Inside of the concentration camps of the Second World War, there were many people who found
themselves inside of the barbed wire fences.
The camps were true hell on earth, and even a princess succumbed to the conditions of
an SS camp.
People came from all walks of life, and mass deportations took thousands of people each
day to sites such as Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbruck and Auschwitz.
Inside these camps SS guards such as Irma Grese, Elizabeth Volkenrath and commandants
such as Rudolf Hoess would brutalise and commit horrific crimes against humanity.
Thousands were executed and millions were exterminated, and the Nazis did not care about
the backgrounds of these people.
There were some parts of concentration camps which were reserved for high ranking prisoners,
or those who the Nazis believed were worth a prisoner swap.
But sadly many of those people still succumbed to the diseases and pestilences which were
rife at camps within the Third Reich.
There was one woman who belonged to a family that during the 19th century possessed the
largest private fortune in the world, and a family which were considered the richest
in world history.
Elisabeth de Rothschild belonged to the Rothschild family, but inside of Ravensbruck concentration
camp she was brutally executed.
Elisabeth de Rothschild was born in Paris as Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure.
Her family were a very wealthy Catholic one who emerged from the Burgundy region.
She was from good military heritage, as one of her ancestors including a general in the
Napoleonic wars.
She was known as Lily and was the daughter of August Pelletier de Chambure, who was the
Mayor of a small commune in south western France.
As mentioned her family were wealthy, but in 1923 Elisabeth married Jonkheer Marc Edouard
Marie de Becker -Remy, who was a Belgian aristocrat.
They did have a son named Edouard who was born a year after their marriage.
But then Elisabeth had an affair, and she slept with Philippe de Rothschild, a member
of the Rothschild banking dynasty, who was also a Grand Prix motor racing driver and
a bit of a wealthy playboy.
The Rothschild family throughout history have been considered to have been some of the wealthiest
people ever to have walked the earth.
They were a jewish family originally from Frankfurt who today still possess huge business
interests and have established a global enterprise.
Today their businesses cover real estate, mining, energy, and winemaking.
Philippe de Rothschild was the heir and owner of the Chateau Mouton Rothschild, the most
prestigious vineyards and wine estate in the world at the time.
Elisabeth slept with Philippe and they conceived a child, but at the time of this child’s
birth Elisabeth was still married to Jonkheer, and he even threatened to kidnap his wife’s
illegitimate child with Rothschild.
However Elisabeth would divorce Jonkheer in 1934, and then shortly after Elisabeth and
Philippe de Rothschild married that year in Paris.
But as Elisabeth married the Rothschild heir, she then converted from Catholicism to Judaism
and the religious ceremony was conducted by the Grand Rabbi of Paris.
Together the Rothschild’s also had a son named Charles Henri.
Philippe would describe their marriage as one of great passion, bu also enormous tempestuousness
and despair.
They seemed happy at times but there were also times of Great Depression and anger.
The couple’s problems got worse following the birth of their son who suffered from disabilities
and then died afterwards, and the pair then agreed to seperate around 1939.
But Elisabeth was a baroness through this marriage, and she then reverted back to using
her maiden name.
But at the time, the Second World War was breaking out and Europe was plunged into the
largest conflict that History had ever seen.
Hitler was invading a number of countries and he wished to expand his empire, and then
the invasion of France came.
It took in total 6 weeks for France to fall to the Germans, and then parts of the country
were placed under German and Italian military occupation.
German units pushed through the country and there were huge casualties, civilian and military
ones.
But on the 22nd June 1940 the Second Armistice and Compiegne was signed by France and Germany.
It wouldn’t be until 1944 that the country was once again liberated from Nazi control
by the Allies.
In France the Nazis also began to persecute the jews, and there were around 49 concentration
camps in use in France in which Jews were sent there.
Many were then sent on to camps such as Auschwitz where they were exterminated and killed as
soon as they arrived.
Jews were forced to wear the Star of David, and there were mass arrests.
