 With his cousin Albert Hershkowitz he walked across the Swiss border in October 1942 under the name "Paul Meunier", only to be stopped by a Swiss mountain patrol and sent back to France.There he was sent to the Rivesaltes internment camp, where he remained for two weeks before being sent to Drancy, a large-scale deportation camp in the suburbs of Paris.On November 5, 1942, Bretholz was deported on convoy 42 with 1000 others headed for Auschwitz.