Oral history interview with Beate Klarsfeld

Oral history interview with Auguste Mudry

Oral History

Auguste Mudry discusses his childhood in a Catholic family; his training in civil and military aviation in the National Aviation School and the Military Pilot School of Istres; his experience in military intelligence; his employment as an officer in the Vichy government bureau of Jewish Affairs (Commissariat General aux Questions Juives); the administration of Jewish goods and enterprises called “Service de Contrôles des Administrateurs Provisoires” (SCAP); life in Vichy France after the armistice; the “aryanization” of Jewish real estate businesses; his political attitudes and his personal feelings about Jews; the selling of Jewish-owned real estate and property; the involvement of French police in anti-Jewish measures; public opinion about Jews; the bureaucratic nature of the Vichy Government; resistance activities of Pierre Louis-Dreyfus; his membership in the Action Francaise; the deterioration of the Commissariat; and his arrest along with his parents following liberation.

Oral history interview with Annette Leiris

Oral History

Annette Monod-Leiris, born in 1909, discusses her assignments as a social worker in various internment camps, such as Beaune, Drancy, Pithiviers and Voves; her life before the war, teaching in England and working in a workers' home in Evry, France; volunteering for internment camps in both Beaune and Pithiviers; switching from Beaune to the camp in Drancy in 1941; the conditions in Beaune la Rolande, France, including the barracks, over population, toilet facilities, and the food supply; other organizations and institutions represented in the camps; aspects of Pithiviers, including the medical staff, the medical treatment, the permissions for hospital visits, the daily routine of the inmates, and the facilities; aspects of Drancy, including the establishment of her office, her assistants, deportations, executions, layout of the buildings, and the facilities; being fired by the French police for “doing too much” for the inmates; being sent to a camp for communists in Voves, Eure-et-Loir, France; joining the Red Cross for the emergency team in Compiègne, France; how she helped Jews cook to keep Kosher and celebrate important holidays; the living conditions and situation of children at the camps; her participation in the liberation of the Drancy internment camp in 1944; rumors of how prisoners ate organs of the dead to survive; her contact and friendship with Jewish families after the war; and her commitment to Amnesty International.

Oral history interview with Marcelle Duval

Oral History

Marcelle Duval, born in Paris, France discusses her academic career before the war and completing her law degree; her family’s move to Fontainebleau; colleagues of hers who were taken during the Vél' d'Hiv Roundup; the lack of food and facilities provided to the victims; her volunteer work with the Red Cross and training to become a nurse and social worker; the hospital in which she worked and her specialization in anesthesia; her involvement and experiences in the National Emergency Teams; the small aid station she provided to Jews who had been rounded up and held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver; the horrendous conditions at the velodrome; her time in Normandy after the Allied invasion; her unit’s service to the First Army in Belfort, Vosges, Ruhr, and Tyrol; her continued services as a nurse after the war; her return to France in 1945; and her postwar professional career as a director of a welfare center.

Oral history interview with Jean Coqueret

Oral History

Jean Coqueret discusses his father’s background as a World War I veteran; the collaboration of the French police during the German occupation; the enforcement of racial laws by the French police; the varying degrees of resistance by police and people; his work for the Red Cross in Drancy; and an incident where he tried to help a Jew; witnessing deportations, mass arrests, and poor treatment of Jews in Drancy; the enforcement of wearing yellow Star of David badges; the postwar prosecution of collaborators; and his personal documents such as property papers, food ration cards, and work permits (shown in video).

Oral history interview with Arlette Dachary

Oral History

Arlette Dachary, former secretary to the head of “Ponts et Chaussées” (public works) in Gurs concentration camp, discusses her family background and education; the sight of refugees in Bordeaux; her brother’s forced labor; the daily routine of Gurs; her administrative duties; the backgrounds and duties of her colleagues; artistic life in the camp; medical treatment, food, water, and living conditions in the camp; the different categories of inmates at Gurs; the organization of adoption of children by Swiss couples; the disposal of dead bodies; deportations of prisoners; the role of the Swiss Red Cross; the construction of a cemetery; identification of the dead and creating inscriptions for the graves; life in the camp after liberation; her interrogation; fates of different colleagues after liberation; and documents, art, and artifacts from her time working in Gurs.

Oral history interview with Carmen Villalba

Oral History

Carmen Villalba, born in Asturias, Spain, discusses her personal background and her father prewar profession; her immigration to France in 1939 as a consequence of her leftist political orientation; the reception of Spaniards in France; her internment in a camp on Belle-Île; her deportation by German occupiers to Gurs concentration camp; her life in Gurs, including the duties of the inmates, separation of different groups of inmates, and conditions of the camp; her contact with Jewish women in the camp; deportations; her stay in another internment camp around Blagnac; the liberation of Blagnac; meeting and marrying her husband; her return to Spain after the death of Franco; her continued friendship with Spanish women who were also in the camp; her health during her imprisonment; her postwar life; and documents and photographs from the period of her internment in Gurs.

