David Diamant papers

David Diamant is the pseudonym for David Erlich, born March 18, 1904 in Hrubieszow, Poland, into a family of 8 children, 4 of whom were deported or executed. His family was active in the Polish Communist Party and he became a member in May 1925. When he emigrated to France in the late 1920’s, he continued his political activities with the Party. Diamant was not called up for military service during WW II, but worked in the aeronautics industry. He distributed clandestine copies of the Party newspaper, L’Humanité and pasted small posters around the workplace. He refused to work in Germany twice during the Occupation. He was leader of a resistance group in the 10th arrondissement of Paris where he sent men to join the Francs tireurs et partisans and prepared young recruits to join the Resistance. With 2 other comrades, he organized the sabotage of glove production destined for the German army. At the beginning of the insurrection in August 1944, he joined the Communist Yiddish-language newspaper, Naïe Presse (Presse Nouvelle), to gather testimony. After the war, he was active in creating a benevolent association to help Jewish refugees from Poland. This became the UJRE and he was President. He also wrote several books in Yiddish, translated into French, concerning Jewish foreigners. Le billet vert refers to the green slip sent to notify non-French Jews that they were to report to the local police station. This was the first step in their transfer to the internment camps of Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers in the Loiret, near Orléans. He also wrote a book in homage to the Jewish Communist Resistance fighters active during WW II. For many years, he was also the Director of the Marxist Library of Paris in the 13th arrondissement.

Henri Bajtsztok (1922-1943) was born in either 1922 or 1923 in Livry-Gargan (Seine-Saint-Denis) or Warsaw (sources differ). He joined the Francs-tireurs et partisans (FTP) in 1941 and participated in missions against German military trains. He was arrested in June 1943 and executed in October.

Maurice Fingercwajg (Mojsze Fingercweig, 1923-1944) was born in Warsaw and raised in France. He joined the Jeunesse Communiste in 1940, the Jewish detachment of the Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d'œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI) in 1942, and worked on a derailment team under the command of Missak Manouchian. His father and two brothers were deported in 1942. Fingercwajg was arrested with Manouchian in November 1943, sentenced to death, and executed at Fort Mont Valérien in February 1944.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

David Diamant sold the David Diamant papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991.