Chapter 7

The Purest Riffraff Around

Alfred André, Georges Parietas, and the “blue collar” agents of the GFP

The file of Alfred André, a fanatical leader of the persecution of the Jews of the Vaucluse, could not be found either in the archives of the courts of justice of the Vaucluse or the Gard which took over the Vaucluse judicial system on July 15, 1945. The court of justice of the Gard had effectively sentenced a certain number of collaborators for acts which had taken place in Vaucluse. Why was that specific file missing? Had it been lost, destroyed, stolen or simply requested—and never returned—by another court of justice investigating closely related issues in another département? Everything was possible.

Alfred André can be found nevertheless. Even though his biographical information and civil status are also missing, enough information about him is available in files of the Vaucluse, Gard and elsewhere. Alfred André was described as an “agent of the Gestapo,” but he was actually a French member of the GFP (Geheime Feldpolizei), secret military intelligence, which had settled at the Avignon Hotel “la Cigale,” 11, rue Bancasse.

The official role of the GFP, described as “protecting the back of the Wehrmacht,” is misleading, since it also was one of the nerve centers of the persecution of the Jews of the Vaucluse. There are clear indications of the collaboration between the GFP and the SD (security police) both in the fight against the Resistance and in the hunt for the Jews across all French territory.1 These tight links between the two groups in the Vaucluse are apparent through some testimonies. For instance, Gaston Mouillade, an active member of the SD, an individual sentenced to death and executed, related during his interrogation the circumstances that followed his fortuitous encounter, in a restaurant in Cavaillon, with Blaise Bounias,^* a member of the Resistance, accompanied by two women:

Faced with this providential encounter and considering the extreme urgency, I went straight to the GFP, rue Bancasse. I alerted these services which, after a phone call to the SD [avenue Monclar] and after agreement of the inspector on watch, have arrested Bounias and the two women, according to my information.

M. Poutet^†, very happy about my decisiveness, asked the SD to continue on this case by arresting Mme. Jacotet and two police inspectors of Cavaillon who are said to have fabricated the forged identity papers of the two Bounias companions arrested with him.²

The GFP submitted the matter to the SD of avenue Monclar before taking action. The Avignon situation presented at the same time some autonomy and a local collaboration amongst the various German police forces; for the witnesses of that period, this was the source of confusion between the “services of rue Bancasse,” the headquarters of the GFP, and the “services of avenue Monclar,” the headquarters of the SD and of the Gestapo. The name Gestapo was anyway often used as a general term to designate all the police services, distinct and coordinated at the same time.

In their numerous testimonies, the Jews arrested often declared having been taken to the “Gestapo” of rue Bancasse, before being taken to the Ste Anne prison, even if their arrest was carried out by the squad of the avenue Monclar, a clear indication that these two offices were not as distinct as people thought.

Other names were to surface associated with Alfred André, the local Avignon boss. The French team of the GFP was composed of 5 main operatives compared to some 20 Germans,³ according to Georges Parietas, aka Georges Boyer, alias superintendant Boyer, the official leader of the French components of the Avignon “Gestapo” from November 1943. On June 2, 1945, two gendarmes of the Sorgues brigade, Charles Martin and Gabriel Chabannis, informed the investigating judge in Marseille:

… Among the agents of the Gestapo who were crisscrossing the region, the best known is a man named Boyer.4

Alfred André, seemed to be Boyer’s alter ego. Antoine Cappe, another “founding member” of the unit, incarcerated and transferred to Marseille on February 16, 1945, to be judged there,⁵ generously awarded to Alfred André the medal of “top chief of the Gestapo.”⁶

Alfred André and his Victims

Alfred André was 47 at the time of his arrest; he was a native of Aigues-Mortes and resided at 30, rue du Rempart St. Lazare in Avignon.⁷ Officially a stallholder—a strategic profession to catch Jews—he had, upon the arrival of the German police until his flight to Germany in August 1944, played a key role in the arrest of Jews, who were often his competitors on the open air market. Although he did not leave a systematic report, and all the circumstances are not known, what we learn indirectly from other files suggests that he was very busy and had very little time left to lay out his merchandise on the market.

One of his brave deeds was the arrest of the Jews in Bollène in March 1944. He admitted to his participation in the raid during his interrogation of June 15, 1945:

While I was at the offices of the Geheime Feldpolizei in Avignon, a man named Titien^* Feroldi, département inspector of the Milice, came and stated that he knew the hiding place of a German deserter, hidden near Bollène. With Feroldi, there was another milicien, around 27 year old, blond, domiciled in Bollène who had provided information about the case.^† I do not know his name. The Germans asked me to accompany them to conduct the arrest. We left with two cars. In the first, was Feroldi, two miliciens and one German; in the second, myself, a sergeant, and two German soldiers.

