Category: Occupied Paris

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The Children Who Survived

Serge Klarsfeld did an exhaustive study of the French children who were deported to KZ Auschwitz II-Birkenau and other concentration camps during the German Occupation of France between 14 June 1940 and 25 August 1944. The number of deported children (i.e., under the age of eighteen) totaled 11,146. He estimated that less than three hundred returned. His book (see below in “Recommended Reading”) is quite lengthy at 1,881 pages. The motivation behind writing the tome was to create a memorial to the children by recording images of the young victims rather than allowing them to slip into history as mere statistics and a footnote. Klarsfeld appealed to the families and friends to send him photographs of the children who were deported. Approximately two-thirds of the book are these photographs and, in many instances, a short description of the childrens’ fates.

Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. Photo by anonymous (c. 2007). Klarsfeld Foundation. PD-Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. Wikimedia Commons.
Serge and Beate Klarsfeld. Photo by anonymous (c. 2007). Klarsfeld Foundation. PD-Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. Wikimedia Commons.

I will center our discussion today on the children who survived. However, most of the stories do not end well as parents and siblings often perished at the hands of the Nazis. Click here to watch the video clip French Jewish Children for the Holocaust. Read More The Children Who Survived

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The Last Train Out of Paris

Five years ago, I wrote a short blog entitled, The Last Train Out of Paris. I never heard from anyone about that blog until 19 June 2020 when Pat V. e-mailed me about her father, Squadron Leader (ret.) Stanley Booker, MBE. While my blog never mentioned any Allied airmen, it seems Stanley enjoyed reading it ⏤ he was one of 168 captured airmen on that last train out of Paris on 15 August 1944.

Flying Officer Stanley Booker. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of Stanley Booker.
Flying Officer Stanley Booker. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of Stanley Booker.
La Gare de Pantin. Original photo by anonymous. Photo scan by Poudou99 (postcard date prior to 1923). PD-Copyright Expired. Wikimedia Commons.
La Gare de Pantin. Original photo by anonymous. Photo scan by Poudou99 (postcard date prior to 1923). PD-Copyright Expired. Wikimedia Commons.
Deportees inside cattle car. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of Stanley Booker.
Deportees inside cattle car. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Courtesy of Stanley Booker.

This has led to a lot of discussions over the past several months with Pat about her father’s war experiences. They live in the UK and Stanley is ninety-eight years young. The reason the story about these men didn’t make it into the original blog was, frankly, I didn’t know about it ⏤ well, now I do. One of Pat’s questions in her original e-mail was whether I knew about Jacques Désoubrie and who his German superior might have been. Her last words in the e-mail were “Can you help please?” I couldn’t resist and quickly entered yet another rabbit hole. Once I came up for air, I had Désoubrie’s story, an idea who he reported to, and I knew I had to repost the 2015 blog albeit in an expanded manner with an abbreviated story about Stanley’s experiences. Stanley wrote a privately published version of his wartime escapades and Pat is completing the book as well as expanding on his post-war exploits ⏤ Stanley’s interesting life didn’t just end with his eventual retirement from the Royal Air Force.

Stanley Booker (left) and Paul McCue (right). Paul, historian and author of “SAS Operation Bulbasket,” is visiting Stanley in his home. Photo by Carol Brown (August 2020). Courtesy of Paul McCue.
Stanley Booker (left) and Paul McCue (right). Paul, historian and author of “SAS Operation Bulbasket,” is visiting Stanley in his home. Photo by Carol Brown (August 2020). Courtesy of Paul McCue.

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