisian community from 1885 to 1898. Upon his death in 1898, he was buried in the new Jewish cemetery in Tunis, north of the city, which was later named after him. See: Raphaël Arditti, “Les Épitaphes rabbiniques de l’ancien cimetière israélite de Tunis”, Revue tunisienne, n°2 1932, pp. 99-111.

[10] ʺLes funérailles du grand rabbinʺ, La Dépêche tunisienne 13.12.1898

[12] Paul Sebag, Histoire des Juifs de Tunisie. Des origines à nos jours. L’Harmattan, 1991, p.140.

[17] Mardoché Smaja, L’extension de la juridiction et de la nationalité françaises en Tunisie. Tunis, 1905, p.40.

[18] Paul Lambert, op. cit., p.301.

[21] Voir Paul Sebag, Tunis. Histoire d’une ville, L’Harmattan, 1998, Chapitre VII : Les premiers temps du protectorat (1881-1914).

[22] Voir Paul Sebag et Robert Attal, L’évolution d’un ghetto nord-africain. La Hara de Tunis, Paris, 1959. En littérature, on peut citer deux ouvrages : Viviane Scemama-Lesselbaum, ʺLe Passageʺ. De la Hara au Belvédère. Histoire d’une émancipation, Éditions du Cosmogone, 1999, et Nine Moati, Les belles de Tunis, Éditions du Seuil, 1983 / Cérès Éditions, 1999.

[23] Dossier de naturalisation.

[24] Dossier de naturalisation, Acte d’Engagement.

[25] Report dated March 23, 1915 by Colonel Gautier commanding the 7th Foot Artillery Regiment, in: Naturalization Dossier.

[26] Michèle Tron-Nataf, ʺIl était une fois il y a 100 ans, la Grande Guerre, cette grande faucheuse…ʺ, Borgel’s News 4, 21.12.2014, p. 21 : Dossier militaire de Gaston Nataf, campagnes et Citation du 15 juin 1917.

[27] Dossier de naturalisation.

[28] Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is now in the Val-de-Marne department.

[29] Mairie de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, acte de mariage n°424.

[30] Archives municipales de Paris V°, acte de naissance n°3149, avec mentions.

[31] In Alfred Memmy’s statement made on August 9, 1945, concerning the arrest of Gaston David Nataf, it is stated that he was born on April 23, 1887 in Tunis. He was probably acquainted with Tunis.

[32]Witness statement of Claude Nataf, April 2020.

[33] Voir : Frédéric Viey, Histoire des Communautés Juives  du Nord et de Picardie. À lire en ligne : https://www.ajpn.org/fichier-travaux/1349947752_histoiredescommunautesjuivesdunordetpicardie.pdf

[34]https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vacuation_des_civils_en_France_en_1939-1940

[35] Maude Williams, « Communication et déplacement de population en temps de guerre : Les évacuations de la région frontalière franco-allemande (1939/1940) », Trajectoires [En ligne], 12 | 2019, mis en ligne le 05 février 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/trajectoires/3225 .

[36] Photo credit © Roger-Viollet : http://www.museeliberation-leclerc-moulin.paris.fr/exhibitions/les-parisiens-dans-lexode-de-1940

[37] Photo credit : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-S59096,_Plakat_im_Fenster_eines_französischen_Restaurants.jpg?uselang=fr

[38] D’après : https://www.herodote.net/16_juillet_1942-evenement-19420716.php

[39] ʺLes 13.000 martyrs du Vél d’Hiv’ʺ, in : L’Humanité, 9 juin 1993.

[40] Witness statement of Claude Nataf, Avril 2020.

[41] See the receipt on the website of the Shoah Memorial, in Paris :http://ressources.memorialdelashoah.org/notice.php?q=fulltext%3A%28nataf%29%20AND%20fulltext%3A%28gaston%29%20AND%20id_pers%3A%28%2A%29&spec_expand=1&start=0

[42] Aloïs Brunner (1912 – 2001) was responsible for the deportation to Auschwitz of 56,000 Jews from Vienna, 43,000 from Salonika, 14,000 from Slovakia and 23,500 from France. The man whom Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the final solution, calls “my best man” in his Memoirs, was never made to pay for his crimes.

