Postscript

On 16 May 1941 in occupied France, when Jewish males aged over 15 had to present themselves to the French police at the Rue de Lutèce in Paris, Fiszel Swiczarczyk accompanied his son on the day of his 15th birthday. They went through the small door in front of what is now the Jardin des Plantes. The young man, Hersz, registered as Jewish and was allowed to go back home. His father, however, was detained by the French police and sent to the Pithiviers internment camp. Hersz ran five kilometres back to the 20th arrondissement to tell his mother, Frajda Dobrzinska, what had happened.

Fiszel Swiczarczyk was born in Warsaw, and as a young man, he did 2 years of military service. In 1937 he left for Paris with his wife and two children, leaving behind in Warsaw some 150 family members, among them their parents, uncles, aunts and cousins. On 1 September 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland, Fiszel enlisted in the French army. He went into combat in May 1940 when the Germans invaded France. Two million French soldiers were taken prisoner that same year, as the Germans encircled and quickly occupied half of France. Fiszel Swiczarczyk was one of these prisoners but ironically was sent home in 1941 by the Germans, as he had been wounded. A few months later, as he accompanied his son to register with the French police, he was detained. He never returned home and was deported to Auschwitz the following year.

On 10 May 1941 alone, nearly 4,000 Jewish men were arrested. On 16 and 17 July 1942, in what became known as the Rafle du Vélodrome d’Hiver (the Velodrome d’Hiver Roundup), 13,152 Jewish people were arrested and held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver in the centre of Paris and in the nearby Drancy internment camp. They were then sent by railway transports to Auschwitz for extermination.

Later the son discovered that his father had been in Convoi numero 6, which left Paris for Auschwitz on 17 July 1942. In total, 76,000 Jews were deported from France.

Retrospectively, as one follows