European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
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The number on the arm
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Often the children ask me why I don’t have the number removed.
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I tell them, I could have it removed, but I won’t.
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It was done by the Nazis, the people working for the Nazis.
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We weren’t called by our names but by a number that we had to learn to say in German.
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It doesn’t bother me to have it on the arm. I don’t carry it around for advertisement. It’s just reality, that’s all.
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Distinguishing between Germans and Nazis
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We tried to go undercover as much as possible during the German occupation,
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even though I was not totally undercover. I still lived with my parents.
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We thought about how we could distribute our leaflets.
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Our concern was the French population, not the Germans. It was necessary to fight against the occupiers.
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In the camps we met civilized, working Germans.
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Sometimes that led to discussions between us.
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I always defended the idea that these people were not necessarily Nazis.
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As French people worked, they worked here and that one had to respect.
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Then it was their responsibility. They knew who we were,
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in our striped uniforms and some had a friendly word for us, in German, which we had to learn.
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I always said that one should not mix up the SS and the Germans we met at work.
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The SS made a choice. They opted for the regime, the system.
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Three, four years after coming back I was talking to some friends who said:
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