This is an interview I wrote down recently, told to me by a women who was a 12 year old child in 1944. She tells about some German soldiers her familly befriended before the southern France landings of August 15th 1944. Her town, is not far from the landing area.
When she was saying it to me she started crying, and I have to say I was holding back tears myself. I think it is the most moving story I have been directly told by a WW2 survivor. I quickly translated it from French, so there are probably many spelling mistakes. If you take the time to read it, tell me what you think of it.
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"The Germans arrived in 1943, and we were 5 children in the family. We lived at St Jaques because my father was the guardian of the sports field. The Germans requisitioned all the houses around ours, but mom said: “I don’t want to leave, because I have 5 kids and I don’t know where to go”. So they let us stay in our house. The Hotel beside our house became the Kommandantur. There we would see Austrian officers punishing the Germans, making them run around the sports field with all their equipment until they would collapse, and hitting them with a riding crop; those are bad souvenirs. Those were the Austrians, with big caps. So mom would always say: “Be careful, say hello, and don’t stop, but be polite.”
So all the surrounding houses were taken over by the Germans. They had made a road block, and to go to school, we had to go past the road block, where there was always a sentry. So, by going to school and coming back, well, we made ourselves two friends; and I guess they also made two friends with us kids. We all had blue eyes at our place, so they would always say: “Hey, you, like us!”, and my father didn’t like that and he would say: “No, no, us not German, us French!” and they would laugh, lucky thing by the way, and from there, we made ourselves two friends.
Of course, we were happy, they called us all the time. When we came back from school around 11h30, they would put their finger on our mouths, and say: “shhhhtt!”, then tell us to come. We would just go to the doorstep of the house, and with their fingers they would show us: 10, 2 and a half, to say 12h30. So from our house, around 12h30, they would signal us to come with their arm through the window. They were afraid to get caught by officers. We would go up, and they would give us bread, once or twice per week. Big loafs like they made them, that must have weighed at least 3 kilos because they were heavy.
And sometimes they would also say: “shhhtt!”, the same thing, and they would show us a square, meaning that we had to bring a box, and they would give us barley soup, once or twice per week to. They also gave us potatoes. So one was named Landra, and the other one was Toni. They were Polish, and they were conscripted into the German army. We also knew Henri, he was a cobbler and he would fix our shoes. He was Austrian and was friends with Toni and Landra. Otherwise, the other Germans, they would always look at us funny, and… we were a bit afraid. They were nice, but we were cautious because the others told us not to tell the rest of them that they were giving us food.
Every time they received a letter from their family, or pictures, they would signal us. They called mom and showed her that they had received a letter and pictures. I remember once there were three girls and the mother, the wife on the picture. I remember seeing that.
When the end of the war came, dad wanted to hide them, because that is when the landings occurred (southern <ST1<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></ST1 landings, 15 August 1944). When they left they came to say good bye, and dad wanted to hide both of them, but he though: “And what if there is a reversal of the situation, and the Germans come back?” Because you could never know. In the end, the Resistance fighters blew up the <ST1 bridge just 15 minutes after the last German had left; so the Germans were unable to come back. When dad found out, he regretted not having hidden Toni and Landra.
Where the swimming pool is now, it was full of trees, tomatoes and everything because my uncle and my godmother were farmers. The last time we saw Toni and Landra, they were in their wagon, that looked a bit like the wagon in the little house on the prairie. So, I saw Landra going by, and I took a big peach, because my uncle made peaches as big as my hand. Quickly, I took it, and I brought it to Landra. Where I found Landra is where the swimming pool is nowadays. And coming back up, two or three wagons later, I saw Toni. Toni was sending me kisses with his hand, he was sending me kisses, so through the fence I told mom: “Quick, give me a peach for Toni!” He saw that I gave one to Landra and he is going to say: “Why isn’t she giving one to me?”
So mom quickly gave me a peach, and I ran, because in the meantime he had kept on going down the hill. There were airplanes circling in the sky and I was scared, but I wanted to please him, and in the descent to <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1St Just</ST1</st1:City>, I found Toni again. He lifted me up into the cart, because the horse didn’t stop. I gave him the peach, he held me very tightly against him, he hugged me, and then I got back down from the cart and I left. I could see his hand waving bye bye to me, bye bye. It was the last time I ever saw the two of them. I left, I was crying, I was crying. My mother was crying, everybody was crying actually.
So the end of the war came and we always had that regret of not having hidden them. I always think of Toni and Landra, if only we had saved them. Because from there they went to St Raphael, and over there the shells killed them for sure. If they had survived, they would have come to visit us after the war for sure. It is absolutely certain, because we were also friendly to them. We gave them fruits from the garden, cherries, all the things they loved; and my grandfather made eau de vie and we would give them little 10 centiliter bottles of Schnaps. There, it is a short story… but it is a nice one."
