Pinhas Robert CHEMLA, 1929 – 1944

 

INTRODUCTION 

First of all, we would like to thank Mr. Richard Avizrat, who lives in Israel, for his valuable help and for the time he devoted to us as we tried to piece together the biographies of his family members (his grandmother, Zakia, and his uncles and aunts, Robert, Huguette, Gilbert and Georgette) who all perished in Auschwitz on August 5, 1944.
Next, we decided to continue this introduction with his interview and our feelings about this very moving conversation.
We felt, following Mr Avizrat’s call, when we learned that his mother had passed away, that he rarely talked about his family and had never asked. Mr. Avizrat had learned about what had happened in school.
Since he lives in Israel, he started his research, at the age of 50, at Yad Vashem (the Israeli Holocaust memorial). He traveled twice to Paris to see a cousin and once to Lyon to do further research. He searched for documents and found some photos at his parents’ home.
The staff at Lyon City Hall and Lyon Police helped him with his research. He thinks of the lives of his deported family as a jigsaw puzzle, and as each day passes there are fewer pieces left to find.

Since 2006 he has never stopped looking for more information about his family, and has read numerous books to help broaden his research.
Finally, taking into account the Covid restrictions, and with the help of the archived documents sent by Mr Serge Jacubert and Ms. Claire Podetti of the Convoy 77 association, whom we would also like to thank, we have done our best to pay tribute to this unfortunate family from Lyon, who had previously lived in Algeria. They left behind just one descendant: Louise Aouizrat, née Chemla, who has continued her research in order to have the status of her parents and siblings recognized. Her father, Moïse, was machine-gunned to death, and the others were deported. It is in part thanks to her tenacity that we now have a lasting tribute to the Chemla family.

 

A HISTORICAL JIGSAW PUZZLE

             

                       

 

THE BIOGRAPHY

                             

Pinhas Robert Chemla was the oldest boy in the Chemla family.
He was born in Constantine, Algeria, on July 24, 1929, in what was then a French colony.
Thanks to his great nephew; Mr Avizrat, we were able to obtain several photographs of him, by himself or with his parents and his sister, Huguette.
We also discovered that he was an apprentice metallurgist during the school year 1943-1944.
Like his mother, sisters and brother, he was arrested during the roundup of July 8, 1944, in a neighboring apartment in Lyon, while living at 12 rue de la Bombarde in the what was then the 2nd district of Lyon, now the 5th district.
After a spell in an internment camp in Lyon, although we do not know which one, he was transferred to Drancy, the most well-known transit camp in the Paris area, on July 24, 1944. Finally, he was deported to the Auschwitz camp in Poland on July 31, 1944, on Convoy 77.
You already know the ending; Pinhas Robert and his family were killed on arrival in Auschwitz, officially on August 5, 1944.
The records in our possession are essentially administrative documents issued in France, Algeria and Israel between 1943 and 2009.
The records in our possession are essentially administrative documents issued in France, Algeria and Israel between 1943 and 2009. Some of them relate the circumstances of the roundup, including the concierge’s account, while others relate to research requests for missing persons. Most importantly, there are exchanges between the various administrative authorities and the surviving family members, such as an aunt, Yasmina Mabitz, and their sister, Louise, who came from Algeria and then lived in Marseille before finally moving to Israel.

 

               

 

                       

                                         

 

Finally, these exchanges related to the identification each Chemla family member, the acknowledgement of their statuses as victims of war who died for France, and also as political deportees, given that the father, Moïse, was shot due to his political views on April 20, 1944, in Dardilly, in the Rhône department.
It was interesting to cross-reference the records and to be able to contact one of the descendants of the family in order to try to recount the history of this family, in particular that of Robert.

 

CONCLUSION

We would like to end the biographies of the Chemla family members, who were deported on Convoy 77, with a brief conclusion including some iconographic images produced by one of the students in our class and a video by Mr. Richard Avizrat, one of the family’s descendants.
This shameful and monstrous period of history has also prompted us to remain vigilant in the face of rising intolerance and discrimination.
Writing the Chemla family biographies has been a wake-up call for us, because it serves as a reminder that we all have families and that we could all have come from different backgrounds.
This should help to change attitudes and to encourage sharing, because as the singer Maxime le Forestier said: “[…] You don’t choose your family […] Being born somewhere, for the person being born – it’s always a matter of luck.
This research has made us aware of the duty to remember and our conversation with Mr. Avizrat has shown us that despite the hatred and violence, trees will always continue to blossom.
We wanted to pay tribute to the deported Chemla family with a more paradisiacal image than that portrayed the introduction and to show that thanks to Louise, the family lineage will continue.
Lastly, there is also a video, produced by Mr. Avizrat, to keep the memory of the family alive.