My most recent AARP magazine (October/November 2018) featured an article on Martha Hall Kelly, the author of Lilac Girls. Ms. Kelly’s mother passed away in early 2000 so, at the urging of her husband, Ms. Kelly took a therapeutic trip to the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden in Bethlehem, Connecticut to see its famous lilac gardens.
While taking the house tour, Ms. Kelly noticed a group of women in a photograph sitting on Caroline Ferriday’s desk. One of the guides watched Ms. Kelly’s fascination with the photo and told her, “Those are the rabbits. Prisoners at Ravensbrück, the largest all-female concentration camp in Hitler’s Third Reich.”
Ravensbrück survivor, Jadwiga Dzido (1918−1985) revealing the scars to her leg caused by Nazi medical experiments. Photo by anonymous (c. 1946). PD-No Copyright Notice. Wikimedia Commons.
Ms. Kelly admitted she never had any interest in history. That is, until she saw a photograph of the Rabbits and learned of their horrifying stories.
Did You Know?
Did you know the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden located in Bethlehem was bequeathed by Caroline Ferriday to Connecticut Landmarks on 27 April 1990, the day Ms. Ferriday passed away? Learn more about the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden here.
The house was built in 1754 (with a second building phase in 1767) by Rev. Joseph Bellamy (1719−1790). The family held it until 1868 when several other owners took possession. Finally, in 1912, Henry and Eliza Ferriday purchased the house and its 100-acres. The Ferriday family would spend their summers there (unfortunately, Mr. Ferriday died two years after the purchase) and upon Eliza’s death, their only child, Caroline, inherited the property. She continued to upgrade the house and live there during the summers throughout her life (winters were spent in New York City). The estate is famous not only for the 18th-century house but for the beautiful gardens which Miss Ferriday’s mother began and Caroline expanded. The gardens are known for Caroline’s favorite flower: lilacs.
Bellamy-Ferriday House & Gardens. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Connecticut Landmarks.
KZ Ravensbrück
Ravensbrück concentration camp was created in the autumn of 1938 with its first prisoners delivered on 18 May 1939. The camp was built specifically for women and located next to the small town of Fürstenberg, fifty miles north of Berlin. It was also near the hideaway where Heinrich Himmler stashed his mistress. The initial group of prisoners were primarily Polish but soon, women who were Jewish, gypsies, German, and political or resistance members were incarcerated. Female foreign agents (under the Night and Fogprogram-read the blog here) were sent to Ravensbrück, often to be executed. Eventually, babies and children became part of the camp’s population. During its existence, more than 130,000 people went through Ravensbrück with approximately 90,000 dying from execution, starvation, illness, or being worked to death. Read More The Rabbits of KZ Ravensbrück
I previously introduced you to some of the brave women who served as foreign agents for the British led Special Operations Executive (SOE).(Click here to read Women Agents of the SOE and click here to read The White Mouse). Today, you’ll meet another female agent of the SOE. Only this time, you’ll see that her exploits don’t quite measure up to the other agents. In fact, you could probably say she was a triple agent and her betrayals shut down the first SOE network in France and cost the lives of many people. The nom de guerre (codename) for SOE agent Mathilde Carré was VICTOIRE. However, she acquired the nickname, La Chatte (The Cat) because some said she walked as quiet as a cat while others said it was her habit of curling up in large armchairs and scratching the arms with her long sharp nails. Mathilde liked her nickname so well that all of her messages to London were signed “La Chatte.”
Did You Know?
We will soon lose the last eyewitnesses to the tragic events of World War II. The soldiers, sailors, men and women who served in the Army Air Corp., Marines, doctors, nurses, and all who supported them will be gone shortly. Survivors of the Nazis’ atrocities, such as Gena Turgel (the “Bride of Belsen” read her story here) and Elie Wiesel, are gone (read about Elie here). The last surviving member of the French Resistance and Companion of the Liberation will soon pass away and be buried with sixteen other combatants, résistants, and deportees in the crypt of the Mémorial de la France combattante at Fort Mont-Valérien in the western suburbs of Paris.
