France
A total of 7,141 testimonies
have content relating to France - these were conducted in various languages (including
1,879 interviews in French) and in several different locations (1,691 in France).
There was a large Jewish community
in France before the war, and a number of testimonies describe specific communities in
locations around France. The French testimonies describe how, after Hitler came to power
in Germany in 1933, refugees began arriving in France in ever greater numbers, especially
after war broke out.
After the French capitulation to
the Germans in June 1940, many fled to the unoccupied zone in the centre and south of the
country. Interviews give details of the numerous internment camps established around France,
as well as in French territories such as Algeria. Near Paris, the Drancy camp became the
main transit point for Jews being deported east to Auschwitz. The actions of the French
police and the Milice are discussed.
A large number of testimonies have
descriptions of hiding and assuming a false identity. Interviewees talk about how they were
helped by, or were involved in, organizations such as the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants)
which were able to place children in convents, monasteries, and orphanages in rural locations
(such as the Château-de-Chabannes and others), and subsequently to assist people fleeing
across the border to Switzerland. Many discuss the role of the UGIF (Union générale Israélites
de France), the official body for all Jewish affairs in France established by the Vichy
government in 1941, and that of the Éclaireurs Israélites de France (Jewish scouting movement).
Those who fled to the zone under
Italian control in the south of France generally report much safer conditions, although
this changed drastically once the Germans occupied the area after September 1943.
A major topic of the French testimonies
is the Maquis (the resistance movement). Many survivors were actively involved in groups such
as the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, French Forces of the Interior, and others.
The testimonies give information on
figures such as Léon Blum, the prime minister of France from 1936 to 1937; Varian Fry, the
American rescue worker European director of the Emergency Rescue Committee; Robert Gamzon,
founder of the Eclaireurs Israélites de France and of the resistance group known as La Sixième
(The Sixth); Marshal Philippe Pétain; Klaus Barbie (the Gestapo chief known as the "Butcher
of Lyon"); Maurice Papon, civil servant in the Vichy administration in southern France; Paul
Touvier, head of the local branch of the Milice in Lyon and later found guilty of "crimes
against humanity"; among many others.
A number of testimonies talk about
Serge Klarsfeld, survivor and anti-Nazi activist. In addition, the archive contains the
testimony of Klarsfeld, as well as that of his wife and son.
