A French Slave in Nazi Germany

Elie Poulard, Jean V. Poulard

Description

The Required Work Service Law, or Service du Travail Obligatoire, was passed in 1943 by the Vichy government of France under German occupation. Passage of the law confirmed the French government’s willing collaboration in providing the Nazi regime with French manpower to replace German workers sent to fight in the war. The result was the deportation of 600,000 young Frenchmen to Germany, where they worked under the harshest conditions.

Elie Poulard was one of the Frenchmen forced into labor by the Vichy government. Translated by his brother Jean V. Poulard, Elie’s memoir vividly captures the lives of a largely unrecognized group of people who suffered under the Nazis. He describes in great detail his ordeal at different work sites in the Ruhr region, the horrors that he witnessed, and the few Germans who were good to him. Through this account of one eyewitness on the ground, we gain a vivid picture of Allied bombing in the western part of Germany and its contribution to the gradual collapse and capitulation of Germany at the end of the war. Throughout his ordeal, Elie's Catholic faith, good humor, and perseverance sustained him.

Little has been published in French or English about the use of foreign workers by the Nazi regime and their fate. The Poulards’ book makes an important contribution to the historiography of World War II, with its firsthand account of what foreign workers endured when they were sent to Nazi Germany. The memoir concludes with an explanation of the ongoing controversy in France over the opposition to the title Déporté du Travail, which those who experienced this forced deportation, like Elie, gave themselves after the war.

Sujets

• Personal Memoirs
• 20th Century
• Jewish
• Modern
• Holocaust
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Jews
• Vichy France
• The Holocaust
• Modern history
• World War II
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Holocauste
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• EAN13: 9780268100803
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

A French Slave in Nazi Germany
A FRENCH SLAVE
IN NAZI GERMANY
A TESTIMONY

ELIE POULARD
Translated and edited by Jean V. Poulard
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS | NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
Copyright 2016 by University of Notre Dame
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Names: Poulard, Elie, 1921- | Poulard, Jean V. (Jean Victor), 1939- translator.
Title: A French slave in Nazi Germany : a testimony / Elie Poulard ; translated and edited by Jean V. Poulard.
Other titles: M emoires d un Jociste d eport e du travail. English
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016023972 (print) | LCCN 2016026827 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268100773 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268100772 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780268100797 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268100803 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Poulard, Elie, 1921- | France. Service du travail obligatoire-Biography. | World War, 1939-1945-Conscript labor-Germany. | Jeunesse ouvri ere chr etienne (France)-Biography. | World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from France.
Classification: LCC D805.G3 P67813 2016 (print) |
LCC D805.G3 (ebook) | DDC
940.54/05 [B] -dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023972
ISBN 9780268100803
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
To our three sisters, Jeanne, Rolande, Micheline, and their families; and in memory of our brother Roger .
Contents
List of Illustrations
Author s Preface
Acknowledgments
Editor s Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Still Free: The Phony War
CHAPTER 2
The Real War and the Exodus
CHAPTER 3
Back Home under German Occupation
CHAPTER 4
In Bondage: Forced Labor in the Todt Organization
CHAPTER 5
Deported to Germany
CHAPTER 6
Work at the M hnetal Dam
CHAPTER 7
Living Conditions at the Dam
CHAPTER 8
Hagen-in-Westfalen and Its Camps
CHAPTER 9
Work at the Telegraphenamt of Hagen
CHAPTER 10
Life at the Boeler Heide Camp
CHAPTER 11
Dortmund-South Work Site
CHAPTER 12
Dortmund Hauptbahnof after October 6, 1944
CHAPTER 13
The Ruhr under the Bombs
CHAPTER 14
On the Ruhr: Hengsteysee and Herdecke
CHAPTER 15
In Railroad Yards Still and Again
CHAPTER 16
My Last Week as a Slave
CHAPTER 17
Peace and Return to Mareuil-sur-A
Epilogue
Appendix: A Dispute over a Title
Notes
Bibliography
Illustrations
All images are from the translator s private collection.
Elie in 1936, an apprentice assistant pharmacist
The Mareuil municipal band at La Villa d A , a suburb of Epernay, June 10, 1934
Elie and his saxophone, 1938
Elie, pharmacist
Solange, Elie, and Jeanne in Saint-Honor -les-Bains, 1940
Jeanne, Elie, and Jacqueline in Saint-Honor -les-Bains, 1940
Elie in 1942
Pages from the Jociste Missal Elie stepped on
Elie s repatriation card
Elie and his wife, Solange, at a Gasthof behind the M hnetal Dam, June 5, 2002
Elie in front of the M hnetal Dam, June 5, 2002
Author s Preface
To add my testimony to history and for my children and grandchildren to remember, here is the story of what I lived through during the Second World War, and how I felt about the events that marked those six horrible years.
I spent my youth and my adolescence in the village of Mareuil-sur-A in the middle of the valley of the river Marne, which gave its name to two ghastly battles during the First World War. Like all the young men and women of that region, I was deeply affected by the view of the ruins and the numerous military cemeteries left behind by that war. I was obsessed with the idea that those of my generation might have to witness also such horrors. With the rise of Hitler in Germany and the advent of the Nazi regime, my fears increased, and I thought that, unless a miracle happened, nothing could stop a new impending catastrophe. Yet if the politicians that governed France had been a bit more clear-sighted, it could have been averted.
Beginning in April 1934, I was employed by the Clerc pharmacy, located in the town of A , as an apprentice to become an assistant pharmacist. I remember that as I arrived at the establishment on March 7, 1936, a gendarme 1 at the counter was commenting on the day s event: the reoccupation of the demilitarized region of the Rhineland by German troops. This was a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which had ended World War I. This policeman was arguing that the only valid response was to send the French army into that territory to push back Hitler s move and that it could be done without too much bloodshed. If that was not done, he predicted, France would be at war in three or four years. I thought the man was right, and I believed that many other people were in favor of French action. The gendarme had indeed sized up the situation correctly.

