II.3/ Les pianos des familles juives de Paris au printemps 1945

Résumé 0

This presentation introduces the sources kept at the French National Archives regarding the pianos owned by Jewish families living in Paris. These documents bear witness to the musical culture present in every social background and neighborhood in the capital, from Rue de Belleville to the chic Avenue de Villiers. They also reveal that a large number of families sought to recover their instruments at the end of the war.The archives of the Restitution Service include a series of files and dossiers on reclaimed pianos. On April 11, 1945, the publication Combat announced that the inventory of pianos that had been stolen and abandoned by the Germans would be complete around April 20. Interested parties were invited to submit to the Restitution Service, located at 17 Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris’ second district, a complete description of their pianos, including the brand and serial number if possible, and to prepare to provide proof of their claim. The Pianos Unit, directed by first Georges André then by M. Crottier-Combe, carefully studied the subsequent influx of letters, then arranged visits at Booth 63 of the Paris Fair, held inside the Palm House in the Jardin d’acclimatation, or at the Palais de Tokyo. This collection of letters, most of which were written in the spring of 1945, reveals the desperate hope of families who had spent the past five years in torment to find their instruments, even as they anxiously awaited news of their deported loved ones.These documents are exceptional for several reasons. Because they could be identified by brand and serial number, the pianos were the only type of valuable property that was returned to its rightful owner in a systematic way. They provide unique insight into the intimate and familial universe that existed before the Holocaust. Once they were returned to their original apartments, they were sometimes the family’s only items that had survived the war.