The young milicien who accompanied Feroldi gave us directions, but he did not accompany us. We arrived in front of a castle which I knew later belonged to an Israelite named Rosenberg. Feroldi entered the yard through the large gate. We heard people running and the lights went off in the castle. Shots were fired by the Germans accompanying us. Feroldi and I, entered the corridor and we were rejoined by two miliciens and a German flanking the owner of the castle, M. Rosenberg and three daughters.* All had been arrested in the park. I stayed in the living room to guard the four people. Meanwhile, the others went to the castle wing inhabited by the farmer and arrested the German deserter we were seeking. Two Alsatians were also arrested, but outside the castle.

On the following day trucks arrived. The seven people arrested sat in one of them. The furniture, paintings, etc. were looted in this castle. In the course of this operation, the miliciens looted all the rooms. One part was kept by Feroldi, rue des Lices, Caserne des Passagers;^** the rest at the headquarters of the Milice, rue Joseph Vernet. The Germans took away all the wine: 250 liters. Personally, I did not participate in the plunder because I was guarding the defendants [sic]. I swear to you that I did not receive from the Milice anything from this pillage.⁸

The manhunters were seeking a deserter from the German army and ran into the Rosenberg family. André’s deposition clearly indicates that, in addition to the Rosenbergs, the Nazis had found the deserter in question and several other persons of interest. Of course, it is possible that they found the Rosenberg family by accident because the deserter was hidden in their farm. But it may also be possible that, from the time of their departure from Avignon, they had in fact intended to arrest the Rosenbergs.

In this affair, André accused Feroldi,^† a milicien who was largely in the same class, but no longer available to account for his deeds, since he escaped justice. Today, the veil over the circumstances of the arrest of Szlama Rosenberg, his daughter Marceline, and two refugees, Marie and Suzanne Melman, who were also unfortunately Jewish, is lifted. All were deported on convoy 71.

On that day, the entire family would have been arrested, but Jacqueline Rosenberg, now Mme. Haby, and her little brother Michel, who had been hidden by their parents at a woman’s home in Bollène, were saved. It is a miracle that the mother and Henriette, the eldest daughter, were able to escape by hiding in the garden. The Melman sisters who happened to be present at the wrong time were captured with Szlama Rosenberg and his daughter Marceline.

In 2008, in her autobiography, Ma Vie Balagan,^‡ Marceline, an Auschwitz survivor, recounts the circumstances of her arrest. With some minor exceptions, her story sadly echoes Alfred André’s confession.

On the morning of February 28, 1944, my eldest sister, Henriette, who belonged to the Resistance, came to warn us not to sleep in the château that night. So, during the day, my father had carried some of our belongings up the mountain, to an abandoned house, full of bugs… At home, that night, there were two girls, two sisters, Marie and Suzanne [Melman]. Since they had not found a place where to flee, my parents had offered them to hide with us in that abandoned house, in the forest.

It was in winter. It was very cold. My mother had cooked a pot-au-feu. She said: “We are not going to leave tonight, I have a terrible headache”…

The memory of that day has not faded away:

I remember it’s getting darker. I remember the last pot-au-feu prepared by my mother. I remember our fatigue, the migraine of my mother, and the insistence of my sister [Henriette] pushing us to leave. I remember the decision to stay… one more night. I remember, I am the first to go to bed on the second floor, and I fall asleep. I am 15 years old.

I remember: I am suddenly awakened by my father “Fast, fast, Marceline, they are here”… I remember, completely in the dark, the yells “Open, open,” the screams, the gate of the internal yard being opened by M. Roussier, our tenant farmer, who lives right behind.

I remember the violent knocks on the doors, the submachine gun shots, and of my frantic flight amid yells, screams, “Open, open, you are finished.”

I remember running from one stairwell to another; I remember that I do not succeed in coming downstairs, as the shots become so much precise.

I am alone in the house. I must get out at all and reach a hidden door, at the end of the park, leading to the woods.

I remember: with fear in my stomach, I succeed in leaving the house. My father, mad with worry, is waiting for me behind a tree, at the beginning of the park.

I remember I saw only him; we run like mad towards the edge of the park, in the darkness.

I remember, I am ahead of him, I unbolt the door, I say “That’s it, Daddy, we are safe.”

Behind the door, a man, a French milicien, revolver in hand, a flashlight in the other hand. He tells us “Halt, or I shoot!” He violently hits my father on the head with the butt of his gun.

I remember our return to the dining room; the pot-au-feu is still on a corner of the wood stove. It is midnight, they are a dozen, French miliciens from Bollène, from Avignon, Germans in uniform, from the Gestapo, dressed in black, all armed.

I remember their violence, the brutality of the interrogations.

I remember the looting of the château, the truck arriving, the furniture they are moving, the despondency of my father who is suffering from the blows he has received and the slaps that come my way, the milicien who wants to rape me. I remember my cries.

I remember this German officer, rushing in and screaming: “It is forbidden to touch this dirty race.”

I remember this dreadful phrase that saved me.

I remember the evasive look of M. and Mme. Roussier who witnessed it all.

