Louise Béatrice Reinach (9 July 1894–1945) was a French

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

and a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

victim.

Biography

Born into the wealthy

Camondo family The Camondo family was a prominent European family of Judaism, Jewish financiers and philanthropists. History Part of the Sephardi Jews, Sephardic community in Spain, the Camondo family settled in Venice after the Alhambra Decree, 1492 Spanish ...

in the

16th arrondissement of Paris The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de T ...

, she was the daughter of Count

Moïse de Camondo Count Moïse de Camondo (15 March 1860 – 14 November 1935) was an Ottoman Empire-born French banker and art collector. He was a member of the prominent Camondo family. Biography As a child, Camondo moved with his family from their home in Cons ...

and Irène Cahen d'Anvers, both of whom were from prominent

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

banking families. One of two children, her older brother Nissim served as a fighter pilot during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and was killed in action in 1917. In 1918, Béatrice de Camondo married composer Léon Reinach (1893–1943), the son of

Théodore Reinach Théodore Reinach (3 July 186028 October 1928) was a French archaeologist, mathematician, lawyer, papyrologist, philologist, epigrapher, historian, numismatist, musicologist, professor, and politician. Academic career Educated at the Lycée Con ...

. They had the following children: # Fanny (born 26 July 1920 in Paris, murdered in 1943 at

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

) # Bertrand (born 1 July 1923 in Paris, murdered in 1943 at Auschwitz) On her father's death in 1935, Béatrice inherited a large fortune. Her father bequeathed his Parisian home, including its contents and a major collection of art, to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs to be used to create the

Musée Nissim de Camondo The Musée Nissim de Camondo is a historic house museum of French decorative arts located in the Hôtel Camondo at 63, rue de Monceau, on the edge of Parc Monceau, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. The nearest Paris Métro stops are Vi ...

in his son's honor. A convert to Catholicism, Béatrice felt safe in Paris after the Nazi occupation. Divorced from her Jewish husband Léon Reinach, she believed that her wealth and the influential people she rode horses with in the

Parc Monceau Parc Monceau () is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park covers an area of 8.2 hectares (20 ...

would shield her from being taken. In the Musée Nissim de Camondo, on the top floor, there is a letter from her ex-husband telling Béatrice to leave Paris with their son and daughter. However, she disregarded his advice. In 1943, under the

German occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Béatrice, her ex-husband and their two children were forcibly removed from Paris and taken to the

Drancy deportation camp Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban comm ...

north of the city. From there, they were subsequently deported to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, where they all were murdered. Her Aunt, Elisabeth Cahen d'Anvers (1874–1944), who had also divorced and converted to Catholicism was also imprisoned at

and died at KZ Auschwitz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reinach, Beatrice 1894 births 1945 deaths Beatrice Socialites from Paris French people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp French civilians killed in World War II Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism French Roman Catholics Drancy internment camp prisoners French Jews who died in the Holocaust