Marcel Rajman

On 15 June 1943, in front of the address 17 rue Mirabeau in the 16th arrondissement, Rajman and Ernest Blankopf threw a volley of grenades at a coach belonging to the Kriegsmarine.

Rajman, sought by all the police forces, managed to escape, while Blankopf was gravely wounded, and, not to be taken alive, shot himself in the head.

Cristina Luca Boico, the Romanian who headed the FTP-MOI intelligence branch was ordered to collect information on Schaumburg.

The FTP-MOI informants spotted him, a well groomed officer who rode on horseback to the Bois de Boulogne every day escorted by two guards.

After his excursion, he went up the avenue Raphaël and into the courtyard of a luxurious hotel, before taking his official car which drove him to the hôtel Meurice.

Thenceforth, Rajman became a major target, and his hideaway at rue de Belleville, Paris, was soon known to the Renseignements généraux.

Rajman, in charge of the train derailing group and of execution, Missak Manouchian, the military commander, and Léo Kneller, a veteran fighter, were the most wanted men.

At the beginning of 1943, Lejb Goldberg – a fierce partisan since his parents were arrested and killed in the July 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver) – was identified and followed to a particular address, 9b passage de Stinville.

Rajman's profile among the BS2 police read as follows: "Faculté: 19 ans, corpulence trapue, visage rond, cheveux châtain foncé, frisés et abondants, chandail bleu marine à col roulé, pardessus bleu à martingale, souliers noirs, porte une serviette sous le bras."

Commemorative plaque for Marcel Rajman at No. 1, rue des Immeubles-Industriels