Edouard GODFRIED

Translated from the biography established by the AFMD (Friends of the Foundation for the Memory of Deportation from the Allier Department):

Sketch from the Mémorial de la Shoah.

Édouard GODFRIED was born on April 15, 1885 in Sulina, Romania.

He was the son of Abraham GODFRIED and Léa née GOLDENBERG.

He was a tailor living at n° 74 avenue de Saint-Ouen when he married Sarah KANTER on August 1, 1912 in the 18th district of Paris.

A women’s dressmaker, he resided either at n°1 bis rue Bleue in the 10^th district of Paris or at n° 6 rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette in the 9th district (the sources differ.)

He and his wife were granted French citizenship by decrees n° 31.358 and 31.359 on March 7, 1933, published in the Journal Officiel of the French Republic of March 19, 1933, page 2805 for Édouard and page 2808 for Sarah.

(Source for the naturalization documents below: Bibliothèque Nationale de France on Gallica Naturalisations Internet site)

He took refuge in Vichy (Allier department) on June 12, 1940, where he declared his residence on the rue du Château-d’Eau. He was hired as a dressmaker by the Maison Berthet at n° 28 avenue du Président Wilson.

He was repertoried as a French Jew in Vichy under the terms of the French state’s Anti-Semitic Law of June 2, 1941.

(Source: Departmental Archives of the Allier department 756 W 1)

According to the Prefect of the Allier department, because he was Jewish he was “ordered [by the General Secretary of the Police] to vacate the departments of the Allier and the Puy-de-Dôme as of December 15, 1941. He received notice of the order on July 8, 1942 and left Vichy for Lyon with his wife on July 18^th.

In the same document dated January 26, 1944, following the letter of the General Secretary for the Maintenance of Order (cf. the letterhead below), the Prefect of the Allier explains that “an order deferring the order for him to vacate of November 11, 1943 had not been deliverable, as this ex-foreigner had not reappeared in Vichy.

During his sojourn in this city the individual named GODFRIED had never been the object of any unfavorable observation on the part of the Police. His attitude toward the nation was correct, and he was not known to have engaged in any political activity.

(Source of the document below: Departmental Archives of the Allier department –Police Aliens Bureau – Revision of Naturalizations)

Consequently, unless his faith is an obstacle, I believe there is reason to maintain this individual’s French citizenship”.

As the removal order against him had been deferred, he returned to Vichy, perhaps unbeknownst to the authorities. His last residence was at n° 26 rue du Président Wilson in Vichy, according to the death notice in the Vichy public records.

Arrested at an unknown date, he was interned in the Mal-Coiffée German military prison in Moulins, and transferred on July 15, 1944 to Drancy, where he was attributed I.D. n° 25155. He declared his residence as n° 8 rue Bargoin in Vichy.

(Source for the document below: Mémorial de la Shoah)

On July 31, 1944 he was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz in convoy n° 77.

(Source of the document below:  © Mémorial de la Shoah C77_21)

In  Le Mémorial de la Déportation des Juifs de France, Serge Klarsfeld writes about convoy n° 77: “The number of deportees was 1300. This convoy 77 (…) hauled toward the Auschwitz gas chambers more than 300 children under the age of 18. (…) 291 men were selected with I.D. numbers B 3673 to B 3963; the same for 283 women (A 16457 to A 16739). In 1945 there were 209 survivors, of whom 141 were women”.

At the age of 59 Édouard GODFRIED was most probably not selected for work duty.

He died on August 5, 1944 at Auschwitz according to the Vichy public records and the Journal Officiel n° 248 of October, 1993.

He was posthumously allotted a Political Deportee card on June 18, 1962.

(Source for the document below: Paris Archives 3595 W 121)

“Died in deportation” according to the decree of the War Veterans Ministry dated September 13, 1993, published in the Journal Officiel n° 248 of October 24, 1993.