Interestingly, this girls Father had hidden a jewish familly for several days in 1943, before they escaped to a safer area.
JL
When she was saying it to me she started crying, and I have to say I was holding back tears myself. I think it is the most moving story I have been directly told by a WW2 survivor. I quickly translated it from French, so there are probably many spelling mistakes. If you take the time to read it, tell me what you think of it.
<O
</O"The Germans arrived in 1943, and we were 5 children in the family. We lived at St Jaques because my father was the guardian of the sports field. The Germans requisitioned all the houses around ours, but mom said: “I don’t want to leave, because I have 5 kids and I don’t know where to go”. So they let us stay in our house. The Hotel beside our house became the Kommandantur. There we would see Austrian officers punishing the Germans, making them run around the sports field with all their equipment until they would collapse, and hitting them with a riding crop; those are bad souvenirs. Those were the Austrians, with big caps. So mom would always say: “Be careful, say hello, and don’t stop, but be polite.”
So all the surrounding houses were taken over by the Germans. They had made a road block, and to go to school, we had to go past the road block, where there was always a sentry. So, by going to school and coming back, well, we made ourselves two friends; and I guess they also made two friends with us kids. We all had blue eyes at our place, so they would always say: “Hey, you, like us!”, and my father didn’t like that and he would say: “No, no, us not German, us French!” and they would laugh, lucky thing by the way, and from there, we made ourselves two friends.
Of course, we were happy, they called us all the time. When we came back from school around 11h30, they would put their finger on our mouths, and say: “shhhhtt!”, then tell us to come. We would just go to the doorstep of the house, and with their fingers they would show us: 10, 2 and a half, to say 12h30. So from our house, around 12h30, they would signal us to come with their arm through the window. They were afraid to get caught by officers. We would go up, and they would give us bread, once or twice per week. Big loafs like they made them, that must have weighed at least 3 kilos because they were heavy.
And sometimes they would also say: “shhhtt!”, the same thing, and they would show us a square, meaning that we had to bring a box, and they would give us barley soup, once or twice per week to. They also gave us potatoes. So one was named Landra, and the other one was Toni. They were Polish, and they were conscripted into the German army. We also knew Henri, he was a cobbler and he would fix our shoes. He was Austrian and was friends with Toni and Landra. Otherwise, the other Germans, they would always look at us funny, and… we were a bit afraid. They were nice, but we were cautious because the others told us not to tell the rest of them that they were giving us food.
Every time they received a letter from their family, or pictures, they would signal us. They called mom and showed her that they had received a letter and pictures. I remember once there were three girls and the mother, the wife on the picture. I remember seeing that.
When the end of the war came, dad wanted to hide them, because that is when the landings occurred (southern <ST1
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></ST1 landings, 15 August 1944). When they left they came to say good bye, and dad wanted to hide both of them, but he though: “And what if there is a reversal of the situation, and the Germans come back?” Because you could never know. In the end, the Resistance fighters blew up the <ST1 bridge just 15 minutes after the last German had left; so the Germans were unable to come back. When dad found out, he regretted not having hidden Toni and Landra.Where the swimming pool is now, it was full of trees, tomatoes and everything because my uncle and my godmother were farmers. The last time we saw Toni and Landra, they were in their wagon, that looked a bit like the wagon in the little house on the prairie. So, I saw Landra going by, and I took a big peach, because my uncle made peaches as big as my hand. Quickly, I took it, and I brought it to Landra. Where I found Landra is where the swimming pool is nowadays. And coming back up, two or three wagons later, I saw Toni. Toni was sending me kisses with his hand, he was sending me kisses, so through the fence I told mom: “Quick, give me a peach for Toni!” He saw that I gave one to Landra and he is going to say: “Why isn’t she giving one to me?”
So mom quickly gave me a peach, and I ran, because in the meantime he had kept on going down the hill. There were airplanes circling in the sky and I was scared, but I wanted to please him, and in the descent to <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1
St Just</ST1</st1:City>, I found Toni again. He lifted me up into the cart, because the horse didn’t stop. I gave him the peach, he held me very tightly against him, he hugged me, and then I got back down from the cart and I left. I could see his hand waving bye bye to me, bye bye. It was the last time I ever saw the two of them. I left, I was crying, I was crying. My mother was crying, everybody was crying actually.So the end of the war came and we always had that regret of not having hidden them. I always think of Toni and Landra, if only we had saved them. Because from there they went to St Raphael, and over there the shells killed them for sure. If they had survived, they would have come to visit us after the war for sure. It is absolutely certain, because we were also friendly to them. We gave them fruits from the garden, cherries, all the things they loved; and my grandfather made eau de vie and we would give them little 10 centiliter bottles of Schnaps. There, it is a short story… but it is a nice one."
Interestingly, this girls Father had hidden a jewish familly for several days in 1943, before they escaped to a safer area.
JL
keep them coming and many thanks for your research and effort to collect those stories
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