- Document ID: 9676153
- Document Collection: 1.1.5.7 Nummern-Namen-Kartei Buchenwald (Maenner)
- Link to Online Archive: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/9676153
Maurice GEZUNDHEIT
#polish
#jew
https://ressources.memorialdelashoah.org/notice.php?q=identifiant_origine:(FRMEMSH040870792502)
Maurice Gezundheit (Gezundhejt) was born on 01 11 1906 in Warsaw (Poland). He was the son of Chaim Gezundheit and Jenta née Ozerland. They lived at 52 rue d’Angoulême in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Maurice had a brother called Noé (who ran a medical analysis laboratory on Boulevard Magenta in Paris after the war). Maurice passed his baccalauréat in 1924 and went on to study at the Arts et Métiers. He then worked for his father ChaTm Zelman Gezundheit as a leatherworker. The workshop was located at 28 rue du Pressoir in Paris (he continued this activity after the war before working in his brother Noé’s laboratory). The family moved to 52 rue d’Angoulême in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Maurice did his military service in 1926. In 1939, he voluntarily enlisted in the Foreign Legion. Demobilised in Sainte Affrique (Aveyron) in June 1940, his wife Hélène urged him to stay in the free zone, but he refused and returned to Paris. He was arrested during the „billet vert“ roundup on 14/05/1941 and interned in the Japy gymnasium in the 11th arrondissement.
A policeman tells his wife Hélène that the internees will be sent to the Pithiviers camp in the Loiret region. Hélène regularly travelled to the outskirts of the camp to visit Maurice. Deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 17/07/1942 by convoy 6, Maurice was given the number 48956 and transferred to the camp’s masonry school (Maurerschùle) in Auschwitz I camp. His fellow prisoners were Léopold Mantel, Nuta Ejzenberg and Judka dit Jean Godfryd. In the summer of 1943, he learned that his wife Hélène, who had arrived on convoy 57 on 22/07/1943, had been interned in block 10, the experimental block. Maurice’s parents, arrested with Hélène on 18/02/1943, were deported without return, Jenta to Auschwitz on convoy 47 and Chaïm on convoy 53 to Sobibor. Maurice went on the death march from Auschwitz on 18/01/1945 to Gleiwitz. From there, he was taken by train to Buchenwald, where he arrived on 22/01/1945. He was given the number 118979. He was transferred to the Ordhruf camp on 27/01/1945. After a final death march, he arrived in Dachau on 27/04/1945, where he was liberated on 29 April by the American army. He was repatriated to France on 22/06/1945 via Mulhouse, the Gare d’Orsay and the Hotel Lutetia. He was reunited with his brother, who had joined the maquis. He married Hélène née Mrouz, a deported survivor of convoy 57. Maurice Gezundheit died on 01/01/1996 at Saint Antoine hospital in the 12th arrondissement of Paris.
USHMM Finding Aidhttps://convoisduloiret.org/deporte/gezundhejt-maurice/
Maurice Gesundheit, born in 1906 in Warsaw, Poland, discusses arriving in Paris in 1925; his parents were already living in Paris; at the declaration of war, he was a student; his father had been in Paris since 1900 and returned to Warsaw to marry; Maurice was born in Warsaw and his brother was born in France; the first round-up on 14th of May 1941 in the 11th arrondissement of Paris; he was then taken to Pithiviers; there was the notion that Pithiviers is not the worse, but the worse is yet to come; they were then deported to Birkenau in cattle wagons on the 23rd of July 1941; Birkenau was undergoing construction at the time of their arrival; the gas chambers and the crematoriums were still in construction; as Maurice describes, it was another world; there was a silence of death there; he began to work at the camp, transporting soil; he then had the opportunity to go to a building school where he would begin work as a bricklayer; briefly, Maurice had the chance to change his commando where he was told to begin work copying all of the names of the Jews who had died from a “heart attacks” (“crise cardiaque”); however, he was soon told to return to the building school where he continued to work as a bricklayer; Maurice was then transferred to Auschwitz where they were finally given the striped clothing; he stayed at Auschwitz until the evacuation in 1944; at Auschwitz, he was an instructor for building and bricklaying; in the “school,” he was with Gypsies of 12-13 years old, Ukrainians, Greek Jews, and Italians; most did not return; after the evacuation, the school was closed; Maurice also describes a selection process that took place of just the Jews; when a Jew was too weak to work or walk, he was placed in what they called the “himmel-commando” (the commando of the sky) and they were sent to the gas chambers; Maurice then continues to describe a regular day at Auschwitz (from morning till night); the building school existed until the end of 1944; at the end of January 1945, they were en route to Buchenwald; they eventually arrived at Buchenwald; they were liberated from Buchenwald in early April of 1945; Maurice describes the liberation and his subsequent return to Paris; on the return journey, they drove through Germany; he describes a handful interactions with local Germans; his wife, who was also deported, was very sick when she returned to Paris; he describes the process of regaining his apartment which had been given to a French chef for the Germans; Maurice had to undergo a legal process to get the apartment back; the population of Paris had various reactions to the return of the Jews; Maurice describes these reactions in detail; some Parisians were enthusiastic; others were not too pleased; finally, Maurice provides his perspective on the fate of future generations and the transmission of this event to those generations.
https://convoisduloiret.org/deporte/gezundhejt-maurice/
https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/ark:/40699/m0054caa2679c935