by Paige Bowers
Geneviève writes that she came into contact with DF shortly after her return to Paris from the South in en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 30.
The fate of the de Gaulle family during this period is captured by Marie-Agnès Cailliau de Gaulle in Souvenirs personnels, 52–56. Geneviève also writes about the family’s increasing sense of danger in en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 28. Clerc adds to the story in Les de Gaulle, 163–64 and 179–82.
In March 2016, a team of French historians unveiled secret service archives from World War II, which included this letter from Geneviève to her uncle. The story was widely covered in international media, which included a photograph of the first few pages of the letter.
She waited for a response: Various accounts say that Geneviève did not hear her uncle’s advice—which was to stay in France—until either after her arrest or after the war.
The background on Geneviève converting DF to Gaullists is covered in Wieviorka’s Une certaine idée, 206–8.
At the top of the story (and the following description of the article): Gallia/Geneviève de Gaulle, “Charles de Gaulle,” Défense de la France, June 20, 1943, 1.
“De Gaulle and French Independence”: Gallia/Geneviève de Gaulle, “De Gaulle et l’indépendance française,” Défense de la France, July 5, 1943, 1.
“it was like seeing Jesus for the first time”: cited in Wieviorka, Une certaine idée, 186.
Lacouture covers Moulin’s Caluire meeting and the aftermath in De Gaulle: The Rebel, 482–83.
“Jeered at, savagely beaten”: Laure Moulin, Jean Moulin (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1982). Laure Moulin’s words about her brother are some of the most widely quoted about him. French minister of culture André Malraux used them in his December 19, 1964, speech celebrating the transfer of Jean Moulin’s ashes to the Panthéon, the English language transcript of which can be found here: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/global-studies-and-languages/21g-053-understanding-contemporary-french-politics-spring-2014/readings/MIT21G_053S14_Andre.pdf.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt talked to Weschler about her background and her entrance into the resistance in Sisters in Resistance. She wrote about her interactions with Jean Moulin in a short memoir called “Surviving Ravensbrück: Forgive Don’t Forget,” 3–4, http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/france-ut/_files/pdf/resources/Pery.pdf.
Geneviève wrote about her increased responsibilities in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 30. Wieviorka also wrote about this in Une certaine idée, 133–34.
Hitler had begun 1943: “Hitler Foresees Hardship, Victory,” New York Times, January 2, 1943, 1.
By the end of January: “Axis Is Suffering Strain, Says BEW,” New York Times, January 1, 1943, 4; “R.A.F. Bombers Raid in Western Germany,” New York Times, January 2, 1943, 4; “Shortage of Labor in Reich Analyzed,” New York Times, January 4, 1943, 6; “Germans Fear Pinch in North Africa Loss,” New York Times, January 5, 1943, 9; “New British ‘Slow Bomb’ Increases Destruction,” New York Times, January 7, 1943, 8; “Nazis’ Dodges Suggest a New Low in Morale,” New York Times, January 10, 1943, 6; “Decline of Luftwaffe Apparent,” New York Times, January 10, 1943, E5; “Nazi Warns Reich of Peril in Russia,” New York Times, January 13, 1943, 1; “More Home Effort Asked by Goebbels,” New York Times, January 14, 1943, 4; “Pilots of 8 Nations Pound Nazi Europe,” New York Times, January 14, 1943, 5; “Berlin Warns Ringed Nazis at Stalingrad Not to Despair, for ‘Führer Knows Best,’ ” New York Times, January 16, 1943, 2; Ronald Rosbottom also discussed the changing tide in chapter 8 of When Paris Went Dark.
Within the first three months of 1943: “532 Nazis Listed as Slain in France,” New York Times, March 12, 1943, 5.
DF embraced the defiant spirit (and the narrative that follows): Geneviève de Gaulle wrote about July 14, 1943, in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 30–31; “14 Juillet,” Défense de la France, July 14, 1943, 1; “Français, libérez-vous de la crainte,” Défense de la France, July 14, 1943, 1.
Wieviorka writes about Marongin in Une certaine idée, 336.
Geneviève wrote about the day of her arrest in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 45 (1972): 27–28.
Geneviève told Glorion about her transfer to the Gestapo headquarters and then to Fresnes Prison in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 36–37.