Elie in 1936, an apprentice assistant pharmacist.
Hitler had made his first move on the chessboard of Europe. Since there was no reaction from the French or the British, he was comforted in his intentions. Two years later, on March 12, 1938, he annexed Austria to the Third Reich in what was called the Anschluss .
After leaving school at the age of twelve, having passed my Certificat d Etudes , 2 I began to learn music. I took saxophone lessons for four months, and at the beginning of April 1934, I became a member of the Mareuil-sur-A fanfare , or municipal band. In June 1938, I successfully passed the exam of the first section of the Conf d ration Musicale de France. In doing so, I received a first prize in solf ge 3 and in saxophone with twenty points out of twenty. The jury was composed of Monsieur Petit, who was president of the Musical Federation of Champagne and Meuse, and Monsieur Jules Moineaux from the village of Chouilly. The latter was the assistant director of the Grande Fanfare Champenoise. This great regional band was then led by F licien Foret, who was assistant director of the Paris Republican Guard s brass band. 4
The Grande Fanfare was a high level orchestra. To become a member of it, one had to have excellent references or be sponsored by a current member. In my case, I was presented by Monsieur Moineaux, who had highly recommended that I be part of that orchestra after I had done so well on the musical exam mentioned above. Thus, I had the honor to play in that orchestra for a year.
At that time, a young man from Mareuil, Marcel Braine, had organized a group of Jeunesses Ouvri res Catholiques (JOC), or Catholic Working Youth, an organization formed to keep young people religiously involved after they had joined the work force. I joined the group along with some of my friends. We would meet once a week, and, once a month, we would invite other young men of the town to join us as our guests. Once the Germans occupied Mareuil in 1940, these meetings were forbidden. However, I remained faithful to the JOC, and this organization had a great influence on my entire life.

The Mareuil municipal band at La Villa d A , a suburb of Epernay, June 10, 1934.
In September 1938, the French government mobilized its military reservists, those who had been given a so-called fascicule bleu - a blue military booklet. Among them were men who had already fought in World War I, such as Mareuil s mandoline teacher, Monsieur Gotrot. I remember that these men left with the intention of bringing Hitler down. They said that they preferred to fight again so that their sons would not know the horrors of war. Unfortunately, instead of a fight there was the shame of the September 29, 1938, accords of Munich, which gave to Hitler a good chunk of Czechoslovakia. Faced with foolish Western leaders, he invaded the rest of that country on March 15, 1939. Still, most people around me wanted to believe in Hitler s promise of peace. Alas!
On April 30, 1939, the Grande Fanfare gave its annual concert, broadcast on the radio, from the theater of Epernay. This concert was honored by the presence of Henri Rabaud, member of the French Academy and director of the National Conservatory of Paris. During the reception, Monsieur Moineaux introduced me to the music director of the 106th Infantry Regiment of Reims, because I wanted to enlist in the army musical corps so that I could be involved in musical studies. I wanted to make music my profession. It was decided that I would meet him some day at the military band quarters, and that he would accompany me to have my physical examination.
By that time, I had finished my apprenticeship and was thus an assistant pharmacist. Monsieur Clerc had sold his establishment to Jeanne Pierson, a young pharmacist with a diploma from the University of Nancy; Monsieur Clerc s former assistant had another job in the Paris region. Thus I replaced him, though with a much lower salary. But then, I did not really want to make a career as an assistant pharmacist.
In June 1939, I passed my second musical exam, at a higher level, of the Musical Confederation of France. Again, I obtained first prize in solf ge and musical dictation with twenty points out of twenty. I also got first prize with my saxophone with a grade of 19.5 and the congratulatio