La Liste de Saint-Cyprien  is an amazing documentation of the circumstances and events surrounding the fate of more than 8,000 refugees living in Belgium following Germany's invasion of that country on May 10, 1940. On that same day, the Belgian authorities began their round up of the mostly German and Austrian Jewish refugees who had fled their countries in the wake of Hitler's increasingly anti-Semitic legislation.

The book focuses on 4,419 identified Jewish victims sent to the St. Cyprien camp near Perpignan, and includes a list of the deportees that provides names, dates and places of birth, last address in Belgium and the other camps to which they were sent. 

The author of La liste de Saint-Cyprien is Marcel Bervoets, who never got to know his father, Hans Tragholz, one of those deported on May 10, 1940. Marcel spent years researching this invaluable work, which unflinchingly outlines the facts and the role of the Belgian authorities in helping seal the fates of the deportees. No less descriptive is his account of the living conditions in the camp, supported by authenticated documents discovered by him while undertaking his research. Marcel's remarkable book also includes haunting personal testimonies contained in handwritten letters, notes and diaries.

NB: The book, written in French and deserving of translation into English, provides details of family members, including Adolf Drahos-Fleissig and Max Edelstein. Although their eventual fates remain unchanged, Marcel Bervoets has provided background, details and dates befitting a memorial. For this, www.aufrichtigs.com and www.rein-edelstein.com will always be grateful.