Chapter 5: Voices and Faces
There are several prisoner testimonies about Fresnes Prison, some of them more positive than others, depending on where a given source may have been incarcerated before. Marie-Agnès Cailliau de Gaulle shared descriptions of Fresnes in Souvenirs personnels, 59–64, and with Clerc in Les de Gaulle, 184; Geneviève spoke with Glorion about Fresnes in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 37–38; Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt also wrote about Fresnes in “Surviving Ravensbrück: ‘Forgive, Don’t Forget’; A Memoir by Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt,” France-University of Texas Institute online document archive, 5, https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/france-ut/_files/pdf/resources/Pery.pdf.
“There was life in that cell”: Geneviève told Glorion in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 38.
Marie-Agnès wrote about her reunion with Geneviève in Souvenirs personnels, 65; Clerc expanded the story in Les de Gaulle, 183.
Anne Fernier de Seynes-Larlenque (Nanette) wrote about sharing a cell with Geneviève and her “seriousness of purpose” in “Souvenirs,” Voix et Visages, March–April 2002, 14.
Marie-Agnès also wrote about how they would talk to each other in the mornings after guards left in Souvenirs personnels, 66.
Geneviève spoke about her good fortune to share packages with Marie-Agnès in Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 77–78.
Clerc wrote about how the prison regime began to harden against the Fresnes internees in Les de Gaulle, 183.
Anise Postel-Vinay (née Girard) wrote about her attempted escape in Vivre (Paris: Grasset, 2015), 33–36. She also shared her memories of meeting Germaine Tillion face-to-face on the day they were deported to Ravensbrück with Weschler in Sisters in Resistance.
Although there was certainly drama involved in forging a united French resistance, the growing support for the country’s underground movement is captured in the following articles: “Gaullists Invite Wide Adherence,” New York Times, January 16, 1943, 3; “Frenchmen in Algiers Work Out Their Destiny,” New York Times, January 24, 1943, E3; “De Gaulle Called Choice of France,” New York Times, February 2, 1943, 5; “France’s Resistance Gains, Says de Gaulle,” New York Times, February 4, 1943, 4; “Restore Republic de Gaulle Insists,” New York Times, February 10, 1943, 7; “Allies Study Plan for French Unity,” New York Times, February 28, 1943, 7; “De Gaulle Orders Risings by the French,” New York Times, March 13, 1943, 3; “Resistance Groups in France Are Linked,” New York Times, May 27, 1943, 5; “De Gaulle Calls for ‘4th Republic,’” New York Times, June 7, 1943, 3; “France Rallying to Africa Regime,” New York Times, June 22, 1944, 4; “France Now Led by Underground,” New York Times, September 3, 1943, 6; “De Gaullists in Lead in French Assembly,” New York Times, October 30, 1943, 7. The country sensed the turning tide in “Frenchmen Sure of Landings Soon,” New York Times, September 6, 1943, 4. Julius Ritter’s killing was reported in “German Labor Chief in France Is Killed,” New York Times, September 29, 1943, 10; French hatred of Germans is spelled out in “French Unity Seen in Hating Germans,” New York Times, February 8, 1943, 4; “French Resistance to Hitler Spreads,” New York Times, March 10, 1943, 7; “All France Talking About Allied Invasion,” New York Times, August 22, 1943, 27; “Underground Busy in Cities in France,” New York Times, December 6, 1943, 11; “Nazi Troops Battle Saboteurs in France,” New York Times, December 19, 1943, 34.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt told Weschler about her arrest and incarceration in Sisters in Resistance and wrote about it in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 5–6. According to Neau-Dufour, Pery passed along General de Gaulle’s advice
to his niece after hearing him talk about it on the BBC before her arrest (Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 73).
Another one of Geneviève’s cellmates, Thérèse Grospiron-Verschuren, described their day-to-day life and cohorts in Fresnes in “Geneviève à Fresnes,” Voix et Visages 279, March–April 2002, 7–8.
Geneviève wrote about All Saints’ Day in Fresnes in Dawn of Hope, loc. 151–55.
Mrs. Roosevelt’s address was reported in “Deliverance Near, French Are Told,” New York Times, December 25, 1943.
Pery wrote about Christmas Eve in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 5.
