In Paris, Esther Horonczyk married Nissan Frenkel, a Jewish immigrant born in Kutno, Poland, in 1907. In 1940 the couple’s only son, Richard, was born. The family lived in Paris, at 3 Rue Castex. Esther’s father, Shimon, and her married sister, Chaja-Dwojra Korman, all lived on the same courtyard. Their sister Leah Friedheim lived nearby with her family. The family made their living in the textile trade. In 1940 Nissan Frenkel enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, along with his brothers-in-law. He was discharged later that year following the occupation of France.

The Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp, in the Loiret district, France. Among the people photographed are Nissan Frenkel and his brother-in-law, Nissan Frenkel (top row, 3rd from left).

On the 14th of May 1941 Nissan Frenkel was arrested together with his brothers-in-law, in a wave of arrests which targeted Jews who were not French citizens. They were sent to Beaune-la-Rolande, a concentration camp where Jews, mostly men, were incarcerated. The camp was run by the French authorities. The internal organization was undertaken by Jewish communist prisoners. After some time, the detainees were allowed to receive packages from home, and were even allowed occasional visits by family.

March, 1942. A French language study group, in the Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp. Among those photographed – Nissan Frenkel.

31 May 1942

My Dearest Frank,
This is the third year that I must spend the most beautiful month, May, far away from you. Despite it all, my morale remains high, there is no other choice. This morning I had to get up early, and lazy one that I am, I stayed in bed with open eyes, and recalled memories. You were so close to me (in my imagination) and listed to the stories of my moments of sadness and happiness. It was no dream, no delusion, but a moment of happiness and pleasure. My heart tells me that all is not lost. We will live again as we once did in the past, and our lives will be more beautiful. I will go for a walk with you and with Richard in the fields, and we will roll in the green vales just as Richard rolls on the floor at home. I guard this idea like a hen guarding its chick. Was not our life very beautiful indeed?

You are waiting for a letter from me, like a predator lying in wait for its prey – but what can I tell you, my darling, what should I write in order to fill these pages, which scare me so? Only one thing, writ large: Hope!

Your Richard, believe me, is a wonderful boy, full of life. He is so lively and brimming over with vitality that everyone marvels at him.

The plan of sending him to the country has run into difficulties at present. Nor do I want to send him to a nanny. Not far from Paris there is a kindergarten for children under the age of two, but I don’t want to send him there either.

It seems he will stay with me in Paris. I am enclosing a picture of myself, but I ask that you not show it to anyone. I look more like a tired kindergarten teacher, and my posture is tasteless. But I am sending you this picture anyway, because you asked so persistently. Have no fear, in reality I look much better, and your first kiss will immediately improve my appearance. There is only one thing which interests me: to be with you forever – all of the trivial problems will vanish quickly as though they had never existed. Is that not so, my dear?

In these times, when letters are such a rare commodity, I should have written more, but my thoughts keep turning back to the same topics, as though caught in an accursed cycle.

I kiss you fiercely, my small beloved, and see you very soon.

Este and Richard
I attach a small letter from Shimon [Shimon Horonczyk, Esther’s father].

Among those photographed – Esther Horonczyk's husband Nissan Frenkel (2nd row, 4th from left) and his brothers-in-law, Icek-Josef Horonczyk (top row, 3rd from right) and Froïm-Ephraim Korman (middle of 3rd row, wearing a scarf).

A letter opener made by Nissan Frenkel for his young son Richard, with whom he only spent a brief amount of time before being sent to the Beaune-la-Roland transit camp. The letter opener bears the inscription: “To my dear little Richard, for your second birthday, 21 June 1942, Beaune-la-Rolande.” Nissan managed to send the gift to his family a few days before being deported to Auschwitz.

In the transit and detention camps of Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers hundreds of objects (“souvenirs”) were created by Jewish prisoners, and posted or passed along to their families. Several years ago Memorial de la Shoah, the Parisian museum and documentation center for the Holocaust, held an exhibition where items inmates had made for their children were displayed. Objects included letter-openers, toy ships made of wood, dolls’ cradles and model airplanes.

Yad Vashem, Artifacts Collection
Gift of the Friedheim families, France and Israel

A letter written by Esther Frenkel neé Horonczyk to her sister, Leah Friedheim, who escaped into the “Unoccupied Zone” of Vichy France. The letter was written three days before the Vel' d'Hiv, a mass-arrest (named after the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where detainees were initially incarcerated) in which Esther and her two year old son, Richard, were apprehended.

Paris, 13 July, 1942

My Dearest Ones,
I received your short letter and am responding as quickly as possible. How are you? Raphael is surely already a big boy. With us everything is as usual. There is no news of our prisoners, which is very saddening. I ask a favor of you. I must work, and am not home the whole day. I am afraid someone will steal our men’s belongings. I would like to send them to you.

I dare not do this because I know full well that you haven’t the space to store it all, particularly the suitcases.

You would not believe how beautifully Richard is already talking. I have no idea where he learned it all, but one morning he woke up and spent the entire day shouting about how he wants to take the train, the countryside, Raphael. He is shouting now, even as I write, and is very agitated.

