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A map of France's occupation from 1940-1944, taken from the diary of Renée de Monbrison

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A map of France's occupation from 1940-1944, taken from the diary of Renée de Monbrison

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Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Description The collection, spanning 1939-1992, consists of one memoir and a diary chiefly documenting life in France leading to and including war. The memoir of Renée de Monbrison (September 1939 to August 1944) is a bound copy typed in French. Entries describe time spent in Biarritz, an arrest in Hossegor, plans of fleeing to England, and her attempts to save her aunt, Loulou Warshawsky, from a camp near Tours. The memoir also includes copies of letters, documents, clippings, and post-war writings. Also included in the collection is one memoir typed in English by Colette Cahen d’Anvers Moore, entitled “Eight Years of a Life.” Entries include memories of her activities in the French Resistance, arrest, and yearlong imprisonment in La Santé prison, transfer to Fresnes prison, deportation to Drancy, forced labor in Paris, her escape from a bus, and the liberation of Paris by the American Army.

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French anti-Nazi flier discovered by an American soldier

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French anti-Nazi flier discovered by an American soldier

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Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Brief Narrative Satirical, French language flier acquired by Carl Ebert, a Jewish American World War II soldier while he was serving as a teletype maintenance technician in Europe from March 1944 - October 1945. Several pockets of French resistance developed in the face of German occupation. Among the activities that these groups carried out was the circulation of anti-German leaflets. Carl, a jeweler whose family emigrated from Austria-Hungary to New York in 1920, enlisted in the army in 1942. In early 1944, Carl’s unit, Company B, 3111th Signal Corps, shipped out from Monmouth, New Jersey to England. As part of the Signal Corps, Carl coordinated and maintained communication between his unit and the rest of the allied forces. Carl’s unit was deployed to France in June, landing on Omaha and Utah beaches a few days after the Normandy invasion. They quickly moved east into northeastern France, Belgium and... Show more

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A memorial plaque at Fort de Romainville

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A memorial plaque at Fort de Romainville

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"230 women of the resistance were arrested by the police of the Vichy government, handed over to the Gestapo, and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We honor their memory."

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Julia Barry née Brichta, Edward 'Eddie' Arnold Chapman, Anthony Charles Chevalier Faramus, Annie Muir Henderson Ross née Gilmour, William Henry Symes

At least five Channel Islanders were incarcerated between 1942 and 1944 in Fort de Romainville in Les Lilas, just northeast of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of France. The fort was built between 1844 and 1848. It was requisitioned by the occupying Nazi forces in October 1940, and watchtowers and fences were built around the fort's walled walkways. The camp was primarily for hostages taken by the Gestapo for reprisals against acts of French resistance. A 1940 section of the camp labelled Frontstalag 122 and its inmates were transferred to Compiègne by June 1941. Many of the Jewish prisoners of the camp were subsequently deported to extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Throughout the occupation, a total 3900 women and 3100 men were imprisoned in Fort de Romainville, and 152 people were shot there in reprisal actions.

Anthony Faramus was deported to Romainville with suspected English burglar Eddie Chapman, who had wound up stranded in a Jersey prison when the Germans arrived, and they spent around three months imprisoned there. The exact dates of Chapman's and the four Channel Islanders' imprisonment in Fort de Romainville are not known, but William Symes and Anthony Faramus later described their experiences there.

I was taken to a hostage camp at Romainville, Les Lilas, a fort. This, too, was a hostage camp which proved, possibly, an even greater strain than a concentration camp. This was a reprisal unit. Here the camp officials were good within their limits, but the Gestapo and police were brutal at every given opportunity. - William Symes, October 1964

Confined at hostage camp of FORT de ROMAINVILLE, Les Lilas, Paris. Number was 441. Food ration was limited to 1 BOWL of soup and 8 oz. of bread daily. - Charles Faramus, 24 April 1965

Faramus and Chapman later claimed in their memoirs that they had sexual liaisons with women prisoners in the camp, but this, like many claims in their biographies, is difficult to verify.

The fort was run throughout the period of the occupation by a commandant named Bickenbach and an SS- Untersturmführer named Trappe (or Trapp). More details as to their identity and fate after the war have not been published. 152 Résistance hostages were shot when the Nazis abandoned the camp (see video below). Suspected burglar Eddie Chapman got out of Romainville by offering his services as a spy to the Germans, and wound up working as a double agent for the MI5.

Fort de Romainville reverted to a French military compound almost immediately after the liberation on 22 August 1944. A 141-metre tall television tower now stands within the fort's walls, and sections of the fort are occupied by the French Military Archives.

There are two memorial plaques about the events of the German occupation at the gate Fort de Romainville. Plans are in place to eventually make the fort open to the public as a memorial.

All of the Channel Islanders imprisoned in Fort de Romainville survived the war - Faramus and Symes were in Buchenwald Concentration Camp and Barry in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp - but like many of the Channel Islanders who survived, would suffer from a variety of chronic physical disabilities and post-traumatic stress disorders for the rest of their lives.

