Claire Monis (10 February 1922 – 25 October 1967) was a French singer, actress, and Lieutenant in the French resistance. She was a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

as a member of the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra. After

WW2 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 opposing ...

, Claire was a producer of movies and TV shows.

Family and childhood

Monis was born on 10 February 1922 in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. 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 on 7 May 1921 in the 18th arrondissement of Paris and obtained French citizenship in 1928 with their two daughters. The couple set up as furniture merchants with the sign "Aux Galeries Saint-Maur", which later became a cabinetmaking shop "Les Meubles Monis". Galerie Saint Maur

Singing career

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 with

Pierre Dac André Isaac (15 August 1893 Châlons-sur-Marne, France – 9 February 1975 Paris, France), better known as Pierre Dac, was a French humorist. During World War II, Pierre Dac was one of the speakers of the BBC's '' Radio Londres'' service to oc ...

in the youth gala. In addition, she took part in radio concerts, notably in

Charles Trenet Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet (; 18 May 1913 – 19 February 2001) was a renowned French singer-songwriter who composed both the music and the lyrics to nearly a thousand songs over a career that lasted more than 60 years. These include ...

's program for the Radio Cité station, with and

André Perchicot André Perchicot (August 9, 1888 – May 3, 1950) was a French cyclist who won the bronze medal at the 1912 UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Men's Sprint in Newark, New Jersey and the 1912 French National Track Championships. Biogr ...

She also sang in the cinema where she played the role of "Clarita" in the film "Je chante", a musical comedy directed in 1938 by Christian Stengel with

. Monis sang in Parisian cabarets: with

Jacques Pills Jacques Pills (born René Jacques Ducos; 7 January 1906, Tulle, France – 12 September 1970) was a French singer and actor. His impresario was Bruno Coquatrix. In 1959, Pills was the Monegasque entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 wit ...

at the cabaret "Chez Elle", at "La Boîte à Sardines"; described as a "swing singer", she hosted the evenings of the cabaret "Au Normandy". She participated, notably with

Paul Meurisse Paul Meurisse (; 21 December 1912 – 19 January 1979) was a French actor who appeared in over 60 films and many stage productions. Meurisse was noted for the elegance of his acting style, and for his versatility. He was equally able to pl ...

and , in the grand opening gala of the cabaret " À la Cave de la Cloche ". She also participated in the programme of the cabaret " L'Écrin ", 19 rue Joubert Paris 9e, with

Léo Marjane Thérèse Maria Léonie Gendebien, known by the stage name Léo Marjane (26 August 1912 – 18 December 2016) was a French singer who reached the peak of her popularity in the late 1930s and early 1940s before her career went into sharp decline ...

, Jacqueline Figus and Jean Solar.

Resistance and deportation

Monis was a Resistance fighter in the Free French Forces ( FFL) and the Fighting French Forces ( FFC) within the Robin-Buckmaster network created by and of which she was the secretary. She used her singing tour (song order and word changes) to inform her network. She was arrested on 22 June 1942 at 6, place du Combat in Paris, and sent to

Fresnes prison Fresnes Prison (''French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes'') is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (''maison d'arrêt'') of about 1200 cells, a small ...

, then interned on 10 September 1942 at the Autun citadel in the Saône-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", on 22 December 1943. She was sent to the

Drancy 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 com ...

where she left 100 francs at the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation before being deported to Auschwitz 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 by Alma Rosé. There she met other French women, including and Fanny Ruback, who also survived. All the survivors were transferred on 31 October 1944 to the

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

camp, where they arrived on 2 November 1944. The camp was liberated on 15 April 1945 by the

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. 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..

After the war

A book by Professor Susan Eischeid details the relationships between the survivors of the Orchestra, including the 1976 Fania Fenelon’s narrative, contradicted by those of ,

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (born 17 July 1925) is a German-British cellist, and a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. Family Lasker was born into a German Jewish family in Wrocław, Breslau, then Germany (present-day Wrocław, P ...

as well as Helena Dunicz-Niwińska.. Monis met Charles-Henri Kahn (1915-1999) in 1945 at a Gaullist rallye and married him in 1947 in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. From this marriage two children were born, one of whom was

Philippe Kahn Philippe Kahn (born March 16, 1952) is an engineer, entrepreneur and founder of four technology companies: Borland, Starfish Software, LightSurf Technologies, and Fullpower Technologies. Kahn is credited with creating the first camera phone, ...

in 1952. They were separated in 1957 and divorced in 1961. Monis raised his 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 as ) and musicians around the family piano. She played with

Luis Mariano Luis Mariano Eusebio González García (13 August 1914 – 14 July 1970), also known as Luis Mariano, was a popular tenor of Spanish origin who achieved celebrity in 1946 with "La belle de Cadix" ("The Beautiful Lady of Cadix") an operetta by ...

in 1948 in the operetta Andalousie by Francis Lopez at the Gaîté-Lyrique, and performed the role again in 1949 and 1950 in Lyon. After several trips to Canada and the United States, she turned to production with television series such as L'Inspecteur Leclerc in 1962, then Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoé in 1964-1965, Marcel Carné's Trois chambres à Manhattan in 1965 and Le Golem in 1966 with . Monis then became a producer at ORTF and

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: * France Inter — Radio France's " generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety o ...

Death

Monis was hit by a car in front of her parents' shop at 11 Rue du Faubourg du Temple, at 11th arrondissement of Paris. She died a few days later as a result of this accident, on 25 October 1967 at her home in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. She was buried on 27 October 1967 in the Parisian cemetery of Bagneux. The words "Mort pour la France" were added to her death certificate in 1977.Avis du Secrétariat d'Etat aux anciens combattants, décision N°100.348.99.205.EC du 21 février 1977

References

and Marcelle Routier. ''Playing for Time''. Translated from the French by Judith Landry. Atheneum New York 1977. . * Eischeid, Susan."The Truth about Fania Fénelon and the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz-Birkenau". Stock, 1976 - then Palgrave MacMillan New York 2016. *Fania Fénelon and Marcelle Routier. ''Sursis pour l'orchestre''. Témoignage recueilli par Marcelle Routier. Co-édition Stock/Opera Mundi. Paris 1976. . * 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'' e Live Neverthelesse.V. Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag Bonn, 2007. * 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. *Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley, ''Alma Rosé. Vienna to Auschwitz''. Amadeus Press Portland Oregon 2000. *

, ''Inherit the Truth. A Memoir of Survival and the Holocaust''. St. Martin's Press New York 2000. *Gabriele Knapp, ''Das Frauenorchester in Auschwitz. Musikalische Zwangsarbeit und ihre Bewältigung''. von Bockel Verlag Hamburg 1996. *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 title ''Les sanglots longs des violons de la mort''. *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. *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. * Helena Dunicz-Niwińska. "One of the Girls in the Band. The Memoirs of a Violinist from Birkenau". Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2021 . *Jean-Jacques Felstein. ''Dans l'orchestre d'Auschwitz - Le secret de ma mère''. Auzas Éditions Imago Paris 2010. * Bruno Giner. ''Survivre et mourir en musique dans les camps nazis''. Éditions Berg International 2011. * Laurent Joly. "Vichy dans la "solution finale"". Editions Grasset et Fasquelle. .

External links

"The Girls in the Auschwitz Band"
''thegirlsintheauschwitz.band'' (names of band members and some information). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monis, Claire 1922 births 1967 deaths Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz members World War II civilian prisoners Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors Jewish women musicians Jewish classical musicians French Resistance members 20th-century French women singers