I remember the next day at noon, the departure on the trucks, crammed and sitting on chairs from the château…

From the château, the prisoners are taken to the St. Anne Prison, from there to the Grandes Baumettes in Marseille, then to Drancy. Marceline had noticed an unusual German officer:

There was a German, a very classy one. He told me “I am a member of the Fifth Column. The Fifth Column was an intelligence organization already present in France before the war. I was a German teacher at the lycée Lakanal, in Sceaux.”9

This man probably is Wilhelm Wolfram, aka Gauthier, a subordinate of Wilhelm Müller, the head of the Avignon German police.

The man hunters were seeking a deserter from the German army and they ran into the Rosenberg family. André’s deposition clearly indicates that, in addition to the Rosenbergs, the Nazis had found the deserter in question and several other persons of interest.

The testimonies lead to the first question: “Who knew of the existence of the Rosenbergs?” Of course, the farmhand and his family were aware, but they were not the only ones. Moreover, we know from several sources that the Rosenbergs were well known in Bollène; well-off families indeed do not go unnoticed in small towns. They had been registered in the census of 1941, 1943 and 1944; their names had been collected by the Bollène town hall and the prefecture of the Vaucluse. We also know that the list of foreign Jews they were a part of had been communicated to the Germans in October 1943. Moreover, we also know that, on January 28, 1943, Georges Cruon, a violent and greedy anti-Semite, forwarded to de Camaret the list of 38 Jews of Bollène, amongst them the Rosenbergs.¹⁰ Self-appointed as the chief supervisor of the Bollène Jews, Cruon surely gave away this information to whoever asked for it. Finally, on December 7, 1943, the SEC of Marseille transmitted to Jean Lebon “… for execution… letter No. 38200 from the CGQJ relative to the Bollène Château du Gourdon affair (the Jew Rosenberg).”¹¹ Apparently, like many other Jews, the Rosenbergs lived out in the open.

The second question is: “When did the members of the GFP learn of the existence of the Rosenbergs?” According to the deposition of Alfred André, the raid on Bollène was first and foremost motivated by the arrest of the German deserter whose hiding place was known to the GFP. Besides, a police report12 relates that, on March 3, 1944, “… at M. Jean Roussier’s home, [the German police seizes] a radio set, linen and money in the amount of 20,000F…” It is thus possible that the German police had become aware of the Rosenbergs on their arrival at the home of the farmhand, whom they roughed up, but it is equally possible they had known all along who were the owners of the Château and the farm.

There is no obvious way of determining the scenario that led to the Rosenbergs’ arrest.

Another aspect to this case, hidden by Alfred André, was disclosed by his friend Jean Costa, who became acquainted with André at the penitentiary in Nîmes (they had shared a similar prison experience). They reconnected at the Hotel “La Cigale”¹³ where Costa was interrogated by the Germans for arms trafficking, before he was hired by them at the GFP. Costa shed light on the raid in Bollène during his deposition on June 28, 1945.

I did learn that André had participated with the Germans in the arrest of the three Israelite girls. Later, the mother who had fled through the garden was put in contact with André, without the knowledge of the Germans, through the intermediary of the owner of the Crillon, Paul Biancone. André wanted 500,000 francs to get her three daughters out. This woman transferred the amount in question, but her children were nevertheless deported.

Jacqueline Haby testified that in fact her mother had to pay double the amount cited by Costa. One way or another, the money at stake was considerable, and one can easily imagine how the money was split among all the intermediaries.

Biancone ran the bar “Le Crillon,” one of the meeting places most prized by the hooligans of the Vaucluse collaboration. Alfred André did not stop at the arrest of Szlama, Marceline and the Melman sisters; he jumped at the opportunity to demand a ransom from the family. Mme. Frenata Rosenberg did not disappoint him in her desperate hope to snatch her husband and the three girls from the clutches of the criminals.

Marceline continues:

I remember the arrival at the Auschwitz train station, the opening of the cattle cars, the screams, the SS, and a few rare French words, meant to be reassuring, which we could not grasp: “Give the children to the elderly, do not get up on the trucks…”

I remember the hunger which gnawed at us day and night, the blows, all the humiliations, the cold, the roll calls, the selections for the crematorium, our cheeks which we were pinching to look well before walking in front of Mengele, the camp doctor in chief, the wounds which we attempted to hide to survive, the kapos, the roads we were paving, our skinniness, my father whom I saw by chance, who held me tight against his chest. I remember the SS who beats me to death in front of him while he called me a whore, and I fainted. I remember being happy that my father was alive.

I remember: Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, the death of Simone Ragun’s mother, Theresienstadt, Prague, the return, the Hotel Lutétia in Paris. My father will not come back. I would learn later about his long forced march from Auschwitz to Gross Rosen in Germany, the liquidation of all the survivors by the SS, the Russians arriving and finding only corpses…

An Auschwitz survivor, later married to Joris Ivens, the famous documentary maker with whom she created a large cinematographic body of work, Marceline Loridan Ivens produced in 2003 The Little Meadow with the Birch Trees, a film with Anouk Aimée inspired by her own deportation.

