In 2015, Harry GRYNBERG made the long trip from Australia to Amiens to tour the World War I battlefields and to look for some places that his father Maurice had written about or mentioned. When he visited Amiens, Harry was graciously received by Dr. Guy ZARKA, President of the Jewish Community. I asked Harry recently if he would be willing to share some of the documents he had mentioned in previous correspondence as well as some photographs.
The first document is a kind of report that his father wrote, straightforwardly describing in English some of his experiences and hardships before finally coming to Australia to join his family in 1947. Maurice GRYNBERG is an example of a number of Jews in Amiens before the Occupation, Polish (like Maurice) or Middle Eastern, whose documentary footprint in the Somme was light and who may easily escape notice . By the time of the German bombings in May 1940 and the Occupation, a number of Jews formerly living in the region, went (or as Maurice describes it “fled”) to other places. One puzzle for the reader surrounds his grim reference to his three years in CASTENET (Garonne).
Text transcribed from handwritten document:
M. Grynberg
Bridge Road
Richmond, Australia
GRYNBERG, Mordko, born February 1914 in SIEDLCE (Poland).
“ In 1932 I have passed my matriculation examination with success, after that I went to France for higher studies.
In 1934 I passed with success the examinations of Physics, Chemistry and Natural Science (P.C.N.) in the Preparatory School of Medicine and Pharmacy of AMIENS.
These P.C.N. studies consisted of all physical studies with practical laboratory exercises, all chemistry studies (inorganic and organic), with practical laboratory exercises.
Then in 1934 I began my medicine studies and until the war broke out I completed three years of medical studies.
In 1937 I became a sworn Interpreter in the Court of Appeal in AMIENS.
During the War I was employed as a chemist in an aeroplane factory named POTEX S.N.C.A.N. (Société Nationale de Construction Aeronautique du Nord) in MEAULTE (Somme) France.
My duties in the above factory were physical and chemical control of all supplies (raw material, apparatus), control of all machineries and also chemical analysis (quantitative and qualitative).
When in 1940 France was occupied by the Germans, the staff was discharged and I fled to the unoccupied territory (Vichy territory) and was forced to reside in the village [of] CASTENET (Haute Garonne).
During my three year stay in the above mentioned place, I experienced severe hardships.
On the 1st of October 1943, with the aid of the French underground movement, I crossed the Franco-Spanish border. I was 4 months in LERIDA, Spain, until the British Consulate in Barcelona gave me a certificate to enter Palestine.
In Palestine I worked from 1944 to the end of 1946 in [the] Rothschild Hospital, HAIFA, as male attendant and my duties were assistance in surgical theatre, first with ward duties and surgical massages.
On the 17th of January 1947 I came to Australia to join my family.
M Grynberg (signed)
In conveying scans of the photos and documents with permission to put them on this website, Harry Grynberg made the following observation:
“I have included a family photo from Marseille in 1939. Maurice's parents and younger brother received visas to Australia in 1939 and were on their way, I believe. Due to a pogrom that occurred in Brest, Poland in 1937, the Australian government provided 1000 visas for Jews to immigrate to Australia, which his family mostly took up. One married sister remained in Poland and perished in the Holocaust. Maurice presumably wanted to finish his studies. I don’t know whether the “school” photo was the medical school or the premed school, possibly the latter.” Harry Grynberg to David Rosenberg, April 29, 2021.
