Élisabeth de Rothschild

Élisabeth de Rothschild (née de Chambure; a.k.a. Lili; March 9, 1902 - March 23, 1945) was a member by marriage of the wine-making branch of the Rothschild family.

Life and marriage

Born in Paris as Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure, into a wealthy Catholic aristocratic family whose roots were in the Burgundy region. Her ancestors included the famous Napoleonic General, Laurent Augustin Pelletier de Chambure. She was the daughter of Auguste Pelletier de Chambure, mayor of Escrignelles. She was called "Lili" as a child.

In 1934, immediately after her divorce from her first husband, Jonkheer Marc Edouard Marie de Becker-Rémy, a Belgian aristocrat, she married her lover, Baron Philippe de Rothschild (with whom she had already borne a daughter, Philippine in 1933), a member of the prominent Rothschild family and the owner of one of France's most famous vineyards, Château Mouton Rothschild in Pauillac in the Médoc. Philippe was also a cousin by marriage of Élisabeth's previous husband.

The Rothschilds had two children Philippine Mathilde Camille de Rothschild (born in 1933 while Elisabeth was still married to her first husband Becker-Rémy), and Charles Henri de Rothschild (born and died in 1938).

Philippe's late-in-life memoirs (Milady Vine, written in collaboration with his friend and companion, the British director Joan Littlewood) described his marriage to Élisabeth as one of great passion but also enormous tempestuousness and despair. The couple's difficulties increased when their only son was born deformed and died soon after birth. They eventually separated acrimoniously, and by 1939, the baroness had reverted to using her maiden name of Pelletier de Chambure.

Imprisonment and death

Following the German occupation of France in World War II, she and her then-estranged husband were arrested by the Vichy government and the vineyard property seized. They were then released whereupon Philippe left France, moving to England, to join the Free French Forces and supported General Charles de Gaulle. In 1941, the Gestapo arrested Elisabeth on charges of attempting to cross the line of demarcation with a forged permit and sent her to Ravensbrück concentration camp, located about 50 miles north of Berlin. An alternative story exists surrounding the deportation of Elisabeth to Ravensbrück. Elisabeth, attending a 1941 showing of couturier Elsa Schiaparelli’s new seasonal designs, found herself seated next to the wife of German Ambassador to the Vichy government, the powerful, influential member of the Nazi regime, Heinrich Otto Abetz. Finding this proximity to Abetz’s wife objectionable, Elisabeth changed seats, a social slight which offended the woman. Shortly thereafter, Elisabeth was imprisoned in Ravensbrück. ^[1]

Elisabeth reportedly died of epidemic typhus on March 23, 1945 at Ravensbrück. Her second husband's memoir, however, states that she was thrown into a concentration-camp oven, alive. She was the only Rothschild to die in the Holocaust or during World War II.

Notes

References

• Joseph Valynseele & Henri-Claude Mars, Le Sang des Rothschild, L’Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux, Paris, 2004.
• Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Milady Vine, Jonathan Cape, London, 1984.