A Sordid “Entente”: German Police and Local Scoundrels

The association between French collaborators, Costa, André, and the German police reflects a familiar scenario in the Vaucluse. The Germans were fond of ex-convicts whose services they sought and loyalty they secured. They fished out their future collaborators from the hands of the French police; or they hired them with the knowledge they were wanted by the French authorities; or they arrested them on their own after being informed of their criminal record or to crack down on an “alleged” crime against the Germans. These shady individuals worked for the Germans on all fronts of repression, intelligence against the Resistance, arrests of STO dodgers, procurement of all kinds of merchandise, struggles against the black market, arrests of Jews—in short, whatever the German police was after.

In all cases, they benefitted from a number of privileges in exchange for their services; they received protection certificates from the German authorities or German police cards—often renewable on a monthly basis to remind the gangsters of their duties, the right to bear arms, and in some cases, a monthly salary and bonus for good performance. The Germans often turned a blind eye on extortions and looting of many victims “on the side.” These crooks will reappear in a significant number of raids as “bogus police,” their lucrative parallel activity.

The French hoodlums in turn used similar tactics: they also recruited criminals and turned them into loyal subordinates who in return owed them their freedom as well as the opportunity to fill their pockets with impunity. The “grateful” hoodlums also shared the proceeds of their loot: everyone had a hand in the till.

The Unification of the German Police

To better understand the situation in occupied Vaucluse, it is necessary to take into account what happened during the occupation of northern France, before the invasion of the free zone. Jacques Delarue gave a detailed view in 1962.14

As soon as he took control of the Gestapo in 1934, Heinrich Himmler, already head of the SS, campaigned to increase his police powers. He created the SD, Security Service of the SS, which worked hand in hand with the Gestapo. First he took control of civilian life through the German police forces and created the RSHA (Reich Main Security Office) in the October 1939; then he attempted to get the military in step. When the Germans occupied the northern zone of France, the military command of the Wehrmacht opposed direct intervention by the SS in French affairs: the Germans would provide the direction and issue decrees, and the French would execute them. This was more effective and would prevent a counterproductive reaction on the part of the French population. The only exception was the Jewish section under Theo Dannecker, formerly from the Gestapo and reporting to Adolf Eichmann’s section in the RSHA. But the French dragged their feet, and the Germans began losing their patience.

Since the military method was yielding no results, on August 22, 1941, General Von Stülpnagel ordered hostage executions that only made things worse the following year. All along, Himmler’s group remained in the shadows, while increasing their control under the direction of Helmut Knochen. At the same time, they linked up with the shadiest element of French society, including outlaws and members of the most extreme political parties. Little by little, the GFP was overtaken by the pressure of events and its inadequacy, and was forced to allow the Gestapo to come in, at the beginning as an auxiliary, thereby increasing its influence.

After long negotiations between Knochen and the military command, the solution to the problem finally came from Berlin, where Himmler obtained from Hitler in April 1942 the control of all police organizations. The GFP was dismantled; some of its members were picked up by the Gestapo; others were transferred to regular military units. Most of the separate police organizations were finally integrated into one unit, the Sicherheit Polizei-Sicherheit Dienst or SiPo-SD.

Oddly enough, the GFP was not considered a criminal organization during the proceedings of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. Therefore, the senior commanders of the GFP were not charged, although it was recognized that a large part of its members had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity on a considerable scale;15 this is definitely the case for the Vaucluse.

The exoneration of the senior commanders of the GFP is surprising, if one considers that most of them were members of the Nazi party, the SS or the SD. Before their mobilization, many had been members of the police often with a high rank. Their good fortune can at least be explained in part by the fact that after the unification of the police forces under Himmler in April 1942, the focus for the atrocities was put on the SiPo-SD, while, after the war, the senior leadership of the GFP played up the rivalry that existed between the two organizations. It is undeniable that the GFP committed atrocities before the unification, especially against Jews and Gypsies on the eastern front.¹⁶ This did not change after April 1942, for the member of the GFP who joined the SiPo-SD as well as for those who remained under separate GFP command. The tightening of the grip of the SD on the police forces after April 1942 may have served as a shield for war crimes the senior officers of the GFP committed before and after that date along with their subordinates. This will come to light in the case of the Vaucluse, although on a smaller scale.

The new Himmler representative in France, General Karl Oberg, enjoyed a quasi independent status for his police organizations which in fact received their orders directly from Berlin rather than from the German military command in France. Himmler’s delegates had even quietly infiltrated their agents into the free zone under the cover of armistice commissions or military liaisons.^* Their discreet network preceded the invasion of November 11, 1942.

Oberg’s complete control of all police forces reached down at all levels of the hierarchy, in Paris, in the regions, in the départements, and eventually, in the municipalities. With the invasion of the free zone, he only needed to extend his police system by leveraging the “moles” set up before the invasion and now ready for action. Kommandant Rolf Mühler reigned over Marseille and its prefectural region from January 3, 1943, to July 18, 1944, and Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Müller on Avignon and the Vaucluse, assisted by Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Wolfram, aka Gauthier, and a team of around 10 to 20 active subordinates in charge of various files.17 This unified police command all the way down to Avignon and the Vaucluse explained the tight collaboration between the rue Bancasse and the avenue Monclar. It is also because of this unified command that several German police officers dealt with members of the Resistance as well as with Jews, depending on the needs of their boss, Second Lieutenant Wilhelm Müller. The German police were nevertheless significantly understaffed, a fact which required, as with have seen during the raid on the Rosenbergs, a lot of additional forces.

