Tag: Serge Klarsfeld

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Muslims, Jews and the Gestapo

This is one of those stories you won’t find in textbooks nor is it widely known. In fact, it is a story that many people refuse to discuss or acknowledge. It’s the account of a religious man and his followers who sheltered and helped Jews escape from Paris during the Nazi occupation. There are thousands of stories about the bravery and courageous acts of Gentiles saving Jewish lives during World War II in spite of knowing that if caught, they would likely forfeit their lives.

Our story today is about the leader of Parisian Muslims who rescued Jews and others from certain deportation during the occupation.

Si Kaddour Benghabrit. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Si Kaddour Benghabrit. Photo by anonymous (date unknown).

Did You Know?

Did you know that the newest U.S. Navy aircraft carrier will be named after an African American military hero? Europeans like to say that it takes America a long time to make a decision but when she does, it’s usually the right one. In this case, they are correct.

Doris Miller was a mess attendant on the battleship USS West Virginia when it was attacked by Japanese planes on the morning of 7 December 1941 in Pearl Harbor. He carried the wounded to safety, assisted the ship’s mortally wounded captain, and manned an anti-aircraft machine gun (which he had never been trained on) and continued to shoot until he ran out of ammunition and had to abandon ship.

For his actions, Miller was awarded our country’s second highest military medal in 1943, the Navy Cross. He was the first African American to receive the medal. After surviving Pearl Harbor, Miller served on the USS Indianapolis and then, the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay after it was launched in April 1943. During the Battle of Makin in November 1943, a Japanese submarine sank the USS Liscome Bay. Six hundred forty-four or, seventy percent of the crew perished including Miller. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Doris Miller and his Navy Cross medal. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943).
Doris Miller and his Navy Cross medal. Photo by anonymous (c. 1943).

Let’s Meet Is Kaddour Benghabrit

Si Kaddour Benghabrit (1868-1954) was born in French occupied Algeria to a prominent Andalusian family. After primary and secondary educations at leading Algerian schools, he studied law and began his practice in Algiers (capital of Algeria). After stints as an interpreter for the Legation of France and liaison between North Africa and France, Benghabrit founded the Mahkma of Algiers (a civil court) and the Society of Habous and Holy Places of Islam (an organization to facilitate Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca). Read More Muslims, Jews and the Gestapo

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Nazi Plundering

Monsieur Rémi Babinet purchased the beautiful building at 85-87, rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin in the former working-class neighborhood of Paris’s 10thdistrict. M. Babinet’s intent was to restore the abandoned late 19th-century building and move his advertising business there. Shortly afterwards, a historian approached him in the spring of 2009 with the news that M. Babinet’s building was used as a Nazi forced labor camp.

Exterior of former Lévitan store. Note the blue inscription above the upper floor windows. Photo by Reinhardhauke (2011). PD-GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons.
Exterior of former Lévitan store. Note the blue inscription above the upper floor windows. Photo by Reinhardhauke (2011). PD-GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons.

Babinet learned that his building had been confiscated by the Nazis and by 1943, it had become a giant distribution center and retail store for Nazi officers to shop in. The inventory was involuntarily supplied by Parisians who happened to be Jewish. The forced labor were Jews who had been arrested and detained at Drancy. Rather than being deported immediately to Auschwitz, they were transferred to Nazi department stores in Paris to work as clerks, laborers, and skilled craftsmen.

Stolen furniture displayed at Lévitan. Photo by anonymous (c. 1945). German Federal Archives, Koblenz. Photo ID number B 323-311 No. 75.
Stolen furniture displayed at Lévitan. Photo by anonymous (c. 1945). German Federal Archives, Koblenz. Photo ID number B 323-311 No. 75.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the Mousquetaires de la garde or, Musketeers of the Guard were the personal bodyguards of King Louis XIII? Alexander Dumas wrote the classic, The Three Musketeers, based loosely on the king’s guards (I suppose today, we would classify his book as “historical fiction”). This branch of the French military has essentially existed over many centuries albeit with different names but similar purposes. Today, its contemporary successor is The Republican Guard. This unit provides guards of honor for the State as well as security around Paris. Back in Napoléon’s day, his personal bodyguards were known as the Garde Impériale or, Imperial Guard (if I recall properly, didn’t President Richard Nixon try to do this in the early 1970s?).

The Imperial Guard was an elite group under the direct control of Napoléon. He carefully chose its members whom he expected to not only protect him but provide an elite fighting force during his battles. The “Old Guard,” as he called a select group of soldiers within the Imperial Guard, were the most seasoned soldiers in the French army, above-average height, and hardened veterans of battle campaigns. Only once did the Old Guard retreat without orders: the battle of Waterloo in 1814. After Napoléon was sent off to his final exile, the Old Guard disbanded. With the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, the Imperial Guard would morph into a different existence and name. Here are some interesting facts about the Old Guard:

*This unit was with Napoléon from start (1799) to finish (1814).

*Soldiers were required to be a minimum of six feet tall. Napoléon was 5’5” and while standing next to his bodyguards, he developed a reputation for being short when in fact, he wasn’t (at least compared to the average male height of 5’2”).

*The soldiers were the best dressed in the French military.

* They were the best paid and enjoyed superior grades to other soldiers of equal rank.

*Imperial Guard soldiers were given R*E*S*P*E*C*T by all other military personnel. Even lowly privates were addressed as “Monsieur” by officers.

*They were allowed to complain.

* They lived in relative luxury and ate the best food (nothing but the best for the emperor’s boys).

*Napoléon called each of them by their first name.

*Some of surviving members of the Old Guard donned their former uniforms to attend the ceremony at the Hôtel des Invalides when Napoléon’s remains were returned to Paris in 1840.

Paris Department Stores

For those of you who “shop ‘til you drop,” you are likely familiar with the four major Paris department stores. Le Bon Marché (24, rue de Sèvres; 7e) was built in 1838. The Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville (36, rue de la Verrerie; 4e) opened its doors in 1852. Printemps Haussmann (64, boulevard Haussmann; 9e) began operations in 1865 while Galeries Lafayette (40, boulevard Haussmann; 9e) started in 1894. Right from the beginning, these department stores catered to the upper-class citizens of Paris. A lesser known store (with little-known history) was started to address the needs of the “working class” citizens or laborers as they were known. Read More Nazi Plundering