Hitler’s address to his country was reported in “Hitler Changes Tune in New Year Message,” New York Times, January 1, 1944, 4.
Giles’s retort is covered in “Tells France to ‘Stand By,’” New York Times, January 2, 1944, 19.
The Nazis fire back with “Pétain in Pledge to Nazi,” New York Times, January 2, 1944, 13, before calling for a “Tighter Rein on France,” New York Times, January 3, 1944, 8.
The negotiations about the Free French role in the liberation are discussed in “Churchill May See de Gaulle Shortly,” New York Times, January 6, 1944, 6; “Frenchmen Renew Allied Aid Pleas,” New York Times, January 11, 1944, 6; “French Want Role in Allied Invasion,” New York Times, January 6, 1944, 4.
Fernier shared the account of prisoners trying to stay on top of events and the Gaulotov joke in “Souvenirs,” Voix et Visages, March–April 2002, 14.
Marie-Agnès wrote about Alfred’s deportation in Souvenirs personnels, 69.
Geneviève wrote about being deported from Fresnes in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 45 (1972): 28–29, and in Dawn of Hope, loc. 396–418. She told Glorion about the attempts to escape and the messages thrown out the window in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 39–40.
Sarah Helm wrote about Geneviève singing on the train and the two stops during the journey in Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women (New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2014), Kindle ed., loc. 7,505.
In Anthonioz and Tillion’s Dialogues, there is a picture of Geneviève’s bread-ration bag with her journey stitched onto it.
Chapter 6: The Project on the Other Side of the Lake
Jack G. Morrison wrote about Hitler’s misogyny in Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women’s Concentration Camp, 1939–1945 (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2000), 2–7.
Helm chronicled the Reich’s growing need for a female-only camp and the protest by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ravensbrück, loc. 526, 557–64.
Morrison discussed why Nazi officials chose the area around Lake Schwedt for the camp, Ravensbrück, 14–16. Helm further describes the area and talks about how the proposed camp was viewed, Ravensbrück, loc. 629–52.
Morrison wrote about the camp’s first day, Ravensbrück, 16.
Helm charted how the town’s sentiment toward the deportees changed over time in Ravensbrück.
Geneviève described the arrival at Ravensbrück in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 45 (1972): 29. She also wrote about the arrival in Dawn of Hope, loc. 116–20, 424–28. Helm wrote about the 27,000 convoy’s arrival at the camp gates in Ravensbrück, loc. 7,515–24.
Various resister memoirs recall the skeletal women they encountered upon their arrival. Some use the less flattering term monsters to describe them, while others call them phantoms, beings, or human beings, among other things. Geneviève and others were thunderstruck by what they saw upon their arrival, and most noted that these women’s eyes had lost all expression.
Geneviève detailed the air-raid siren, a sanitized version of the searches, the showers, and being sent to quarantine in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 46 (1972): 29–31. Her descriptions of the searches and showers are consistent with other resister testimonies, some of which go into further detail about aggressive searches between the legs with dirty speculums, head shavings, and snide comments made by German personnel. Morrison wrote about how the arrival impacted new prisoners in Ravensbrück, 31–36.
Morrison described the camp administration in Ravensbrück, 19–28.
Helm wrote about Binz and Bräuning, Ravensbrück, loc. 8,096.
Nanette said she shared a top bunk with Geneviève in “Souvenirs,” Voix et Visages, March–April 2002, 14.
beet soup: Helm, Ravensbrück, loc. 7,537.
Germaine told Lacouture about her reunion with her mother and her mother’s excitement about German cities in ruin in Le témoignage, 167.
Morrison covered some of the humorous nicknames French prisoners gave each other in Ravensbrück, 33. He also talked about their concern for fashion and the ways they passed time on page 118.
Geneviève told Glorion about Germaine’s lectures about the concentration camp system in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 43.
Helm wrote about the French not taking orders seriously in Ravensbrück, loc. 7,554.
Helm looked at the morning roll call routine and the 27,000’s confinement to some of the worst barracks in the camp in Ravensbrück, loc. 7,717–830. Morrison also wrote about the daily routine in Ravensbrück, 110–16.
Morrison wrote about the treatment of French prisoners in Ravensbrück, 94–98.
