SELECTIONS FROM THE WARTIME DRAWINGS OF MAURICE THOREL AND Z. CARPENTIER, 1941-1944

The German occupiers moved with great swiftness in the Somme to impose their program of Jewish exclusion. The French civil administration was counted on to implement the various measures (registration, economic aryanisation). Prefects like Emile PELLETIER (1940-1942) did not slow walk the aryanisation program as one writer has puzzlingly maintained, but were obediently aware of the urgency that the Germans attached to these measures and insisted that subordinates follow suit.

The removal of all Jewish influence from the economic life of the country was a stated goal. In late 1940, within months of the Armistice, Jewish businesses were placarded encouraging a boycott. However, this was only the opening gambit. An overall goal was to transfer businesses from Jewish to non-Jewish hands. French civilians were appointed by the Prefect and assigned to manage the transfer of specific enterprises. A meeting at the Prefecture on January 10, 1941, attended by the German military representative Dr. BAUCH, was called to address questions that these managers, known as “commissaires gerants,” might have about the process. Dr. BAUCH insisted that the businesses were to be sold or liquidated whether the Jewish owner agreed to it or not. Once a business was under the administration of a commissaire gerant the boycott placard was removed and replaced with a new one urging patrons to return.

The aryanisation of Jewish businesses was underway for about year in the Fall of 1941, when it was determined that buildings and other property owned by Jews should also be sold. It was not proposed to sell the building in which the Jewish proprietor was living (though see “Case Studies”) but rather rental properties (“maisons de rapport”). With this in mind, the process of hiring “Provisional Administrators,” again from the ranks of the French civilian population, was begun. They would act as real estate agents for the disposal of the individual properties. It was also necessary to appoint an appraiser of the properties to help set the price at which they would be advertised for sale. On October 11, 1941, the architect Maurice THOREL was offered and accepted the position. In December 1941, Mr. Z. CARPENTIER another local architect joined THOREL in this work. They were paid a stipend for each property appraised. Their first appraisals were of properties belonging to the President of the Jewish Community Association and Founder of the Synagogue, Leon LOURIA, on December 12, 1941. The appraisals then continued through 1944 and included properties throughout the Department including in coastal towns like Ault, Cayeux-sur-Mer, Brighton-sur-Pins, Mers-les-Bains, and le Crotoy. At each stop, the architects would file a detailed report on the structure and condition of the property and estimate its value. They also provided a signed and dated architectural drawing of the property.

We have arranged the images in chronological order depending on the dates on the drawings. Though in a number of cases the microfilmed and digitized version of the drawings is disappointingly pale, I like these documents as a kind of visual shorthand of the “aryanisation” process. For clearer exhibition, the originals could be re-photographed from the original paper records of AJ 38 at the Archives Nationales at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine. Other documents would no doubt also serve in their own way: for instance, newspaper ads for the properties indicating “Jewish building for Sale” (“Vente d’Immeuble Israelite”) or signed statements in individuals’ hands asserting, as a condition of purchase, that they had “no members of the Jewish race in their family background.” However, I invite the reader to click through this display as a quick tour of some stops along the road of aryanisation in the Somme. Other documents relating to aryanisation may be found on this site at the following links as of 9/2021:

Minutes of the Meeting of Commissaires Gerants at the Prefecture, January 10, 1941

http://www.jewsofthesomme.com/appropriating-jewish-properties