Oral history interview with Pierre Larribité

Oral History

Pierre Larribité describes his personal and professional background; details of the Gurs concentration camp, including its construction, types of guards, and the rights of the inmates; the location of his home in relation to the camp; his contact with inmates and visitors in the camp; the arrival of Jewish women from Austria and Germany in 1940; poor living conditions in the camp; smuggling food into the camp; cultural events in the camp, including music performances and art; the transfer of inmates from Riversaltes to Gurs; the deportation of Jews to extermination camps; life in camp after deportations; the fate of inmates after liberation; the closing of Gurs; the cemetery of Gurs; and his musings about life during wartime in area around the camp.

Oral history interview with Pierre Langla

Oral History

Pierre Langla describes his family background; his military service; his assignment as a guard in Gurs; requirements of the guards; the organization and structure of the camp; living conditions of the prisoners; his injury near Verdun; his arrest during a stay in a military hospital in Nancy; his deportation to Germany; his internment in Rawa-Ruska; the treatment of Jews in Rawa-Ruska; his arrest and imprisonment at Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine); his removal to Bavaria and to Czechoslovakia; liberation by Russians; his return to France and career after the war; and documents and photographs from the period of his assignment as a guard in Gurs.

Oral history interview with Victor Deresmaux

Oral History

Victor Desreumaux describes his family background; his reasons for joining the French police; his training as a police officer; the treatment of Jews in Paris, including roundups, violence, and propaganda; his personal relationship with Jews; details about how the French police rounded up Jews; an incident in which he manipulated a list to spare a Jewish mother and her child; working with the German military; his views about following orders; the liberation of Saint-Denis; the participation of French police during the liberation of Paris; his ignorance as to what was happening to the Jews until after the war; living conditions in Paris during the war; and the aftermath of the war.

Oral history interview with Serge Klarsfeld

Oral History

Oral history interview with Simone Ponset Barbier

Oral History

Oral history interview with Daniel de Montmollin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jean-François Cinquin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jean Fonteray

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gerard Beaufort

Oral History

Oral history interview with Marie Moreau-Viguié

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jacky Lardy

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jeanine Georges

Oral History

Oral history interview with Raymonde Billard Fouillit

Oral History

Oral history interview with André Lacour

Oral History

Oral history interview with Fernand Cachard

Oral History

Oral history interview with Janine Pomme Guillot

Oral History

Oral history interview with Roger Arnoux

Oral History

Oral history interview with Charles Eyrand

Oral History

Oral history interview with Denise Rivière Roques

Oral History

Denise Rivière Roques, born in 1929 in Chambon-sur-Lignon, France (in her parents’ vacation house), describes life in Saint-Etienne; the transport company created by her grandfather; the deep Protestant faith in her family which she maintains today; the local Jewish population and, in particular, the Coudery family, the two children Yves and Jean, with whom she and her siblings were close; the Coudery family’s flight into hiding when the Germans invaded the Free Zone; the assistance given by the Protestant population to fleeing refugees and to the Resistance in Saint-Etienne; the discouragement of questions by the children and the dangers inherent therein; knowing the Jews had fled because one day she would see them and then they would be gone; the arrest and deportation of her Aunt Dora to Ravensbruk; Aunt Dora’s return; the assistance provided by her family’s transport company to transfer Jews within the region by van and truck and to escape to Switzerland; her father going into hiding when the Gestapo identified his role in helping the Resistance; the importance of the Trocmé family; and the recent loss of her daughter which has forever changed her.

Oral history interview with Paulette Pradier Astier

Oral History

Paulette Pradier Astier, born on November 2, 1927 in the Commune de Chambon, France, discusses her family life; her sisters Solange and Simone; departing with her parents for Saint-Agrève in 1929; the tension between Catholics and Protestants in the area; the individual schools for Catholics and Protestants which exacerbated the divide; the food shortages at the war’s outset, even though they lived in an agricultural area; the high cost of food on the black market; her understanding that refugees were arriving because of the German invasion; hiding refugees in their home over a three-year period although she did not know they were Jewish; Pasteur Estopé [PH], who made counterfeit documents for fleeing refugees; the arrival of Madame Cidesse [PH] from Marseille and her three girls in 1943; Madame Cidesse leaving Nicole, her 3-year old, with the Pradier family and placing the other two girls in a pension near the Protestant church; Madame Cidesse hiding herself in different places around the countryside; Madame Cidesse retrieving Nicole in 1947 and immigrating to Israel; her father never talking about their hiding of refugees because he said there was nothing special about what he did.

