One of the unique and emotional documents found in our collections is the diary from Nice, France, which was written in hiding while the war was raging, and directly describes Jewish life under the Nazi occupation in southern France during the last year of the war.
During the war, France was divided into three regions after the German invasion. Northern and western France were under German occupation. Vichy France, in the centre, was under the administration of the Nazi-collaborator Marshal Petain’s puppet government. The southeast of France was under the dominance of the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, an ally of Hitler. Nice was a part of the latter region.
Despite the fact that the Italian fascists collaborated with the Nazis, the persecution of the Jews under their control was not as severe as in the German occupied areas, and many Jews, among them many well-known figures, fled to Nice and its surroundings, where they hoped to stay until the danger passed. Among the refugees was Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Rubinstein z”l, the head of the Paris Beit Din (Jewish court), who grew up in the realms of Kotzk and Lomza Chassidism. With him was Rabbi Yisrael Yehoshua Meirowitz z”l, a prominent Ger chassid, who as a child had the privilege of seeing and being blessed by the great Sfat Emet rabbi.
The experiences of Rabbi Rubinstein z”l, combined with translated sections from his diary written in Nice, were skillfully compiled into the book “The Rabbi of Paris,” by the Chassidic researcher Rabbi Shmuel Albert of Bnei Brak.
Upon the defeat of fascist Italy by the Allies and the deposition of Mussolini, Nice was occupied by the Germans who applied the laws of the Third Reich. The many Jews who fled there suddenly became fatally endangered and were forced to go into hiding for fear of being caught and sent to the Drancy camp near Paris and from there to Auschwitz, which indeed occurred to the 2,000 Jews who were caught in the city.
The fear and horror of trying to survive in the shadow of the Nazis was recounted by Rabbi Yisrael Yehoshua Meirowitz z”l in the diary he kept throughout the period, from which emerge fascinating and unknown details about the lives of the Jews in Nice and then in Lyon to which he fled until the end of the war.
In the preface to the diary, the author wrote briefly about its contents: “Nice, in the Valley of Tears in hiding. The story of the Jewish troubles that occurred to them in Nice and later in the city of Lyon, from the third day of the Torah portion of Ki Teitzei in the year 5705, September 3rd, 1943, until the day that we the Jews await, the day of G-d’s salvation that will happen in the blink of an eye. And the Jews will be saved from Nice among the rest of the Jewish nation, amen. Yisrael Yehoshua Halevi Meirowitz, Warsaw – Mlawa – Paris.”
On the day of the upheaval, when the Germans took over Nice, he wrote with strong emotions: “Military equipment, cars with soldiers, and officers are travelling at a great speed, non-stop, in the direction of the Italian border. There is no sign of the guard who stood permanently at the corner of Avenue de la Victor and ensured public order. You can already see many German soldiers. A revolution that occurred overnight. I finally arrive at the synagogue. A big change is noticeable compared to yesterday. The prayer is quickly finished. Mostly in private. The public is nervous. The committee is no longer in the synagogue. It has moved to the Crystal Hotel. Be careful! I leave the synagogue in a bad mood and go to my friend Rabbi Rubinstein. The same situation there, everyone asks: What next?…”
One of the most moving and difficult passages to read describes the moment when Rabbi Meirovitz was forced say goodbye to his young children in order to send them into hiding: “Finally the historic moment comes when we say goodbye to each other. I will never forget it… I am unable to utter a word out of grief… They understand the situation and understand the tragedy we are in! It has been five years since they have seen their mother and sisters. They have no idea what happened to them! Now they are also being taken away from their father and older brothers without being able to even correspond with them, and for how long?…”
On Saturday night, the 5th of Shvat 5704 (January 29th, 1944), he wrote in his diary his thoughts and memories about the Gerrer Rebbe, the Sfat Emet, whose yahrzeit (anniversary of death) fell on that evening. “Today is the yahrzeit of the Gerrer Rebbe, the Sfat Emet, and I remember when I was a child and I visited him and what he wished for me, and before my eyes the whole period passes until this day. How the general situation of the Jews looked then versus how it looks today is very sad. Master of the Universe! Let it be enough already! May the merits of the Gerrer Rebbe assist the People of Israel…”
Ten days after this, on the holiday of Tu B’Shvat, he detailed in his diary the historic event of the expulsion and deportation of the Jews of Monaco, which is close to Nice, along with testimony regarding shellings: “Yesterday, they again took 58 Jews from Monte Carlo…darkness in the city, you don’t see a living soul in the streets. Everyone is hidden. Today, for the first time, the city of Nice was attacked from the air. Three alarms were heard before noon. The shooting does not stop. It is reported that the battle is between sea and air forces and that two planes were shot down…”
The moving diary from Nice is another one of our archival assets which will be displayed in the future museum. The diary, which was written in Yiddish, has been fully translated into Hebrew and will G-d willing be published by Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, through the assistance of Rabbi Shmuel Albert.
