Claire Monis (10 February 1922 – 25 October 1967) was a French singer, actress, and lieutenant in the French resistance. She was aHolocaust survivor as a member of theAuschwitz Women's Orchestra. AfterWW2, Claire was a producer of movies and TV shows.
Monis was born on 10 February 1922 inthe 10th arrondissement of Paris.[1] Her parents, Avroum (alias Albert) Monis, a theatre bellman,Klezmer clarinet and accordion player, a cabinet maker, and Suzanne Aisenstein, originally from Russia, emigrated to France beginning of the 20th century, fleeing the anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia. They married[2] on 7 May 1921 in the18th arrondissement of Paris and obtained French citizenship in 1928 with their two daughters.[3][4] The couple set up as furniture merchants with the sign "Aux Galeries Saint-Maur", which later became a cabinetmaking shop "Les Meubles Monis".
Advertisement "Aux Galeries Saint Maur" with the name of M. Monis
In 1938, Monis won the "music-hall des jeunes", a competition organized by the French federation of communist youths, which led her to take part withPierre Dac in the youth gala.[5] In addition, she took part in radio concerts, notably inCharles Trenet's program for the Radio Cité station,[6] withÉlyane Célis [fr] andAndré Perchicot[7] She also sang in the cinema where she played the role of "Clarita" in the film "Je chante", a musical comedy directed in 1938 byChristian Stengel withCharles Trenet.[8][9][10]
Monis sang in Parisian cabarets: withJacques Pills at the cabaret "Chez Elle",[11] at "La Boîte à Sardines";[12] described as a "swing singer", she hosted the evenings of the cabaret "Au Normandy".[13] She participated, notably withPaul Meurisse andMarguerite Gilbert [fr], in the grand opening gala of the cabaret " À la Cave de la Cloche ".[14] She also participated in the programme of the cabaret " L'Écrin ", 19 rue Joubert Paris 9e, withLéo Marjane, Jacqueline Figus and Jean Solar.[15]
Grave of Claire Monis at Cemetery of BagneuxExtract death act for Claire Monis 1967
Monis was a Resistance fighter in the Free French Forces (FFL) and the Fighting French Forces (FFC) within the Robin-Buckmaster network[16] created byJacques Weil [fr] and of which she was the secretary. She used her singing tour (song order and word changes) to inform her network.
List of songs for Claire Monis
She was arrested on 22 June 1942[17] at 6, place du Combat in Paris, and sent toFresnes prison, then interned on 10 September 1942 at the Autun citadel in theSaône-et-Loire department.
She declared herself to be non-Jewish and tried in vain to obtain a Catholic baptism certificate. Still, the new director of the status of Jewish people (under the general commissariat for Jewish questions), Emile Boutmy, demanded her father's birth certificate, which was impossible to provide. As a result, Monis was classified as "100% Jewish",[18][19] on 22 December 1943. She was sent to theDrancy camp where she left 100 francs[20] at theCaisse des Dépôts et Consignation before being deported to Auschwitz[21] by convoy no. 66 on 20 January 1944. She was 21 years old. She escaped the extermination after being recruited into the Auschwitz women's orchestra as a singer in the orchestra led byAlma Rosé.[22][23][24] There she met other French women, includingHélène Rounder [fr] and Fanny Ruback, who also survived. All the survivors were transferred on 31 October 1944 to theBergen-Belsen camp, where they arrived on 2 November 1944. The camp was liberated on 15 April 1945 by theBritish army. Monis was repatriated by truck on 17 May 1945 to Paris. She obtained her certificate as part of the French Fighting Force with the rank of Lieutenant of the French Resistance.[25]
Monis met Charles-Henri Kahn (1915-1999) in 1945 at a Gaullist rallye and married him in 1947 inthe 8th arrondissement of Paris. From this marriage two children were born, one of whom wasPhilippe Kahn in 1952. They were separated in 1957 and divorced in 1961. Monis raised her son Philippe alone. He was granted the status of the "ward of the Nation", after her death, thanks to Monis’s anticipation.