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Fort de Romainville Internment and Transit Camp - Frank Falla Archive

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Julia Barry née Brichta, Edward 'Eddie' Arnold Chapman, Anthony Charles Chevalier Faramus, Annie Muir Henderson Ross née Gilmour, William Henry Symes At least five Channel Islanders were incarcerated between 1942 and 1944 in Fort de Romainville in Les Lilas, just northeast of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of France.

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Charlotte Delbo's letter to her sister Odette

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Charlotte Delbo's letter to her sister Odette

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This letter was written on March 21, 1942, while Charlotte Delbo was in the Depot prison in Paris. The letter tells Odette how to handle personal property. It also informs her sister that she has been separated from her husband, George.

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"Je suis morte pour la France." - Danielle Casanova

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"Je suis morte pour la France." - Danielle Casanova

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These were the last words of Daniella Casanova. She worked as a dentist prior to being imprisoned, and was assigned to do the same work while in the camps. She continued to help women from the Convoi des 31000 through various secretive methods, such as passing them as doctors and nurses. She never stopped resisting until her death in 1943.

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Marie-Claude Vaillant Couturier testifies at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946

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Marie-Claude Vaillant Couturier testifies at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946

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"by telling of the sufferings of those who could not speak anymore, I had the feeling that, through my voice, those who they had tortured and exterminated accused their torturers."

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Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Description (Paris 528) War Crimes Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, January 28, 1946. Continuation of Marie-Claude Vaillant Couturier’s testimony. French prosecutor Dubost interrupts occasionally to ask a question. The witness talks about the wife of Georges Politzer, Hélène Solomon (wife of physician Jacques Solomon) and Danielle Casanova (surgeon), who launched a resistance movement among the women prisoners (49 of them made it back to France). One woman aged 67 had kept the rifle of her husband as a “souvenir,” she died within two weeks in Auschwitz. She names and describes more women, all of whom died in Auschwitz. She then describes how they arrived at Auschwitz early one morning. They knew there was little chance for survival, seeing a group of “skeletons” going to work, they sang the Marseillaise to give themselves courage, their hair was shaved and they got a tattoo. She shows it to the court. Sh... Show more

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Inka Zygmuntowicz describes how her bond and friendship with another female prisoner aided greatly in her survival in Auschwitz-Birkenau. She describes a law held in the concentration camps, which was "The worst offense any girl could do there was to take from another girl, because that was like taking life."

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IWitness | IWitness - Education through Genocide Testimony

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IWitness brings educators and their students together at the intersection of genocide studies, diversity and inclusion education, and the development of critical literacies needed in the 21st century.

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Charlotte Delbo pictured between 1970-1985

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Charlotte Delbo pictured between 1970-1985

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Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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Description Consists of one handwritten letter, 2 pages, written by Charlotte Delbo (who went by her married name of Charlotte Dudach at the time), to her sister Odette, on 21 March 1942 (though the letter is physically dated 1941, it was actually written in 1942). The letter, written while Charlotte was imprisoned in the Depot prison in Paris, gives Odette instructions regarding personal property and notes that Charlotte has been separated from her husband, George. Also includes four photographs of Charlotte Delbo taken between 1970-1985.

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"We are waiting, hoping still to see the women who are missing" (38)

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"We are waiting, hoping still to see the women who are missing" (38)

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Delbo, Auschwitz and After

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"Five by five they walk down the street of arrivals. It is actually the street of departures but no one knows it." (7)

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"Five by five they walk down the street of arrivals. It is actually the street of departures but no one knows it." (7)

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Delbo, Auschwitz and After

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"The will to resist was doubtlessly buried in some deep, hidden spring which is now broken, I will never know. And if the women who died had required those who returned to account for what had taken place, they would be unable to do so." (64)

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"The will to resist was doubtlessly buried in some deep, hidden spring which is now broken, I will never know. And if the women who died had required those who returned to account for what had taken place, they would be unable to do so." (64)

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Delbo, Auschwitz and After

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"It was dumb to die here, on the threshold of this hut, the threshold of liberation. Now I knew it would happen, too many signs pointed to its coming." (216)

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"It was dumb to die here, on the threshold of this hut, the threshold of liberation. Now I knew it would happen, too many signs pointed to its coming." (216)

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Delbo, Auschwitz and After

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"Having forgotten for the first time all our concerns about our daily soup, bread rations and various chores, we busied ourselves from early morning with our exciting preparations." (169-170)

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"Having forgotten for the first time all our concerns about our daily soup, bread rations and various chores, we busied ourselves from early morning with our exciting preparations." (169-170)

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Delbo, Auschwitz and After

Delbo began what would later be referred to as "Artistic afternoons," where many women in the camps would all take part in various entertainment activities, with the biggest one being a play performed each Sunday. The time they spent the whole week preparing and putting together a show contributed to the spirit of the community, and allowed them to have something near to work towards in order to distract from their devastating hardships.