Jean Rozinoer 1920 - 1943

Born 27.6.1920 in Paris
Died 29.6.1943 in Mauthausen

Biography

As a young medical student, still single, during the Second World War Jean Rozinoer lived with his parents at 280 rue Vaugirard in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. On 11 January 1940 he took part in a student demonstration which led to his arrest and a summons before a Paris court. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Having been held at the La Santé prison, on 11 April 1941 he was transferred to the Prefecture of Police and released at the end of his sentence.

After this, now a junior doctor, he was in charge of the medical corps of the Francs-tireurs et Partisans (FTP for short) for greater Paris, in which role he organised the recruitment of medical personnel and the creation of medical camps. After Henri Chrétien took over his post in July 1942, Jean Rozinoer went to Seine-et-Marne, where he was again put in charge of the medical corps of the FTP. At the same time he took part in armed resistance.

On 27 August 1942 he was arrested by Brigadier Gaston Pautot and by a gardien de la paix (guardian of the peace), Léon Gauche, when he and his group arrived at the Blériot works in Suresnes. They were there to protect a demonstration whose aim it was to encourage the workers to work more slowly, thereby sabotaging aeroplane production for the German army.

As was his custom, Rozinoer was carrying a revolver and a submachine gun hidden in his doctor’s bag. This led his comrades in the FTP to call him ‘Doctor Parabellum’. At the time of his arrest he was already a wanted man for the murder of two police officers and a German soldier, killed when a FTP camp had been discovered in the Fontainebleau woods on 11 August 1942. In the rooms of the special brigade of the Police Presidium he met Paul Tillard, who had been arrested in Paris that same day. He remained silent under torture. The next day he was locked up and on 24 September 1942 he was handed over to the Germans; he found himself back in the La Santé jail. On 21 October 1942 he was transferred to the Fort de Romainville and was registered under prisoner number 1032 as a Jew. In the fort the prisoners set up an underground organisation, which not only fostered solidarity through distributing food parcels but was also making plans for a breakout.

Jean Rozinoer, Léon Parouty and a certain Carasso were charged by the underground organisation, led by Norbert Cassedanne, Charly Villard, Raoul Sabourault, Poirier and headed by Octave Rabaté, to scout the possibilities for escape. Since he was not in solitary confinement could move around freely, Jean Rozinoer assiduously reconnoitred the fort. On 31 December 1942 the first escape attempt took place: Jean Rozinoer initially managed to escape but was rearrested a short time later, while Léon Parouty was seized while still in the moat.

In Romainville Rozinoer was classified as a Sühneperson (literally: atonement person). Since 30 August 1942, in accordance with a notice sent by the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Commander of the Security Police and SD, or BdS for short), the Fort de Romainville had become a collection point for hostages from the Paris region, among them men to be selected for execution by firing squad. This notice, signed by the head of Department IV (Gestapo) of the BdS in France, SS Sturmbannführer Broemelburg, ordered that those registered in Romainville under the category Sühneperson were to be deported under the Nacht-und-Nebel (‘Night and Fog’) decree as soon as their number reached 200, since any more than this would endanger the security of the fort. The Sühneperson inmates were handed over as Nacht-und-Nebel prisoners to the Gestapo, who organised their deportation. The Gestapo changed the status of these ‘dangerous elements’ from ‘hostage’ to ‘protective custody prisoner III’ and deported them to Mauthausen.

On 1 April 1943, Jean Rozinoer was sent off with 55 others prisoners in the last of the three transports of ‘ex-hostages’. After a stop in Trier, he arrived in Mauthausen on 4 April 1943. In the concentration camp he was assigned prisoner number 25656. Pierre Serge Choumoff, who was deported at the same time, gives a detailed description of the first moments after arrival at the camp:

The Schreiber (clerk) ‘had noticed that Tillard was a Schreiber and called him over to examine the papers that had arrived and to assign us to Blocks based on the transport papers. Normally this would have been done by the clerks’ office, who would then have passed the papers on to the Block. But this time it was different, he had kept hold of the documents. Tillard, who had already been there since the morning, hardly spoke any German but could write it; we parted.

At lunch, when they gave out the soup, we saw each other again and he said to me: “I’ve erased your name”. That meant he had got rid of the designation “Jew”. For Rozinoer, however, this designation was on his transport papers or on the ID cards he had on him. For my part, this designation, which had been added by the commandant of the camp before our departure, was written in pencil. Therefore he could erase it. I, who had no idea, couldn’t know at this time whether any other such documents existed.

During the first weeks and even during the first months, I kept thinking that other documents would turn up. But there was no sign of them; we saw nothing at all. Two, three other comrades knew about it but the first I told was Rozinoer.

Shortly after our arrival – in accordance with that special fate awaiting those prisoners registered as Jews at that time, before they were murdered sooner or later – he was put in Block 5, the one designated for Jews. On 29 June 1943 Jean Rozinoer was shot by SS man Johann Bielski under the flimsy excuse that he had tried to escape.’

Jean Rozinoer was a member of the French Legion of Honour; he was posthumously awarded the Résistance Medal and the War Cross. On 19 October 1953 he was awarded the distinction Mort pour la France (Died for France) and the title déporté résistant (deported resistance fighter).

Adeline Lee

 

Sources:

Service historique de la Défense, Applications for the title of déporté resistant in process, MA 40/2, 40/3, 41/3, 42/3, 7/11, 11/3; CDJC, XLV-a46, XLVa-47, XLV-58, XLV-68.

Archives de l’Amicale de Mauthausen, pochette 451/2, document pour servir à la commission d’histoire de Mauthausen. Récit chronologique par Octave Rabaté, ancien membre du comité international de Mauthausen [Chronological narrative by Octave Rabaté, former member of the Comité International de Mauthausen].

 

References:

Jean-Marc Berlière/Franck Liaigre: Liquider les traîtres. La face cachée du PCF, 1941–1943 [Liquidate the Traitors. The hidden face of the PCF, 1941–1943] (Paris 2007).

Conseil général de Seine-et-Marne, Direction des Archives départementales/Office National des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre, Commission départementale de la Mémoire (ed.): 39–45 en Seine-et-Marne: des lieux, des hommes....[39–45 in Seine-et-Marne: the places, the men…] In: http://archives.seine-et-marne.fr/library/Memoires-documents_Deslieuxetdeshommes-pdf, accessed on 2.11.2015.

Thomas Fontaine: Recueil de témoignages d’anciens détenus du camp allemand du fort de Romainville, 1940–1944 [Testimonies taken from former detainees of the German camp at Romainville Fort, 1940–1944] (s.l., no date).

 

Thomas Fontaine: Les oubliés de Romainville, un camp allemand en France (1940–1944) [The forgotten of Romainville, a German camp in France (1940–1944)] (Paris 2005).

Translation into English: Joanna White

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