Fortunately, the world has access to written, verbal, and film which document the war and its atrocities. The amount of material available is unprecedented. The Library of Congress began a program called “Veterans History Project” (learn more here) to provide World War II veterans the opportunity to record their individual stories in writing as well as verbal accounts (hear Violet Gordon’s story here). The number of books written by military participants, former resistance members, and other survivors documenting their first-hand experiences are plentiful. As former classified documents become available, professional historians are able to update and fill-in the history that perhaps wasn’t complete when the first round of books was written between the end of the war and the 1960s. Thousands of images, both still and moving, are available as the U.S. Government provided men and women the opportunity to capture the war in real time.
Today, there are many memorials across Europe honoring the men and women who fought the Nazis and other fascist regimes. One example is the preservation of Fort Mont-Valérien. Today, it stands as a memorial to those who were executed in the hollow depression on its grounds. Another memorial is the privately funded center located on the site of the former Drancy Deportation Center. Elementary school students and others can view and learn the story of Nazi crimes. The director was ten-years-old during the Occupation and he volunteers for the same reason Mont-Valérien’s young director has dedicated his career: to make sure people don’t forget. Then there are the camp survivors such as Gena Turgel who passed away on 7 June 2018 at the age of ninety-five. Most of the survivors dedicated their lives to telling their stories so others would become aware of the horrors and brutality perpetrated by the Nazis. Their primary goal was to ensure people don’t forget. The many Holocaust memorials around the world serve the purpose of reminding us of the Jewish victims who represented approximately ten percent of the war’s total casualties (it is estimated that more than sixty million perished during World War II).
The Holocaust memorials are there to tell us to forgive but never forget. It’s also an opportunity for us to remember the approximately five million others who perished in the death camps alongside the Jews.
Let’s Meet Mathilde Carré
Mathilde Carré (1908−1970) was born in the small town of Le Creusot, a commune (i.e., an administrative division similar to our incorporated municipalities) in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne—eastern France. Her family was middle class and she was able to attend Sorbonne University, graduating with a teaching degree. In love with a fellow named Marc, Mathilde knew he couldn’t provide the lifestyle she was accustomed to. So, while sitting on the top step of the grand staircase of the Palais de Justice, Mathilde flipped a coin between Marc (“heads”) and another school teacher, Maurice Carré (“tails”). Tails it was and Mathilde and Maurice were married in 1933 but lived apart until they moved to North Africa. By 1939 the marriage had disintegrated and the couple divorced in 1940. The declassified British MI5 file on Mathilde indicates her treatment towards Maurice was indicative of her personality defects which came into play later on during her espionage activities—one of which was operating with unbounded carelessness.
Mathilde Carré in London. Photo by anonymous (c. 1942).
For those of you who have had a cat as a pet (over the years, we’ve had many) know that cats play by their own rules. They are independent and do as they please. A cat is loyal only to themselves and no one else. A cat comes and goes, returning when they want to. Perhaps this should be the real reason why Mathilde Carré was appropriately given the nickname “The Cat.”
Mathilde was in her early 30s and described as attractive but not beautiful. Her face was pale with thin lips and animated green eyes. Mathilde was described as extremely intelligent but very high strung. She always wore a black fur coat, a red hat, and small flat red shoes. Just what every spy should be—conspicuous. Mathilde’s nails were long and sharp, like a cat. Fortunately for her, this cat had many lives. Read More La Chatte
This book presents three detailed walking tours and numerous metro station oriented short walks that identified significant occupation locations. Each location on the walk is fully explained. In addition, the author uses many sidebars to provide additional supporting information. The appendix provides a wealth of additional information and pictures that the novice and well read Occupation scholar will find helpful. Whether your first exposure to the Occupation or one of many books you have read, this book is a must read prior to visiting Paris. The format and size of the book make it easy to carry in your carry-on luggage. The book is the first of a three volume set. I can’t wait to see the information to be presented in Volumes 2 & 3.
Patrick from Albuquerque.
Patrick Morrissey, Amazon customer
“Another outstanding, well-researched, and presented book by Stew Ross. It gives a detailed guided walking tour full of facts about the activities of the Gestapo during their occupation of Paris during World War II. I highly recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in what life was like during the Nazi occupation in France.”
Richard H.F. Neave, President Royal British Legion Paris branch, member Paris-based Libre Résistance SOE “F” Section and author of SOE: A Life in the Shadows
