European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Those who say they were not afraid during that time, are either dumb or liars.

Or they didn’t do anything.

As soon as you were active in the resistance, there was always the danger of being arrested, with all the consequences.

Our police headquarters’ expertise was beating the foot soles of the people they arrested.

Asked about day to day life, we answer that the whole French population,

except for a minority that took advantage of the situation and dealt on the black market, suffered from hunger,

while nowadays students can get a chocolate croissant in the bakery across their school without a problem.

In those days we were allowed one little piece of bread a day, or 90 grams of meat a week.

You needed to have a ration ticket; otherwise you were forced to buy on the black market.

The Nazis had raided everything in France.

France had been self-sufficient because of their agriculture and industry.

They took everything, all the machines, everything.

First resistance activities

On September 3rd, 1939, war was declared.

My father was mobilized as we had become French citizens.

He was sent to the East. But they did not even have weapons.

Unfortunately, I lost my mother at that time and my father came back to take care of the family.

During the time it took him to come home, my aunt and uncle took care of us, my brother and me.

In 1940, when the danger of German occupation was imminent, my aunt wanted us to go to Southern France.

We got to know the so-called “débacle” – the total collapse – during our flight.