This confusion about the affiliation of the German police was not limited to Avignon. From the beginning, even the military court of justice in Marseille designated the members of the police as SS, while Ernst Dunker, aka Delage, a GFP subordinate of Rolf Mühler, the head of the SiPo-SD of Marseille, provided the court with the correct information. In his deposition of May 7, 1945, Dunker gave a list of section heads where we counted 7 SS, 10 GFP, 1 Gestapo, 11 Gestapo SS, and 16 members without a precise affiliation. Dunker added 15 members whom he knew only by sight. Apparently, the members of the SiPo-SD remained posted with their original units, independently of their missions within the unified police.¹⁸

The errors made by the courts of justice may be explained by the early sources of their information. At the beginning, they drew on the “London files,” a body of reports from the Resistance rank and file that used SS, SD and Gestapo interchangeably.

The Avignon unit was small, but Müller and Gauthier, two sadists, were surrounded by a small number of German subordinates in their image. Some of them, in particular Oberscharführer^* Willie Schultz and Hauptscharführer^† Fritz Hachmann had turned Ste Anne prison into a living hell.¹⁹ Witnesses also mentioned Oberscharführer “Perrine” who could not be found in any list of the SiPo-SD and was probably an assumed name of Schultz himself.

Gauthier was transferred to Digne on April 1, 1944, and mortally wounded by the Resistance on June 6, 1944, at Vergons in the Basses Alpes. He died a few days later in the Digne hospital.

The Auxiliaries of the rue Bancasse

Before we follow the tracks of Alfred André and his acolytes within the GFP, we should clarify and discuss once and for all the thesis often repeated by local historians who claim that the “Gestapo” moved on February 4, 1943, from 11, rue Bancasse to 32, avenue Monclar, thus implying that there was no more German police activity at the Hotel de la Cigale.

Actually, it is the leadership of the SiPo-SD that settled in avenue Monclar, with Wilhelm Müller as its boss. He was the number one in the German police in Avignon (including the GFP, which remained in rue Bancasse). The confusion which already existed between the names of the police units—GFP, Gestapo, SD, SS, and SiPo-SD—could have been compounded by several moves that occurred in February 1943. The Kommandantur left the Hotel du Palais des Papes to go to 35, rue Joseph Vernet. Similarly, the troops stationed in the Palais des Papes and the vehicle parked in front of the Palais rejoined the Chabran and Haupoul barracks.

In a letter dated April 19, 1943, the prefect wrote to Gauthier in avenue Monclar to forward a baptism certificate of the gentile wife of Henri Dreyfus, the former mayor of Carpentras. She was arrested with her husband, Henri, and her brother-in-law, René Dreyfus who was deported.20 Wolfram, aka Gauthier, was sometimes referred to as chief of the GFP, and on other occasions as second in command of the SD. On May 17, 1943, referring to himself as department head of the service of 32, avenue Monclar, Gauthier informed the prefect of the arrest of some Jews. Gauthier, who could alternatively be found in rue Bancasse and in avenue Monclar, seemed to serve as a liaison between his boss, Wilhelm Müller, and the members of the GFP, and probably kept an eye on them. The presence of Gauthier simultaneously at both addresses can be explained in part by the recent unification of the German police units.

Joseph Grunstein, who resided in Valréas with his wife and two children, was arrested on February 9, 1944. Four days later, Deborah Grunstein, having not heard from her husband, traveled to Avignon. She did not return. On February 14, Maurice and Pauline, the two children, were summoned to 11, rue Bancasse. Another indication of the continuing activity of rue Bancasse: in May and June 1944, a 20-year-old man named Roger Leonetti, with a long police record (robbery, possession of stolen goods, illegal carrying of firearms, former reform school inmate) was called twice to the rue Bancasse because his papers were not in order. His closeness with Biancone, the boss of the Bar Crillon, his uncle who was hiding him, eventually got him released.²¹ Finally, on March 15, 1945, the deposition of Georges Parietas, aka Commissaire Boyer, judged in Marseille, left no doubt:

I was an agent of the GFP at the Hotel de la Cigale from December 1943 to June 15, 1944. At that time, I was transferred to 348, boulevard Michelet in Marseille, the GFP of the air force. I have participated on my own and with other comrades in numerous bogus detective jobs and the blackmail of Jews. In my capacity as head of the French service of the GFP, I had several people under my command: Alfred André, Vial aka Bouboule, Cappe from Arles, Jean Costa whose primary role was informer, Nicolas Raineroff, Orloff aka Nicky (might have been arrested in Paris), Boyer “from Mondragon” killed by the Germans, Robert Bonhoure aka Le Moël (might have been arrested in Paris), Lassia from Entraigues (found dead on the Rhône riverside), Charles Isnard, aka Le Toulonnais (executed in Villeneuve), André Moreau, Grimaldi from Arles, Pic also from Arles, Frasson from Chateaurenard, Villard, and the Arab Simon Seghir.22