Oral history interview with René Rivière

Oral History

René Rivière, born in 1930 in Saint-Etienne, France, discusses his family history; his four sisters and one brother; his grandfather, who launched a trucking company Fourgon-Stefanois, Rivière et Co. [SP], which transported goods across France, Europe and around the world, later taken over by his father, Henri Rivière; learning to drive a truck at the age of 12, learning the family trade; the strength of Protestantism in the region; the Reform and Calvinist churches and the different branches including the Darbystes; the influx of refugees in the early years of the war; the important role of the Pasteurs André Trocmé and Edouard Theis, pushed by Magda Trocmé, the Pasteur’s wife, in establishing classes for Protestant children; the local boarding houses that provided a shelter infrastructure for Jewish refugee children fleeing the Occupied Zone and elsewhere; the feminist militancy of his Aunt Dora, who studied medicine and travelled to Poland to treat a typhus outbreak and returned to report of concentration camps and virulent antisemitism; Aunt Dora joining the Resistance and distributing anti-Nazi tracts through the family’s trucking business; his first memory of antisemitism with the imposition of Vichy laws; the dismissal of the principal of the local school, M. Monteux; hosting the Monteux family in their house; his uncle’s acquisition of a large farm and hotel in a relatively inaccessible location, which was used to shelter many fleeing refugees; how the fleet of Rivière vehicles, which had authorizations from Vichy and the Gestapo to move merchandise, would eventually transport hidden refugees; the family network speaking in coded language as they worked in order to safely transport refugees to various locations both within the region, within the Free Zone, and to Switzerland; being asked in July 1943 to transport a young man about his age to one of the farms to assist in the harvest who turned out to be Paul De Gaulle, the nephew of Charles De Gaulle; the importance of Pierre Piton as a Resistance leader of one of the escape networks within Chambon-sur-Lignon; the Gestapo and French police arriving at the Rivière home in October 1943 to arrest Aunt Dora; his views of Protestant faith and his family’s rescue efforts; his thoughts on the importance of education about tolerance in the home and in the Protestant church; and the importance of the Collège Cévenol in sheltering refugees and in fostering tolerance and understanding.

Oral history interview with Yvonne Argaud Neboit

Oral History

Yvonne Neboit (née Argaud), born in 1928 in the Commune of Ardèche, discusses her childhood which was spent near Devesset, France; her family’s Protestant faith; the Protestant Church in Montpezat-sous-Bauzon and in Sagnes-et-Goudoulet, where she lived; her parents’ work as butchers, who along with other farmers in the region sold food to people coming from Saint-Etienne looking for food during the war; the numerous maquisards in the region along with other young men, who refused to report for forced labor in Germany and were hiding from the gendarmerie; her parents sheltering maquisards throughout the war and in particular one from Avignon named Max Frambonne [PH] and another named François Boulon [PH], who hid several years in her home; other maquisards hiding in empty farms in the vicinity; the hidden maquisards informing the local families if there was a roundup in the area so that the other hidden maquisards could flee; and her parents’ telephone, which they had so they could receive the information of an impending roundup and would inform others.

Oral history interview with Yvonne Lemiere Huguenin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Chantal Malgontier Claret

Oral History

Oral history interview with Serge Moreau

Oral History

Oral history interview with Yvette Fleche Gressard

Oral History

Oral history interview with Daniel Boutavant

Oral History

Oral history interview with Louis Claret

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jeanne Tusseau Boutavant

Oral History

Oral history interview with Christian Charlet

Oral History

Oral history interview with Mauricette Lajus Merillon

Oral History

Oral history interview with Renée Commerçon Grozellier

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gisèle Massin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Paul Estrade

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jean Perillat

Oral History

Oral history interview with Max Blanc

Oral History

Oral history interview with Rene Picot

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jean Paul Lugrin

Oral History

Oral history interview with Gisele Lerray

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pierre Paccard

Oral History

Oral history interview with René Pernot

Oral History

René Pernot, born on January 22, 1928 in Cormatin, France, describes his family and early life; his father, who was a mechanic; his early childhood through primary school; first noticing that his father was organizing the beginnings of a Resistance group, with meetings at their house along with three to four men, including Monsieur Pagnelle [PH] and Monsieur Delorieux [PH] (the butcher); the villagers knowing who supported the Germans and who did not; the first parachute drops from England in the outskirts of Cormatin in September 1943; his father taking him to the landing site, where two Frenchmen in training in England arrived; other drops, and accompanying his father to collect flyers, information, and other documents; the important Resistance role of the curé Duvernois [PH] of La Chapelle-sous-Brancion; Mlle. Vincent, a teacher in La Chapelle-sous-Brancion; his father going into hiding when the Germans began closing in on his Resistance activities; his father’s return to their home in the evenings; the day he was arrested in his father’s house in November 1943 at the age of 15 when the Mayor and a German soldier arrived; being sent to Montluc for three months; being sent to Compiègne, a transit camp; being sent to Buchenwald, where he stayed until April 1945; the deportation to Buchenwald by cattle car; arriving at the camp at night and getting tattooed; his work at an arms factory in Weimar; corresponding via censored letters with his mother and learning that his father was okay, along with his friend Jean Blavier [PH], and Roger [surname unclear]; the SS transferring the political prisoners to Dachau when the Soviets entered Poland; being too weak to return to Paris when in April 1945 the Americans liberated Dachau; being hospitalized in Switzerland to regain his strength; attributing his survival to his Boy Scout training and laments the lack of interest in scouting in 2018; and his belief that he was arrested because the Germans thought his father would then come forward and declare himself a Resistance leader, but he never did.