The mortality rate of Jews was lower than in other occupied lands, and some did manage
to flee however ultimately the fates of those who were deported was a tragic and harrowing
one.
However following the German occupation of France, Elisabeth and her estranged husband
were captured and arrested by the Vichy government and their vineyard property and land was seized
along with all the wealth relating to it.
Following their interrogation, they were then released and Philippe did the smart thing
and left France to move to England.
Here he joined the Free French Forces and would support Charles De Gaulle in his actions,
however Elisabeth did not leave France.
In 1941, the Gestapo seed her and she was arrested on charges of attempting to cross
the line of demarcation with a forged permit.
This in a sense meant that she was trying to flee with false papers, but there was also
another rumour and story about her imprisonment.
It was said that in 1941 whilst attending Elsa Schiaparelli’s fashion show there she
showcased new seasonal designs, Elisabeth was sat next to the wife of the German Ambassador
to the Vicky government, Heinrich Otto Abetz.
However Elisabeth found this offensive, and then changed seats which was seen as a mark
of disgrace and it offended the wife of Heinrich Abetz.
Following this it’s said she was then arrested.
Following her arrest she was imprisoned at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.
This was an all female camp in which 132,000 prisoners would be housed inside of the barbed
wire fences.
It’s believed that up to 90,000 people were killed inside of Ravensburck, and the women
here were forced to live with horrific treatment on a daily basis.
They had to put up with psychopathic SS guards who would whip and beat them, and also turn
pistols on them and execute those who they didn’t believe were working hard enough.
One prisoner said, ‘We were to die of misery, hunger and exhaustion...when we arrived at
Ravensbrück, it was the worst.
The first thing I saw was a cart with all the dead piled on it.
Their arms and legs hanging out, and mouths and eyes wide open.
They reduced us to nothing.
We didn't even feel like we had the value of cattle.
You worked and you died.’
Whilst at Ravensburck, Elisabeth de Rothschild was simply just another prisoner to the SS
guards there.
She may have been persecuted due to her conversion to Judaism also, and this would not have also
helped her cause.
She may have been marked as a political prisoner too.
The true story of Elisabeth’s downfall and death and execution would be uncovered by
her estranged husband Philippe.
When he returned to France he learned that the Gestapo had deported his wife to Ravensbruck
in 1941 and that she had managed to survive there for a period of around 4 years.
However on the 23rd March 1943, she died within Ravensbruck.
It was claimed and reported that Elisabeth died from a huge typhus epidemic which was
sweeping through the female camp in the final days of the war.
This disease and pestilence was incredibly deadly, but Philippe her husband then made
an even more shocking claim about her execution.
When writing his memoir, he stated that Elisabeth was instead executed by being thrown into
the over at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp alive.
This would have meant she was taken to the crematoria, where guards would have forced
her into the ovens either under sedation or with her kicking and screaming.
The SS did have history in doing this, as a number of former SOE spies inside of a concentration
camp were injected with a sedative and then thrown inside of the crematoria alive.
Around this time in the war, the Nazis were evacuating mass transports of women, and many
were being forced on death marches where they were executed.
They tried to remove and kill s many prisoners as they could, and they would execute prisoners
on mass to wipe out any information of their crimes getting out.
It’s possible that Elisabeth’s reputation could have also led to her execution.
But during the Second World War, Elisabeth de Rothschild was the only member of the Rothschild
family to be executed or murdered in the holocaust and during the conflict.
She was a woman who fell in love with an incredibly wealthy French Baron and who was a member
of the hugely rich family that owned one of the most famous vineyards in France.
But Elisabeth was a woman who did experience difficulty throughout her life, losing a child
and also having to deal with a problematic first husband.
However she was sent by the Nazis to Ravsnebruck and it was within the barbed wire fences here
that she either succumbed to a deadly disease, or more horrifically was executed by being
burned alive in the crematoria.
Today her story is not the most well known, and it deserves to be told.
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