Joël Nommick

Joël Nommick was born on December 30, 1942 in Mâcon, France to Jean Nommick and Agnes née Serman. Jean and Agnes were both born in the Russian Empire and spent their early years in what is today Estonia. Joël’s parents had known each other growing up and married in Paris after immigrating there in the 1920s. By 1931, Jean and Agnes had two sons, Bernard (b. 1929) and Serge (b. 1931). They moved to the village of Thoissey (Ain) near Mâcon. In Thoissey, the family owned and operated two successful businesses, a tannery and a factory which manufactured fur coats.

German forces invaded France on May 10, 1940. After Nazi Germany defeated France in June 1940, the country was divided into two main administrative zones. The northern part of France, including Paris, was the German occupied zone, while the southern part of the country was the unoccupied or free zone. A French dictatorship, known as the Vichy regime, technically governed almost all of France, but in reality, the Vichy government had limited power outside of the unoccupied zone. Vichy officials enacted numerous anti-Jewish laws, which affected the Nommicks. 

In June 1941, Jean was falsely accused by an individual who had worked for the Nommicks' business of being a thief who stole both the tannery and fur coat factory. Jean was arrested, sent to several jails and later to Le Vernet d’Ariège, an internment camp run by Vichy authorities in the Pyrenees. He was eventually released and sent to a military hospital in Toulouse where his family was able to visit him. Jean was transferred to Ax-les-Thermes, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains, near Spain. Agnes, now pregnant with Joël, along with Bernard and Serge followed.

Jean was arrested again in September 1942 and sent first to Drancy transit camp and from there to Auschwitz, where he was registered as prisoner number 66059 and required to perform forced labor. 

Following Jean’s arrest and deportation to Auschwitz, Agnes, Bernard, and Serge returned to their home village of Thoissey. Joël was born December 30, 1942, in neighboring Mâcon. The family lived in constant danger of discovery and relied on the help of their friends and neighbors to survive. Joël and his brothers were often kept close to home, as his mother worried about their safety. Their neighbors, the Thomassons, took great personal risk by helping Joël’s family obtain food.

Jean spent time in eight different prisons, military hospitals, and concentration camps including Drancy, Auschwitz, Mittelbau, and Bergen-Belsen. After he was liberated from Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, Jean wrote a letter to the family saying they would be reunited soon, however he never returned. A letter from the British Red Cross informed them that Jean was last seen traveling towards Russia, but they spent decades without knowing his exact fate. The most likely conclusion is that Jean never left Bergen-Belsen and died there soon after liberation.

In the summer of 1955, a stranger in his thirties rang the doorbell looking for Joël’s father. When Joël told him that his father had died, the man began crying. This man had been traveling to the South of France on vacation when he passed their village and remembered that the Nommick family lived there. The man explained that he had been sent to Auschwitz during the war for being a Communist and contracted typhus. It was with the help of Joël’s father and a Jewish Hungarian doctor that he was able to hide and recover from his illness. Meeting this man allowed Joël to have more insight into his father’s life while in the camps.

Growing up, Joël rarely attended synagogue, except during the High Holidays. He believes the experiences his family went through shaped his mother’s attitude towards Judaism. In 1980, he finally had a Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem at the Western Wall. Joël Nommick ran several eyewear design businesses and lived in France until 1972. Joël and his wife reside in Washington, D.C. and he volunteers at the Museum.