Yad Vashem Magazine Quarterly, Volume 46, Summer 2007

by Yehudit Shendar and Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg

I was in Juan-Les-Pins, near Villefranche, on

holiday with my mother, in 1939. We happened

to meet Mrs. Moore (who was my godmother) in

the street the day after war was declared. Mrs.

Moore said she was returning to the U.S. and would be glad

to take me with her, to which my mother gratefully agreed,

for my safety. I was handed over there and then, in my

bathing suit (and no clothes!)”

So related Valerie Kampf (née Page), in a letter to Yad

Vashem that recollects her placement, aged seven, with

Ottilie Moore. Valerie was a British citizen, while Ottilie

was a colorful American millionaire of German origin

who resided in Villefranche. Ottilie’s offer was accepted

with alacrity by Valerie’s mother, who was deeply concerned

about her daughter’s safety. She then returned to England,

where she became an officer in the WRENS (women’s

naval corps).

Valerie was the first child to find asylum on Moore’s

French estate, which soon became a haven for many other

refugees. Among them were Jewish orphans, pregnant

Jewish women, and the Grunwalds of Berlin—grandparents

of the young artist Charlotte Salomon—who had met

Mrs. Moore on one of their vacations and had moved to

the estate after Hitler’s rise to power. The Grunwalds had

been in Villefranche for some time when, in January of

1939, and under the pretext of visiting her sick

grandmother, Charlotte left Berlin and joined her

grandparents.

After the German occupation of France, Ottilie Moore

became increasingly worried about the children’s safety.

Despite immense difficulties, she succeeded in obtaining

visas to the U.S. for most of the youngsters under her

protection. In late September 1941, she packed 10 of her

charges into her luxury Ford station wagon—her daughter,

her nephew, Valerie Page, seven other children (six of

whom were Jewish), and her poodle, Martini. The older

children crowded together on the seats, with two babies

lying in cradles hung from the car ceiling, while towing

the huge load of suitcases behind. The trip took 10 days,

during which the travelers crossed the Spanish border and

continued on to Portugal. Mrs. Moore and the children

then set sail on the Excalibur, bound for the safe shores

of New York City.

In the period before the German occupation, and

enchanted with Otillie’s estate, Charlotte had painted the

villa and its fruit trees against a Mediterranean background.

Among the works that have survived from that period is

a portrait of eight-year-old Valerie, a stylistically austere

drawing that nevertheless conveys the tenderness and

affection that Charlotte felt for the child. A fine pictorial

line binds the young, withdrawn painter to the

bespectacled, lonely girl, in temporary exile from home

and family.

Charlotte and Valerie were fated never to meet again,

for Charlotte stayed behind in France. In 1943, she was

deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered at the

age of 26. The girl captured for posterity by Charlotte

Salomon is now one of the last witnesses able to tell us