German Invasion French Evacuaee and Refugee Children (1940)


Figure 1.--The caption for this 1940 French press photograph read, "Francais, Voici venue l'heure de vous aimer! Une centaine d'enfants evacues de la region parisienne viennent d'arriver dans un petit village du Bourbonnais. Le benjamin du groupe est adopte par le cure du pays. ( Photo-reportage Trampus) That woiuld translate as something like, "Francais, Here comes the time to love you! A hundred evacuees from the Paris region have just arrived in a small village in the Bourbonnais region. The youngest of the group is adopted by the cure of the country. (Photo-reportage Trampus) We are not sure just when this photograph was taken, but surely it would have been June 1940.

The Germans launched their long awaited Western Offensive first at the Low Lands (May 10). It was an enormous success and within days they were driving into the Ardennes and racing across northern France toward the Channel. Most of the fighting took place in Belgium and northern France. Refugees streamed south in long columns. They were used by the Germans to impede the movement of reinforcements to the front. There was intensive fighting in Belgium and northern France creating even more refugees. As most of the fighting occurred in the north, the refugee problem was generally limited to the north including Paris. As the Germans moved South after Dunkirk, the French Army put up only desultory resistance. As a result the fighting and refugee problem was more limited. We have very limited information on the French refugees during 1940 at this time. We do not know of a good source of information describing the refugee problem in detail.

German Offensive

The Germans launched their long awaited Western Offensive first at the Low Lands (May 10). It was an enormous success and within days they were driving into the Ardennes and racing across northern France toward the Channel. Most of the fighting took place in Belgium and northern France.

Streams of Refugees

Refugees streamed south in long columns. They were used by the Germans to impede the movement of reinforcements to the front. There was intensive fighting in Belgium and northern France creating even more refugees. As most of the fighting occurred in the north, the refugee problem was generally limited to the north, including Paris.

Fighting

As most of the fighting occurred in the north, the refugee problem was generally limited to the north. In many cases the families stayed together. As a result of the fighting, however, there were civilian casualties. Parents were killed and children and parents inevitably became separated. As the Germans moved South after Dunkirk, the French Army put up only desultory resistance. As a result the fighting and refugee problem was more limited.

Evacuation effort

There appears to have been some effort to evacuate children from Paris after the German Western Offensive began. We notice images of French children with identification tags. We have no details, however, at this time concerning any official French evacuation effort.

Les Petits Chanteurs de Paris

This famous boy's choir had played a major role of reviving the tradition of boys' choral singing in the Church. Father Maillet had evacuated 40 of the choristers from Paris. He installed them in a small hotel in Rocamador. He also acquired two buses so the boys could give concerts to refugees and in hospitals. The boys had been living at home on Paris, but were now in what amounted to a boarding school. One of the boys, 13-year old Joseph Pistorio recalls that the main salon in the hotel became their rehearsal room. "Sometimes we gave four concerts a day, and I can remember many audiences--particularly the refugees--in tears. But I think we helped people to forget their miseries as we worshiped God with a song". [Barber, p. 103.] Father Maillet for a time considered taking the boys to Bordeaux where they could reach North Africa. I believe, however, that after the Armistice was signed, that he brought the boys back to Paris.

Ecole Arago

A French reader tells us, "Your information being sketchy, I will add that my mother-in-law, a teacher at the Ecole Arago in Paris was sent on evacuation with her school. The school was a public school in Paris' 14th arrondisement. She had in tow her class of 30 to 60 girls, 9-year olds. They traveled the roads, hot and dusty, mostly on foot and slept in barns in the hay, contracting all sorts of pests. She told me that she had to use harsh brushes on the little girls until they were bleeding to remove the pests that had burrowed under their skin. They were eventually told to return to Paris. She continued teaching in that school throughout the war. I too am searching for more details and wished that I had written it all down as she recounted it." [Bordeaux] Our reader would like to know if it was the policy of the Paris school system to evacuate the schools. Hopefully some of our readers will know more about that.

Sources

Barber, Noel. The Week France Fell (Stein and Day: New York, 1976), 321p.

Bordeaux, Gaylene. E-mail message (September 3, 2017).







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