Vénissieux Camp
August 27, 1942
Gilbert wanted to leave with Father Glasberg and Jean-Marie, but first he needed to talk with the staff of l’Œuvre de secours aux enfants, the Organization to Save the Children. They needed to share ideas about the days ahead and how to drag out the exemption process to buy all the time they could.
There were several OSE staff workers at the camp. While some continued the ceaseless labor of tending to the refugees, Élisabeth, Madeleine, Joseph, Georges, and Charles Lederman came to the ad hoc meeting.
Gilbert began, “You are aware that the intendant has informed us that there will be hardly any exemptions allowed. But we’re not going to sit around with our arms crossed. We’ll try to negotiate with the higher-ups and put pressure on the authorities. We’ve got to free these people one way or another.”
His colleagues nodded collectively as he continued. “It won’t be easy, and I won’t hide the fact that it could be extremely dangerous. Yet I believe this is worth all the effort and sacrifice. There are over a thousand people here who have committed no crime and have done nothing wrong to anyone. They’re being persecuted for the simple fact that they are Jews, and this is unacceptable. Our ancestors were the first to formulate the fundamental rights of human beings and of citizens. I’ll go even further, though I know not all of us are believers. The rights of human beings are inalienable because they are granted by our Creator. So, my friends, let us work with strength and resolve.”
When Gilbert finished his speech, Madeleine approached him. There was another young woman with her whom Gilbert had not met before.
“Forgive me for bothering you, Gilbert, but I wanted you to meet someone who’s been working with the OSE locally here in Lyon for over a year. This is Lili Tager. Last night she came and offered her services for our work in the camp. We need all the hands we can get, but I wanted you to meet her first.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Tager.”
“The pleasure is mine.”
“Yesterday Lili worked alongside Dr. Weill and is with Dr. Adam today,” Madeleine explained.
“Last night we had about fifteen attempted suicides. They all tried to hang themselves. We saved almost all of them, but a young woman named Clarise and an older gentleman were too far gone.”
“How tragic; I’m so sorry,” Gilbert said, looking at Lili kindly. It pained him to see people so young dealing with such difficult situations.
“Thank you, sir,” Lili answered.
“Well, welcome to the club of desperados,” Gilbert said, patting her shoulder before making his way to the next room, where Father Glasberg and Jean-Marie were waiting for him.
“I’m sorry for keeping you,” Gilbert said.
“Don’t worry about it. Training your staff to tend to the prisoners is of upmost importance. We’re all in such a state that, without the help of the social workers, it’ll be impossible to get all the forms filled out,” Father Glasberg answered.
Jean-Marie sighed. “If it’s even worth trying. You heard what the intendant said.”
“Don’t be pessimistic, my friend. There’s plenty of game left to play,” Glasberg answered.
A movement at the back of the room caught Gilbert’s attention, and he noticed a boy in the corner for the first time. He looked at his colleagues with eyebrows raised in question.
“He has no family. He was in the infirmary last night and was supposed to go back to the barracks today but has been crying all morning,” Jean-Marie explained.
“Did anyone see him come into this room?” Gilbert asked.
The two men shook their heads.
“And your car is parked at the door, right? We could put him in the trunk and cross our fingers.”
Glasberg nodded, but Jean-Marie was less convinced. “To save just one we could jeopardize the entire plan.”
Gilbert understood his friend. It was undoubtedly reckless and risky.
“But what value can we place on one human life? We don’t know what’s going to happen. The hopes we have right now of saving as many as possible could disappear in an instant, yet we might be able to save just one.”
Jean-Marie studied the boy and then turned back to his colleagues. “Oh, all right. May God spare us.”
The three men left by the back door. While one kept watch, the other two helped the boy into the trunk, covered him with a blanket, and then got in. At the checkpoint, the punctilious gendarme Philip Moreau was on guard.
“Papers, please,” he said as the car slowed.
A gendarme holding a machine gun scrutinized the back of the car.
“Everything is in order, officer,” Gilbert said. Among the three, he had the coldest blood.
Moreau studied Gilbert’s face but saw nothing behind the broad smile. Meanwhile, the three men in the car collectively held their breath as the other gendarme approached the trunk.
“Leave off,” Moreau called. “What do you think they’ve got, a Jew hidden back there?” The two gendarmes guffawed in laughter, and the three occupants of the black Citroën followed suit. Jean-Marie accelerated cleanly through the raised barrier and did not stop until they were well outside of Lyon.
“So what do we do with the boy?” he asked.
Gilbert shrugged. Father Glasberg answered, “There’s a convent not far from here, and I’m sure they’ll take him in. They’ll pass him off as a novice.”
They drove into the yard of the Carmelite convent and helped the young man out of the trunk. The abbot, a burly man with dark hair and glasses, immediately hugged the boy and assured the three men that he would be welcome in their community.
* * *
As the men drove away from the convent, they were relieved to have helped rescue at least one refugee. The task ahead of them was enormous, but they would move heaven and earth to complete it.
As soon as they were back at the Amitié Chrétienne office, Father Glasberg called the office of Cardinal Jules-Géraud Saliège while Jean-Marie contacted the prefect and Gilbert sought the assistance of the French Protestant Federation. Their request of all of these parties was to pressure for the official release of the refugees held at Vénissieux.
The Amitié Chrétienne office was a hive of frenetic activity. It was a race against time to save as many as possible. Meanwhile the bureaucratic machine of the Vichy regime was at full tilt, placing every barrier possible before the benevolent workers’ task. The fate of foreign Jews mattered to very few in that dark moment of history.