[43] Dominique Peschanski, La France des camps, l’internement 1938-1946, Gallimard, 2002, p.316.

[44] Serge Smulevic (1921-2010), témoignage en décembre 2008, in : Site mémoire juive et éducation. Le camp de Drancy, en région parisienne : http://d-d.natanson.pagesperso-orange.fr/drancy.htm

 [45]Photo taken by a Nazi reporter on December 3, 1942. Source: http://d-d.natanson.pagesperso-orange.fr/drancy.htm

[46] Source : https://www.ajpn.org/commune-Saint-Maur-des-Fosses-94068.html

[47] Following the judgment handed down by the Civil Court of Tunis on 11 December 1950, a death certificate was transcribed by the French Consulate in Tunis on March 8, 1951, according to which Gaston Nataf died on July 31, 1944 in Germany. The date of death was officially rectified in 1995. Voir : JO 1995 pp. 08377-08387. I would like to thank Patrick Cheylan for this information.

[48] Letter, dated September 10, 1956, from the Director of the Research Department at the Ministry of Veterans Affairs to the President of the French Red Cross, in reply to his letter of March 7, 1956.

[49]Le Petit Matin, 17 septembre 1944.

[50] Danielle Laguillon Hentati, “Un lycée et ses élèves dans la guerre. Le Lycée Carnot de Tunis (1939-1945)”. 1^ère partie : revue de l’Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes. IBLA, 74° Année, 2011-1, N°207. 2^ème partie : revue de l’Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes. IBLA, 74° Année, 2011-2, N°208.

[51] Danielle Laguillon Hentati, “La mémoire des déportations de Tunisie (1940 – 1943) : de l’oubli à l’histoire ?”. Communication faite le 19.05.2018 dans le cadre du 6^ème Séminaire de l’Ecole doctorale du Prof. Habib Kazdaghli à la Faculté des Lettres, Humanités et Arts de La Manouba.

[52] When Auschwitz was liberated on 18 January 1945, prisoners were evacuated to the city on foot during the Death marches during which many died. They then continued their journey westwards, crammed into trains. Source: Wikipédia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliwice

[53]  Lettre en date du 19 novembre 1945. DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston.

[54] Courrier en date du 5 mars 1946 du chef du I° bureau de la sous-direction de l’État civil et des fichiers adressé à Maître Élie Nataf. DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston.

[55] Charles Dangelzer (1888 – 1983) was a banker, residing at 9 avenue Émile Deschanel in Paris VII°. His father, Colonel Charles Dangelzer (1856 – 1950), carried out two missions in Tunisia during his military career: first in 1881-1883, then in 1902-1920 as head of the Tunisian military mission and Director of the central administration of the Tunisian army. Source: Danielle Laguillon Hentati, Les Palmes académiques en Tunisie (1881-1956) – work in progress.

[56] Attestations établies par chaque témoin le 9 août 1946. DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston.

[57] René Sarrazin (1889 – 1971) était l’oncle maternel de Georgette Nataf (née Sarazin).

[58] Il s’agit du modèle ʺMʺ n°26.543 que Georgette Nataf reçut, le 7 septembre 1946, du Directeur du bureau national des recherches des fichiers des internés, déportés politiques, pour le ministère des anciens combattants. DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston.

[59] Le jugement tenant lieu d’acte de décès de Gaston David Nataf a été transcrit sur les registres d’état civil du Consulat de France à Tunis le 28 février 1952.

[60] Courrier en date du 7 mars 1956. DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston.

 

[61] Courrier du 10 septembre 1956. DAVCC, SHD, Caen, Dossier NATAF Gaston.

[62] Philippe Pasteau, ʺHonorer les mortsʺ, https://www.cairn.info/revue-inflexions-2017-2-page-123.htm

[63] Emplacement sur le Mur : dalle n°29, colonne n°10, rangée n°2 Site du Mémorial de la Shoah : http://ressources.memorialdelashoah.org/notice.php?q=fulltext%3A%28nataf%29%20AND%20fulltext%3A%28gaston%29%20AND%20id_pers%3A%28%2A%29&spec_expand=1&start=0

 

Contributor(s)

Danielle Laguillon Hentati, Claude Nataf, historian, and Michèle Nataf, genealogy enthusiast.