Vignette No. 1: In the Beginning
Allow me to introduce you to my family of origin: my father Samuel, my mother Sonia, my sister Alice, nine years older than me, and my brother Simon, seven years older, then me, of course. My siblings were born in Paris, as was I, in the 14th arroundissement. You who have been to Paris are likely to know that word, but if not, it’s a subdivision of Paris, analogous in some ways with a zip code, but it’s also an administrative area, having its own “city hall”, police station, etc.
Paris and its Arroundissements – Number 14 is where I was born
My parents migrated from Poland in 1926. I say “migrated” because they did not actually immigrate. They were allowed to enter because the French state needed workers in many kinds of occupations, due to the massive loss of men in WW1. In those days, the male of the house was the breadwinner. My father was a watchmaker, a skilled profession, but perhaps not quite what you imagine. The working part of a watch was manufactured in Switzerland and was purchased by the watchmaker, as were the other parts, the case, the wristband, etc. There was a neighborhood in Paris where one could buy the necessary parts, and all later assembled by the watchmaker.
Voila a photo of my parents in Warsaw: my mother on the left, my father on the right, and between them, two of my mother’s siblings.
Although I have no direct knowledge that having a profession, or at least a means of income, was necessary to be admitted into France, I believe it to be the case. There were already Polish (Jewish) watchmakers in France who had established a practice and owned watchmaking studios. These gentlemen needed artisans to extend their practice, and one such gentleman who knew my father in Poland invited him to come and work in his studio. That, and my father’s admiration for France, led him to cross the Atlantic, whereupon he brought his fiancée from Poland, and they were married in 1927 in Paris.
So far, so good. But my parents were not simply Poles, they were Jewish Poles. In Eastern Europe, Jews were second-class citizens or worse, depending on the country and the tenor of the time. But that had also generally been true almost anywhere in Europe, until the French revolution.