Bar Mitzvah of Chiel Mendel Melman in Paris, wearing a
yellow star, in a synagogue on the rue
Notre Dame de Nazareth.
Chiel Mendel Melman (now Max Melman) is the son of Abraham Yitzchak and
Bracha Goldblum Melman. He was born on 11 Jul 1929 in Ozarow, Poland
where his father made a living as the owner of a grocery business. Max
was educated at a cheder until he left Poland at the age of seven. In
the early thirties, the Jewish community endured numerous anti-Semitic
attacks. The deteriorating situation led Max's father to leave for Paris
in 1932. There he lived with his wife's sister-in-law and opened a
wholesale tailoring business. By 1937 he was sufficiently established to
bring over his family. After moving to Paris, Max was sent to public
school, which he attended until June 1942.
The Melmans remained in Paris after the German occupation, though many
of their relatives fled to Vichy. Beginning in the spring of 1941 with
the deportations of foreign-born Jews, the family's situation
deteriorated quickly. For a time, Max's father was forced to leave home
every evening to avoid arrest. In June 1942, just ten days after the
decree was issued requiring Jews to wear the yellow star, Max had his
Bar Mitzvah at the rune Notre Dame de Nazareth synagogue.
Three weeks after the Bar Mitzvah, on July
16, nearly 13,000 Parisian Jews were seized from their homes and
interned in the Velodrome d'Hiver. Fortunately, the Melmans were tipped
off beforehand and were able to find refuge during the most dangerous
period in the home of their concierge. When the situation finally calmed
down, the family returned to their apartment, where they remained until
the end of 1943. For three months of this period, Max and his sister
were hidden separately from their parents in the home of a French woman
outside Paris. They were so unhappy there, however, that they ran away
and rejoined their parents in Paris. From the end of 1943 until August
1944, the Melmans were hidden with two branches of the Castera family in
Versailles.
Following the liberation, the Melmans returned to Paris, where they had
to wait another two years before being able to repossess their
apartment. Max went to work with his father in the tailoring business.
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