Sponsorship card

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Dates

March 18, 1942 (indexed as 1942)

Level

item

Extent

Sponsorship card : Paper : Printed, Typed, Handwritten : Ink; Graphite Pencil : Blue, Black ; Ht: 5 in. x W: 4 1/4 in.

Scope & content

1 page, double-sided. Folded once horizontally. Logo at top right corner of a boy and girl looking up at a cross with an olive branch. Document is a sponsorship card from the Lyon branch of the Swiss Red Cross Relief for Children (Croix-Rouge Suisse Secours aux Enfants, trad.). Issued to Dorothée Berkowicz, born March 18, 1942 in Tarbes, France, living in Lyon. Her sponsor was Miss Silvia Ruffenacht in Koniz (Bern), Switzerland. Table at bottom of card shows that money was sent in March, April, and then from July until the following February (continued on verso). On verso, handwritten notations at centre: '75' and '500 francs'. Card is not dated, but probably refers to 1942 or 1943, as the Bercowicz family was no longer in Lyon by 1944. Narrative: Tuwja (Tuwyas, Tuwia, Tuvia, Tobias) Bercowicz (Berkowicz) was the father of the donor, Jack (Jacques) Berkowicz. Born in Vilna, Tuwyas immigrated to Belgium in 1933 and when Belgium fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, he fled to France, hoping to reach Morocco by boat from Marseilles. The donor's mother, Chana (Chane, Annie) (Trompeter) Berkowicz, born in Mielec, Poland, was living in Vienna, Austria with her parents and two sisters. In 1938, after the German annexation of Austria, the family fled, driving to France via Belgium. Tuwyas and Chana met in Lyon, France in 1941 and married. Their daughter Dorothée was born in 1942. The family attempted to flee France by boat in Marseilles, but were stopped by Vichy police. They fled Marseilles and went south, into the Pyrenees region, living in various small vilages. Their son Jack was born in Bernac-Dessus in 1944. The family survived the war and returned to Brussels from 1945-1948, and then immigrated to Canada with the help of the American Joint Distribution Committee. They were sponsored by Tuwyas' sister Luba, who was already living in Halifax. The Berkowicz family settled in Montreal.

Location

No place found in this description yet.

Locate this photo

Genre / form

textual record

In the picture

CertificateCharityChildDocumentHandwrittenLedgerLogoSealStampTableTypewrittenTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

JC.DÉLÉGATION:LYONCROIX-ROUGE SUISSESECOURS AUX ENFANTSCarte de Parrainage N° T 14133Nom BERKOWICZ DorothéeNé le 18.3.42. à TarbesAdresse 75 rue Rabelais LYON (Rhône)Adresse du parrain:Mlle Silvia RUFFENACHT Hangweg 14KONIZ (Berne)JanvierFévrierMarsAvrilMaiJuinJuilletAoûtSeptembreOctobreNovembreDécembreFiche N° 115 terRead automatically; may contain mistakes.

Language

French

Harvested

2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗2005_1_38.jpg