There were many more than five people involved, but the hard core was composed of Boyer himself, André, Cappe, Nicky, and Costa. The additional names of people coming from different locations showed that the activity of the Boyer gang, connected to rue Bancasse, extended beyond the boundaries of the Vaucluse. The agents of higher caliber—those that a man like Etienne Bravi, 30 years old, called “inspectors of the Gestapo”—all had their own paid or volunteer informers, and kept looking for more. If we include the associates of the hard core, the network becomes much larger. Etienne Bravi, a plasterer by trade, but in reality a pimp and ex-convict, was a man under police surveillance and threatened with being sent to a labor camp; he asked Boyer for protection and was hired by him. In exchange for information about Jews, Boyer succeeded in letting him stay in Avignon. Previously chased out of town and forced to reside in Isère, he had indeed secretly returned to Avignon.

Alfred André, Boyer’s “lieutenant,” outdid his own boss. Amongst his acquaintances, we find Victor Bruni, his official informer, according to Boyer.²³ Bruni, 44 years old, a stallholder like André, ex-convict from before the war (theft, illegal carrying of firearms, pimp), will be eventually sentenced to forced labor for life for “intelligence with the agents of the Gestapo, serving as an informer and taking part in this capacity in arrests, searches, looting and extorting money.” In spite of the multiple testimonies piled up against him, Bruni admitted to only one raid which he carried out in the company of agents of the Gestapo against the Jew Maurice Stora in Villes sur Auzon, and netting 35,000 francs.

Among the documents of the Bruni trial, one indicates that Sophie Tcherkes, née Cherkaski, domiciled 72, rue Joseph Vernet, testified that “five of her family members were arrested on March 13, 1944, because they were Jewish.” Léon, Gilbert and Ginette were deported in convoy 71. Ginette survived. Sophie added that she has “learned from M. Millet, secretary of the Union of Stallholders, who himself learned it from a French employee of the OPA, that they were denounced by Bruni and another man who is said to have been executed.” Gisèle Guillermin, née Zizerman, a relative of the Cherkaskis, knew Bruni. Like him, she owned a stall on Place Pie. She remembered her conversation with Bruni in front of the Bar Léon: “I have a great friend at the Gestapo; if you have a large sum of money, we can get them out.” Jean Guillermin confirms his wife’s testimony: “After learning that my wife was Jewish, Bruni contacted her and informed her that, if the Cherkaskis had one million at their disposal, he could get them released thanks to his friendship with Müller.” In recent testimony, Ginette Kolinka, née Cherkaski, remembered that her sister got in touch with this influential person on the German side in a house of the rue de la Bourse, at the time the disreputable neighborhood of Avignon and a nest of pimps.24 Wilhelm Müller really knew how to choose his friends.

Denis Teyssier, 21 years old, married, one child, for a while employed at the locomotive depot, made Alfred André’s acquaintance in the bars of place de l’Horloge, as he described it in his deposition of October 24, 1944:

One day that I needed money, I informed Alfred André about a Jew. The Jew lived at 11 chemin de Bonaventure. For this denunciation, I received 5,000 francs. As for the other [French] members of the Gestapo, they first extorted 40,000 francs from this person and afterward, they arrested him and delivered him to the Germans. I do not remember the name of this Jew, I can only tell you that he worked at the leather goods shop behind the court of justice.²⁵

He stated that he had split the 5,000 francs with his “work” colleague, Aimé Delorme, whose profession as a waiter must have facilitated the gathering of information.

The address at 11 Chemin de Bonaventure gives a clue about the person denounced by Teyssier—a person whose name he did not remember. This was where David Kreikeman was living with his family. Besides, the denunciation of David Kreikeman was attributed to Teyssier a few weeks later, on November 12, 1944, in a report of the Screening Commission.

As to the Kreikemans, they were arrested in May 1944 by Palmieri and his gang.^* This indicated that Teyssier did not work exclusively for Alfred André or that André himself collaborated with the Palmieri gang or simply that the extortion took place long before the arrest of the family. In all cases, it showed the multiple links of the Avignon networks.

At André’s request, Teyssier attempted to get rehired at the locomotive depot of Avignon—a center of Resistance—to provide intelligence to the Germans. He was rejected. But of course, he could still deal with the Jews. The rest of his story conveys the distrust, probably justified, that existed between the gangsters:

I denounced the Jew Amar, place St. Lazare; the agents of the Gestapo told me that he is clean and I got no money. I informed Alfred André about the Jew Jacques Birman, greengrocer at Chemin des Sources in Avignon. A few days later, the André gang told me that they did not find him. I did not believe them, but I said nothing because they let me understand that my job was to help, no less no more. Alfred André was constantly reminding me: look for good deals that bring in money, especially the black market and the Jews.

