Nissim de Camondo

Nissim de Camondo (born August 23, 1892 in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris ; died September 5, 1917 in Emberménil , Meurthe-et-Moselle ) was a French officer, banker and air force pilot. The Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris is named after him, which his father, the banker Moïse de Camondo (1860–1935), founded in 1936 in his will in memory of his fallen son.

Life

Nissim de Camondo comes from a traditional Jewish banker family who, after being expelled from Spain in the 15th century, went to Constantinople via Venice, where they became court bankers. His mother was Irene Cahen d'Anvers (1872–1963). In the 19th century the family moved to France. After graduating from high school at the famous Lycée Janson , he began his military service in the 2ème régiment de Hussards in October 1911 and completed it in the 3rd régiment de hussards in November 1913 with the rank of maréchal des logis . This was followed by training as a banker at Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (today's BNP Paribas ).

The outbreak of World War I led to general mobilization in France on August 3, 1914. Nissim immediately took up arms. Over the next few years, he wrote to his father and sister Béatrice (who was murdered in 1945 with her family in Auschwitz ) about his experiences almost every day. Today, this correspondence is a valuable source of cultural and military history.

He first took part in the Battle of the Marne with his infantry regiment , and then got involved in trench warfare along the French Eastern Front . In 1915 he was promoted to sub-lieutenant and transferred to the 21st Dragoons Regiment. That year, an encounter with French Air Force pilots led Nissim to volunteer to fly, initially as an observer. After a short training period, he was assigned to the MF33 squadron in January 1916. During the Battle of Verdun and on the Somme , he managed to successfully complete important aerial photography missions, for which he was frequently mentioned in the army report. In July 1916 he was promoted to lieutenant , he now began pilot training and then flew combat missions. On September 5, 1917, he got into an aerial battle during a reconnaissance flight and was shot down near Emberménil (Lorraine). He suffered fatal injuries - 25 years old.

Nissim's body was buried by German troops in Avricourt . Only in October 1917 did his father Moïse de Camondo receive news of his death. In January 1919, he had the remains of his son transferred to the family vault in the Montmartre cemetery. After the death of Béatrice along with her husband and children, the family died out.

The family residence in Paris was bequeathed by Nissim's father in his will in his memory to the sponsoring association Les Arts Décoratifs , which has been running the Nissim de Camondo Museum there ever since.

Web links

• Curriculum vitae on the museum homepage
• Homepage of the museum