Monis pursued her career as a violinist and singer (classical, klezmer, and jazz) and frequently received her friends from the Resistance (such asJacques Weil [fr]) and musicians around the family piano. She played withLuis Mariano in 1948 in the operetta Andalousie byFrancis Lopez at theGaîté-Lyrique,[30] and performed the role again in 1949 and 1950 in Lyon.[31]
Monis then became a producer atORTF andRadio France. After several trips to Canada and the United States, she turned to production with television series and movies
Monis was hit by a car in front of her parents' shop at 11 Rue du Faubourg du Temple, at11th arrondissement of Paris. She died a few days later as a result of this accident, on 25 October 1967 at her home in the16th arrondissement of Paris.[34] She was buried on 27 October 1967 in the Parisian cemetery of Bagneux.[35] The words "Mort pour la France" were added to her death certificate in 1977.[36][37]
^La fédération des jeunesses communistes de France vous invite au gala de la jeunesse - du music-hall :Pierre Dac, le roi des loufoques et Claire Monis, in le quotidienL'Humanité, édition du 23 novembre 1938.
^Radio-Cité, le poste le plus écouté, vous offre ce soir, in le quotidienL'Intransigeant, édition du 27 juin 1938.
^"Faire une recherche - Mémoire des hommes".Memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr. Service historique de la Défense, Vincennes GR 16 P 426327 - Service historique de la Défense, Vincennes SHD/ GR 28 P 11 78. Retrieved2021-04-16..
^Eischeid, Susan (25 June 2016)."The Truth about Fania Fénelon and the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz-Birkenau". Springer. p. 43.ISBN978-3-31931-038-1.
^Dunicz Niwińska, Helena (2013)."Ones of the Girls in the Band, Museum Auschwitz Birkenau". Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. p. 102.ISBN978-8-37704-057-7.
Fania Fénelon and Marcelle Routier.Playing for Time. Translated from the French by Judith Landry. Atheneum New York 1977.ISBN0-689-10796-X.
Eischeid, Susan."The Truth about Fania Fénelon and the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz-Birkenau". Stock, 1976 - then Palgrave MacMillan New York 2016.ISBN978-3-31931-038-1
Fania Fénelon and Marcelle Routier.Sursis pour l'orchestre. Témoignage recueilli par Marcelle Routier. Co-édition Stock/Opera Mundi. Paris 1976.ISBN0-689-10796-X.
Esther Bejarano and Birgit Gärtner.Wir leben trotzdem. Esther Bejarano--vom Mädchenorchester in Auschwitz zur Künstlerin für den Frieden. Herausgegeben vom Auschwitz-Komitee in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [We Live Nevertheless] e.V. Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag Bonn, 2007.ISBN3-89144-353-6
Esther Bejarano,Man nannte mich Krümel. Eine jüdische Jugend in den Zeiten der Verfolgung. Herausgegeben vom Auschwitz-Komitee in der Bundesrepublik e.V. Curio-Verlag Hamburg 1989.ISBN3-926534-82-6
Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley,Alma Rosé. Vienna to Auschwitz. Amadeus Press Portland Oregon 2000.ISBN1-57467-051-4
Gabriele Knapp,Das Frauenorchester in Auschwitz. Musikalische Zwangsarbeit und ihre Bewältigung. von Bockel Verlag Hamburg 1996.ISBN3-928770-71-3
Violette Jacquet-Silberstein and Yves Pinguilly,Les sanglots longs des violons... Avoir dix-huit ans à Auschwitz. Publié par les éditions Oskarson (Oskar jeunesse) Paris 2007. Previously published with the titleLes sanglots longs des violons de la mort.ISBN978-2-35000-162-3
Jacques Stroumsa.Violinist in Auschwitz. From Salonica to Jerusalem 1913-1967. Translated from German by James Stewart Brice. Edited by Erhard Roy Wiehn. Hartung-Gorre Verlag. Konstanz (mentions Julie Stroumsa)
Mirjam Verheijen.Het meisje met de accordion: de overleving van Flora Schrijver in Auschwitz-Birkenau en Bergen-Belsen. Uitgeverij Scheffers Utrecht 1994.ISBN90-5546-011-7
Rachela Zelmanowicz Olewski.Crying is Forbidden Here! A Jewish Girl in pre-WWII Poland, The Women's Orchestra in Auschwitz and Liberation in Bergen-Belsen. Edited by Arie Olewski and his sister Jochevet Ritz-Olewski. Based on her Hebrew testimony, recorded by Yad-Vashem on 21 May 1984. Published at the Open University of Israel 2009.ISBN978-965-91217-2-4