The Birmans—Jacques, his wife Jacqueline, and their three children, Anne, Catherine and Marie—were arrested on July 17, 1943, at their villa in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, and deported 6 months later in convoy 68. On the same day, the Germans visited their neighbors next door, the Arokas family. Salomon Arokas and his son Maurice were arrested and deported in convoy 59. Two days later, it was the turn of Ida Arokas and her daughter Denise who were taken to the prison of les Beaumettes in Marseille. Eleven years old Denise became feverish and was moved to the Hopital de la Conception. She was able to escape and survive, while her mother was sent to Drancy and from there to Auschwitz by convoy 60. In 1951, Denise Arokas fortuitously became a nurse for ailing Henri Matisse and served him as a model.26 The family of Julien Lévi, the neighbors of the Arokas and the Birmans, was also targeted on the same day, but they fled just before the arrest.²⁷

Teyssier’s deposition provides us with two timeline data points, the arrest of the Biermans and the Arokas in July 1943, and the arrest of the Kreikemans in May 1944. This indicates that the André gang was working for the Germans at least during that time frame. André probably made contact with the SiPo-SD, and particularly its GFP contingent, soon after their settling in rue Bancasse.

During his interrogation, Teyssier “exonerated” his friend Poutier who had helped him find Jews, but he was never paid for it. Well, as long as it is pro bono… He concluded:

I admit I had told my wife that I was a member of the Gestapo, and that I had moved around every time in the Gestapo car. Occasionally, I went to the Hotel de la Cigale, where the services of the Gestapo GFP resided, to provide Alfred André with information. All in all, I worked for the Gestapo during a month and a half under the orders of Alfred André.

On September 3, 1945, Teyssier, Delorme and Poutier were sentenced to hard labor for life and 5 years and 8 months in prison, respectively.

Anecdotally, we even know the automobile that Teyssier was using. It was Georges Parietas who is very precise about it:

I owned two cars, a front wheel drive Citroën and a Matford. Cappe was the driver. Alfred André personally owned a front wheel drive. The license plates of one car, the Matford, were 2613 ZA 5. As for the other two cars we had a set of license plates which allowed us to swap them for our operations.

The life of Jean Costa took an unexpected turn toward the rue Bancasse, when he caught sight of Alfred André, Georges Boyer, and Nicky inside one of these cars. At least this is what he claimed. He probably knew them before his first arrest. Otherwise, they would not have hailed him to join them for the arrest of a Jewish dentist on boulevard Raspail in Avignon.

We found the information in the file of Maurice Pardini, who was completely exonerated in this case. In his deposition on May 11, 1945, Pierre Aizen provided all the details of his arrest:

Alfred André, Georges Boyer, Nicky and a man named Costa came on March 28, 1944, to arrest me at my work place, the dental clinic on boulevard Raspail. They told me that they had to arrest me as an Israelite to send me to a concentration camp. They took me to my home after a two hour discussion in my office. During that conversation, I bargained to get them to release me and I was able to sway them. They offered me to work for them, namely to provide them with good deals in exchange for a percentage of 25%. I pretended to accept et they asked me for a “security deposit” of 250,000 francs. I took Alfred André and Georges Boyer to my home to give them the money. Since I had approximately 500,000 francs and that Boyer who had come upstairs saw them, he grabbed a hold of them. They later returned to my home where they did a search in front of the mason who happened to be in the house. I went to hide at a friend’s house in Avignon and later in Villeneuve.28

For just hanging out with them, on the evening of this achievement, Jean Costa received 7,000 francs from Alfred André at the Bar Carnot;²⁹ a modest beginning for this 45-year-old house painter, born in Marseille, who had been sentenced in his youth in Aix en Provence to a five year restraining order. His father, a mechanic at the PLM,^* facilitated his employment at the Marseille streetcar company. He might not have been thrilled with the prospect of a working class life. So he alternated between truck delivery and burglary. In 1936, he seemed to settle down; he set up his own house painting business in Avignon. But in 1938, he was sentenced for non-declaration of weapons. Then, the war broke out. After demobilization, he ended up as a technician at the Grégoire pharmacy in Avignon. To supplement his modest salary, he resorted to the black market, then arms-dealing got him to rue Bancasse, where he again met Alfred André, his old Nîmes jail mate.

Costa was very forthcoming about the “financial” operations of the gang, but proof of their true extent can be found in the file of Antoine Cappe, who was tried in Marseille. We know that looting brought in large, and even very large, amounts of money, because rue Bancasse had become a center of theft, looting and extortion. Its reputation reached far beyond the city limits.

As with the Rosenbergs in Bollène, loot was a “by-product” of the persecution of the Jews and their arrest, and had to be disposed of. This is when Simon Seghir came into play. A member of the gang according to Boyer, and a grocer in the rue de la Carreterie, Seghir owned a warehouse at 7 rue Rempart de la Ligne, a stone’s throw from the hoodlums’ roost. A coincidence! This is where Seghir kept his food supply, but also where Boyer put his stolen goods in storage, before reselling them on the market of Place Pie and elsewhere. Did Seghir surrender to intimidation and terror or did he simply want to make easy money quickly? It may be for both reasons. Boyer’s watchful eye was safer than a padlock to look after Seghir’s food.