Geneviève wrote about the history of youth at the camp in “La condition des enfants au camp de Ravensbrück,” Révue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, no. 45 (January 1962): 71–84.
Germaine told Weschler in Sisters in Resistance that prisoners used to stand next to her at roll call to hear lectures about the origins of mankind.
Geneviève said that she would lose herself in the sky at roll call in André Bendjebbar’s “Geneviève de Gaulle parle,” Quatre visages de la France, (Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2015), Kindle ed., loc. 902–13.
Geneviève wrote about work conditions in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle 45 (1972): 31.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt wrote about her workday with Geneviève and efforts to escape bad work squads in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 7.
Jacqueline and Geneviève told Weschler about sharing a bunk in Sisters in Resistance.
Geneviève talked about how much she disliked loading coal cars in Sisters in Resistance. She wrote about her sleigh dream in Dawn of Hope, loc. 293–97.
“Awake O sleeping hearts”: Anthonioz, Dawn of Hope, loc. 112.
Anise Postel-Vinay told Weschler about Geneviève’s washroom speech about her uncle and later elaborated on it for me in a January 9, 2016, interview in Paris and then in a letter dated April 7, 2016. “It seemed that we had received the same sort of education,” Anise explained. “We were Christian and respected the church and its priests. But we also respected other religions and people.” Germaine told Lacouture about her gratitude for Geneviève’s lecture about her uncle in Le témoignage.
Geneviève wrote about some of the little things that kept prisoners going in Dawn of Hope, loc. 108, 282–86. Anise told Weschler about how Germaine used to share her bread with her in Sisters in Resistance. Jacqueline wrote about stealing yarn, socks, and clothes to help fellow prisoners stay warm in “Surviving Ravensbrück.”
Chapter 7: What Can Be Saved
Geneviève shared the horror of the uniform workshop in Dawn of Hope, loc. 88–100.
Geneviève wrote about Vlasty hearing about the liberation of Paris in Dawn of Hope, loc. 266–70.
Anise recounted what it took to save Geneviève from the Syllinka work group in Vivre, 74–77.
Geneviève talked about her time in the rabbit skins in Dawn of Hope, loc. 327–35.
Geneviève recalled her interaction with Suhren in “Le chantage d’Himmler,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 46 (1972): 27–29.
En ce temps là: De Gaulle obtained German documents that illustrated the backroom dealing about General de Gaulle’s niece: “Quand Himmler proposait l’échange de la nièce du général de Gaulle contre un c
onsul S.S.,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 60 (1973): 27.
Geneviève wrote about her changed circumstances in Dawn of Hope, loc. 354–65.
En ce temps là: De Gaulle wrote about the continued correspondence regarding Geneviève de Gaulle in no. 60 (1973): 27–31.
Geneviève celebrated her birthday in Dawn of Hope, loc. 52–56.
Geneviève wrote about being taken to the bunker in Dawn of Hope, loc. 31–35, 45–52, 56–65, 68–76. She also wrote about it in “Le chantage d’Himmler,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 46 (1972): 27–29, 30.
Germaine Tillion wrote about the NN block in Ravensbrück (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1988), 164–66, and detailed the discussions with Buber-Neumann on pages 64–69.
Morrison wrote about punishments in the bunker in Ravensbrück, 231–33.
Tillion covered the Rabbits and the secret correspondence in Ravensbrück, 165–74. Anise Postel-Vinay also remembered them in Vivre, 59–66. Geneviève wrote about them in Dawn of Hope, loc. 35–46.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt wrote about the Czech prisoners who told her where Geneviève was in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 7.
Geneviève wrote about learning that she would not be punished in Dawn of Hope, loc. 128–51, 174–86.
Chapter 8: Marking the Days
Geneviève wrote about Christmas in the bunker in Dawn of Hope, loc. 190–98, 214–48. Morrison wrote about the 1944 Christmas celebrations in Ravensbrück, 267–70.
“Some of us thought we would get caught”: Marthe, “Ravensbrück 25 December 1944,” Voix et Visages 59 (November–December 1957): 3.
Margarete Buber-Neumann wrote about her parcels in Under Two Dictators: Prisoner of Stalin and Hitler (London: Random House UK, 2008), 256.
Anise shared her memories of the end of 1944 in Vivre, 78–80.