Richard is constantly getting thinner, he hardly eats a thing. How I long to see you!! I kiss you very strongly, and particularly our most beautiful child, Raphael.

Esther and Richard

On the 17th of July, 1942, the second day of the Vel' d'Hiv mass-arrests of the Jews of Paris, Esther Frenkel and her two year old son, Richard, were arrested. Fanny Korman, Richard’s cousin, who was six years old in 1942, told of Esther and Richard’s deportation. When the two were arrested by the French Police, Shimon (Esther's father) went down to the courtyard and begged the police to arrest him instead of Richard. “Don’t worry,” they replied, “we’ll be coming back for you soon enough.” After a few days of confinement in the Winter Stadium, Esther and Richard were sent to the Pithiviers transit camp.

Esther’s shirt remained along with the majority of her belongings in her Paris flat. Her sister, Chaja-Dwojra Korman, and her family lived in the same building. They managed to remove a few of her personal effects before the authorities sealed the apartment. A copy of a photograph in which Esther appears wearing this shirt can be seen in Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum.

Nissan Frenkel (line six from above), is number 206 on the deportation list of Jews from Beaune-la-Rolande to Auschwitz, 28 June 1942. Alongside his personal details – name, place and date of birth, and place of residence – the form states that Nissan is a Polish citizen, a tailor by profession, that he is married, and has one child.

After over a year in the Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp, Nissan was deported on transport number 5 to Auschwitz. Two of his brothers-in-law, Froïm-Ephraim Korman and Icek-Josef Horonczyk, were also deported on the same transport. All three perished.

Courtesy of Archives du CDJC – Mémorial de la Shoah

Esther Frenkel, number 16 on the list of deported Jews from Pithiviers to Auschwitz, 7 August 1942. Alongside her personal details – name, date and place of birth, and place of residence – the form states that Esther has no profession. After a few weeks during which she was interned together with her young son Richard, Esther was forcibly separated from her son, and deported on transport number 16 from Pithiviers to Auschwitz. Little Richard was left in the camp alone. With him in Pithiviers were some 1,800 other children under the age of 13, most of whose parents had already been deported.

Courtesy of Archives du CDJC – Mémorial de la Shoah

A postcard which Esther (Estha) Frenkel neé Horonczyk threw out of the train wagon on the way from Pithiviers to Auschwitz. Her son, little Richard, was left by himself in Pithiviers. Esther’s postcard is on display in Yad Vashem's Holocaust History Museum.

Friday, 7 August

My dear family,
I am on the train. I do not know what has become of my Richard. He is still in Pithiviers. Save my child, my innocent baby!!! He must be crying horribly. Our suffering is nothing. Save my Richard, my little darling. I can't write. My heart, my Richard, my soul, are far away and no one is protecting my little two-year-old boy. To die, quickly, oh my child! Give me my Richard.

Estha

Richard Frenkel, number 6 on the deportation list from Drancy to Auschwitz, 10 September 1942. Alongside he personal details – name, year of birth (1940), and place of residence in Paris – the document notes that he arrived in Drancy from Pithiviers. The two year old Richard was arrested together with his mother, Esther, in the mass-arrest of the Vel' d'Hiv in Paris. The two were sent to Pithiviers. After some three weeks in the camp Richard was separated from his mother. Esther was sent to Auschwitz and Richard remained alone. The first transport of children from Pithiviers to Drancy left on the 15th of August. On the 10th of September, five weeks after having been torn from his mother’s arms, two year old Richard was sent alone from Drancy to Auschwitz, on a wagon full of strangers. His parents had already been murdered in Auschwitz.

Courtesy of Archives du CDJC – Mémorial de la Shoah

The ITS (International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen Archive) information cards for Nissan, Esther and Richard Frenkel. The cards list personal details, as well as the dates of their deportation to and/or arrival in, Auschwitz.

On the 28th of June, 1942, Nissan Frenkel was deported on RSHA transport number 5 (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, the Central Office for the Security of the Reich), from the transit camp of Beaune-la-Rolande to Auschwitz. About 70% of the thousand deportees were Jews holding Polish citizenship. Within six and a half weeks of their arrival in Auschwitz a third of them had been murdered. According the camp records, Nissan Frenkel, Prisoner Number 42982, “died” (was murdered) on the 1st of September 1942.

On the 7th of August 1942, six weeks after her husband’s deportation, Ester Frenkel was herself deported on transport number 16, from Pithiviers to Auschwitz. 273 of about one thousand deportees passed the selection. The remainder were murdered that same day in the gas chambers. Among them, it seems, was Esther.
On the 11th of September 1942, Richard, Esther and Nissan’s two year old baby, was sent alone from Drancy to Auschwitz, on a wagon full of strangers.

Transport number 31 contained one thousand people, among them 171 children under the age of 17. A total of 380 of the deportees from this transport passed selection. The remainder were murdered in the gas chambers, among them Richard.

It is known of only 55 people who survived these three transports.

Pages of Testimony in memory of Esther Frenkel neé Horonczyk, her husband Nissan Frenkel, and their young son Richard. Submitted by Esther’s sister, Chaja-Dwojra Korman.