MAINTENANCE. Anne Sinclair in Toulouse: “It was the slow death camp”
Invited to come and debate this Monday with teachers, the journalist and writer, Anne Sinclair, presented the documentary “La rafle des notables”, adapted from her book, as part of the Toulouse Summer University of the Shoah Memorial .
How did you discover this particular episode of the deportation of Jews from France, long before the Vel d’Hiv roundup?
Completely by chance. I was looking for traces of my paternal grandfather on whom I had few elements. I didn’t even know the name of what was called “the roundup of notables”, which is also the title of my book. The first roundup of Jews in France, in December 1941, eight months before that of Vel d’Hiv in July 1942. And it was the person in charge of the archives of the Shoah memorial who put me on the track. This is where I discovered the reality of the Compiègne camp where my grandfather was interned. A Nazi transit camp run by the Gestapo where living conditions were appalling. There was no forced labor, but malnutrition, cold and disease were daily occurrences. It was a triage camp before Auschwitz where the 743 French Jews arrested waited three months… Because there was no train. The first convoy left in March 1942. My grandfather was not in it. Seriously ill, he had been transferred to the Val de Grâce where the prisoners were put back on their feet before being deported. But my grandmother managed to get him out of there, I don’t know how. He died a few months later…
Why did the Nazis first target intellectuals and business leaders?
I believe that there was the will to say “no one is safe” the fact of being Jewish is enough to be targeted. Like many other very integrated Jews, my grandfather had been listed in the file of Jews set up by Vichy, which had 150,000 names. And it is in this file that the Gestapo drew. Like most of the people rounded up, he didn’t realize what he did there. He, the lace merchant who had fought in the 14th war, who was a medalist. There were lawyers, judges, great personalities, Pierre Masse, the former chief of staff of Clémenceau, the brother of Léon Blum, René, the son of Tristan Bernard or the husband of Colette. It was only when 300 foreign Jews were moved from Drancy to Compiègne to make numbers, that they understood that they were there as Jews.
“Like most, it doesn’t turn out what he was doing there. He, the lace merchant who had been in the war of 14”
Most were sent to Auschwitz. What was their fate?
Donnecker, the head of the Gestapo, was clamoring for trains to speed up the deportations to Auschwitz. Of the thousand prisoners in the Compiègne camp, only 25 deportees returned. All were massacred. René Blum was thrown alive into a crematorium.
Do you still believe that we can learn lessons from history so that it doesn’t happen again?
Yes, I think that the more stories spread, the more knowledge progresses and the more we are able to deal with barbarism. At the time, this roundup remained unknown to the general public. No one knew about what was called “the slow death camp.” Today, for example, we know the fate of the Uyghurs. Information, awareness exist. Admittedly, we can feel helpless in the face of authoritarian regimes like China or Russia, but at least no one can say that we did not know. Transmission is important. On the Compiègne camp, nothing was passed on, even my father did not know the details of what my grandfather had experienced. It is understandable, at the Liberation, people wanted to live, to forget. there was fatigue. Feelings that we find with the war in Ukraine…
Is it important for you to testify “on the ground” as you do in Toulouse?
I really like going to schools to meet students and teachers. They are the ones who face racism and anti-Semitism every day and who carry the values of secularism. I came to Toulouse at the invitation of the Shoah Memorial as part of its summer university with all the more pleasure. The opportunity to present the documentary film by Gabriel Le Bomin, taken from my book “La rafle des notables”. A very difficult film to make which found its audience, with 2.5 million viewers who discovered it on France 2 and France 5. I am very happy about it. It was less the family history that guided me than the tribute to these victims, to these remarkable men.