Jews of the Somme

Raymond Schulhof

Raymond Schulhof organized a plan for his mother-in-law, Louise Levy, and two of his children, Gisèle and Pierre, to escape to the unoccupied zone but they were arrested just short of the line of demarcation, along with Mme Dubois, an acquaintance, not Jewish, from Amiens who had agreed to accompany them on this dangerous mission. Schulhof pleaded with the prefect of the Somme to use his influence to liberate his children from the camp of Pithiviers and his mother in law from the camp of Beaune-la-Rollande. Both appeals succeeded.  However, his attempt, as a representative of the Union Générale des Israélites de France (U.G.I.F.) to intervene on behalf of another child Jeanine Khaiete who had gone to school in Amiens but who had been arrested with her parents in Normandy, were not successful, and she and her parents were deported to Sobibor where they died. Schulhof, and his wife Fleurette, née Levy,  her mother Louise Levy, and an adopted child, Georges Hirsch were arrested in Amiens January 4, 1944 and deported to Auschwitz where all perished. Raymond and Fleurette’s three biological children escaped over the rooftops of Amiens. The poignant memoir of Ginette Hirtz, now deceased, is the most compelling piece of writing to date on the Schulhof family and the Shoah in Amiens in general. Les hortillonnages sous la grêle: Histoire d’une famille juive en France sous l'occupation (Mercure de France, Paris : 1982).