[CR] Background of Alex Singer

(Example: Framebuilding)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 11:17:39 -0800
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
To: Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net>, Edward Albert <ealbert01@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <c6ff64471001010851m3c5ac87dg853da86b87e86e49@mail.gmail.com>
Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR] Background of Alex Singer


Well to try to bring this thread back on topic, my original point was that it was remarkable that Alex Singer, who has been described as originally a Hungarian Jew, was able to direct and expand the operation of his business in Nazi occupied Paris.

Now it seems some doubt has arisen as to whether in fact he was a Jew. I had been thinking Ernest Csuka was his son-in-law, but Jan confirms that in fact Csuka was his nephew, probably the son of Alex's sister. And Ernest's recent funeral was held at a Christian church, so one presumes he was Christian. So perhaps Alex's sister married a Christian or maybe Singer never was Jewish to begin with.

I'm told that perhaps Alex Singer was never arrested, but taken prisoner while in the French army, then escaped German custody. If this was the case, and he was not in fact Jewish, then his only legal problem was having escaped rather than waiting to be processed and released as most French soldiers would have been. This would have made it difficult to obtain proper identity papers, but would have been far less dangerous than being a Jew in occupied Paris.

Today it seems strange to be debating at some length what religion a person was, but we are talking of an era and place when religious/racial identity was often the difference between life and death. And the deadly violence between Shiite and Sunni muslims in the Middle East today reminds us that the world has not yet moved beyond that sad state.

I think this thread, originally about a post-war Paris cyclocross, took this turn when it was pointed out the many constructeurs including Singer actually thrived during the war. Unfortunately, due to the times we are talking about, understanding how Singer was able to do this requires us to know whether he was a Jew constantly in danger of being deported to a concentration camp, or just a French military vetern who made the probably foolish decision to escape from German custody rather than waiting to be processed and dischaged by his Nazi captors. I think this thread has raised enough interest that a couple of CR members in contact with the Csuka/Singer family and their longtime friends may reseach further what exactly Alex Singer's background was and what his legal status was during the Nazi occupation.

Whatever that reveals, I think the survival and even thriving of some French constructeurs during WWII is a remarkable story, even in cases where the owner did not have whatever legal problems actually complicated Singer's case. We tend to think of a major war as an event that totally suspends normal life, but in fact life did go on in France, including a lot of activity building and riding fine bicycles. If all the constructeurs had been shut down during the war, then the many examples of constructeur bikes build during and just after the war would not exist today, and probably even more of the pre-war example would have been lost.

Happy New Year,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA


--- On Fri, 1/1/10, Edward Albert wrote:


> From: Edward Albert <ealbert01@gmail.com>

\r?\n> Subject: Re: [CR] French Constructeurs During WWII

\r?\n> To: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>

\r?\n> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

\r?\n> Date: Friday, January 1, 2010, 10:51 AM

\r?\n> I know that this will only inflame

\r?\n> things but I cannot stay out of it any

\r?\n> longer.   All this talk about "doing as well

\r?\n> as they could," and 'keeping

\r?\n> the record straight" makes me uneasy to say the very

\r?\n> least.  The French had,

\r?\n> for years rewritten the history concerning the relationship

\r?\n> between the

\r?\n> so-called man in the street and the Nazis occupation. 

\r?\n> I recent years that

\r?\n> "cover-up" has been somewhat abandoned and some light has

\r?\n> been let in.  Of

\r?\n> course there were heroes and saviors but, in large part,

\r?\n> the French

\r?\n> tradition of benign and not so benign  antisemitism

\r?\n> was alive and well in

\r?\n> occupied France.  The Dreyfus affair did not stem from

\r?\n> nowhere after all.

\r?\n> As I did off list yesterday, I refer any one interested in

\r?\n> this topic to

\r?\n> watch Max Ophul's spine chilling chronicle of "doing the

\r?\n> best that they

\r?\n> could" as their neighbors boarded the boxcars in his film

\r?\n> "The Sorrow and

\r?\n> the Pity" which, BTW, has a very disturbing sequence with

\r?\n> the "great" bike

\r?\n> racer Rafael Geminiani.  I also refer anyone

\r?\n> interested in this period of

\r?\n> history to read the relatively recent "Bad Faith" by Carmen

\r?\n> Callil and

\r?\n> equally chilling account of the individual responsible for

\r?\n> the deportation

\r?\n> of the Jews.  It is not the individual that is of

\r?\n> importance in the present

\r?\n> context but the help he received in his vigorous endeavors

\r?\n> not only from the

\r?\n> most elevated levels of French society but from those very

\r?\n> individuals where

\r?\n> were "doing the best that they could.

\r?\n> Sorry for the disruption, we now resume your regular

\r?\n> programming.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Edward Albert

\r?\n> Chappaqua, New York, U.S.A.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 11:30 AM, Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net>

\r?\n> wrote:

\r?\n>

\r?\n> > At 10:43 PM +0000 12/31/09, Norris Lockley wrote:

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> >> I read in an article recently that Andre Reiss,

\r?\n> the builder of the

\r?\n> >> renowned

\r?\n> >> REYHAND frames, was arrested by the German army in

\r?\n> the early 1940s,

\r?\n> >> possibly

\r?\n> >> in 1940 itself, deported and shot.

\r?\n> >>

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> > Reiss was not arrested and deported, but he died in

\r?\n> battle during the

\r?\n> > German invasion. The sources for this are the first

\r?\n> post-war edition of Le

\r?\n> > Cycliste, which lists the "disparus," as well as

\r?\n> Raymond Henry's article on

\r?\n> > Reyhand in Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 5, No. 1. Raymond

\r?\n> Henry did a lot of

\r?\n> > research on Reiss,  including talking to many of

\r?\n> his friends when they still

\r?\n> > were alive.

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> > Since you apparently read something different, please

\r?\n> give us the source.

\r?\n> > There are a lot of myths, half-truths and fabrications

\r?\n> out there, and we

\r?\n> > should try to keep the record straight.

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> >  While it appears that some of the Paris-based

\r?\n> cycleframe builders were

\r?\n> >> able

\r?\n> >> to carry on much as usual, the same could not be

\r?\n> said of others in other

\r?\n> >> parts of France.

\r?\n> >>

\r?\n> >>

\r?\n> > The assumption that all life stopped in France with

\r?\n> the invasion simply

\r?\n> > isn't true. During the war in France, there was no

\r?\n> draft, and few people

\r?\n> > were interested in working for the Germans, so most

\r?\n> simply carried on what

\r?\n> > they had been doing... as well as they could.

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> > Even in Lyon, builders continued to work during the

\r?\n> war, for example, Paul

\r?\n> > Charrel continued to make bicycles, as you can read in

\r?\n> the profile of this

\r?\n> > builder in the last Bicycle Quarterly (Winter 09).

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> > Charrel's shop was destroyed during an Allied bombing

\r?\n> raid on Lyon, so he

\r?\n> > moved his shop into his mother's kitchen. Clearly, he

\r?\n> can't have made too

\r?\n> > many bikes there, but that is all he did to earn a

\r?\n> living. What else could

\r?\n> > he do? It's not like anybody was hiring in those

\r?\n> days...

\r?\n> >

\r?\n> > Jan Heine

\r?\n> > Editor

\r?\n> > Bicycle Quarterly

\r?\n> > 2116 Western Ave.

\r?\n> > Seattle WA 98121

\r?\n> > http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com