As to Costa, in August 1944, he blackmailed the Jewish director of a Monoprix department store, M. Franck, who had to pay 47,000 francs for his freedom. Business was still going on a few days before Liberation. The conclusion of the police report of January 13, 1945, wraps up the Costa affair best:

To conclude, Costa, blessed with the title of member of the Gestapo, turned to the search for Jews because he saw in it a way to increase his budget. Moreover, he has participated several times in break-ins for the same reason, knowing full well that these raids would go unpunished.

This greed of André’s gang was well known to the Jewish population of Avignon and its surroundings.

The Boss Who Came from Paris

As to Georges Boyer: no file about him could be found, but there are many depositions scattered throughout several other files ([Roger] Boyer30 “from Mondragon,” namesake of Georges Boyer, Jean-Baptiste Cabagno,³¹ Antoine Cappe³²). Paraded from trial to trial, Georges Boyer appeared to be a high-class prisoner. Arrested in Lyon in the fall of 1944 and executed by firing squad on December 17, 1946, he had enough time to talk. He did not spare any detail on his career, even if he tried hard to reduce the scope of his activity to high robbery; he denied having arrested Jews or members of the Resistance on his own initiative, but always acting at the behest of the Germans.

Before the war, Boyer, age 30—his real name was Parietas—was a minor gangster in Paris who had done time for a number of offenses such as possession of stolen goods, swindling, and gambling. His parents were hotel owners and coal merchants and he managed a hotel in Levallois, and worked as a waiter in many restaurants and cafés. He mostly lived by his wits and was a gambler for ten years after his imprisonment in Fresnes, in spite of an order, in 1923, to stay away from Paris, which he clearly didn’t abide by.

With the 1939 draft, because of his criminal record, he was sent to the Camp of Caylus (Tarn et Garonne). In March 1940 he volunteered for the combat duty and was sent to the Light Infantry Battalion in North Africa. Discharged in Marseille, he returned to Paris and went to the racetracks where he resumed his “profession” as a bookie. Suddenly, Boyer was hit with some bad luck: he was summoned by the Clichy police commissioner for guard duty on the railroad line. As a result, he left Paris to escape his obligations and set out to the city where organized crime was well-established.

Upon my arrival in Marseille, I got acquainted with the underworld. At the beginning, I often used to go to the bar “Le Gaulois,” rue de la Darse, managed by Mathieu Costa and also to the bar “Mistral” managed by Jeannot Carbone. I was broke and they noticed that I was jobless. A man named Bauer (a pimp), who visited Carbone often and had a day and night pass delivered by the Germans, introduced me to a man named Nau. This man asked me to enter the Gestapo’s service. After I accepted, he took me to Avignon, rue de la Bancasse, in his personal car. Nau introduced me to the German services in Avignon where he was very well-known.

I was greeted by a German lieutenant named Rupp, who started with a questioning and hired me after I gave him my photographs. I was expected to work for the German military security (GFP). I was not supposed to get a salary, but lieutenant Rupp had told me to manage with “the others,” namely to participate in the looting organized against the Jews.

For my job, I had received a card that said: “The man named Georges Boyer is attached to GFP service no. 27203 in Avignon, rue de la Bancasse.” This document was signed by Lieutenant Rupp, written in German and bearing the stamp with the swastika and the German eagle. As a precaution, this certificate was renewable on a monthly basis, because I knew that the Germans had provided similar documents to others for periods of 6 months and that some of them had fled after using the certificate for committing wrongdoings or fraud as “bogus cops.”

In December 1943, I started my job in Avignon under the orders of Rupp himself.

This testimony underscores an essential element, the freedom granted by the Germans to practice looting, and as a natural consequence, to organize raids as bogus cops. But in addition, Lieutenant Rupp, cited here as head of the Avignon GFP, does not appear in the membership of the SiPo-SD of the region of Marseille. This establishes a dual hierarchy with joint operations.

Boyer dated his hiring to December 1943, but in his deposition about Gautsch von Sachsenthurn33 (Hungarian agent of the GFP), he situated his own arrival at the Avignon GFP in November. Several other statements confirm that Boyer, Cappe, Nicky and André were ready to get down to the job as early as November. The description of the gang members is quite precise.

-    André Vial: common law criminal, brothel manager in Fréjus, domiciled in Nice. Hired by the Avignon GFP at the end of December 1943.

-    Nicolas Raineroff, aka “Count Orloff,” also called Nicky: a Quartier Latin student in Paris, Russian born with French nationality, fluent in German as well as English. We learn from the Cappe file that he was indicted in Paris at the Liberation.

-    Antoine Cappe. He was recruited by Nau (A German national in charge of recruiting for the Gestapo). Hired by the Avignon GFP with the help of Georges Boyer, but he had known Alfred André earlier in Arles where he lived. According to his file, he was known as a member of the PPF, responsible for propaganda in the “groupe Collaboration.” A foreman at the Coinard enterprise in Nîmes, he became a driver for the organization Todt, that fired him after he was caught selling gasoline. Sentenced to death by the court of justice of Marseille on July 17, 1946, his punishment was commuted to hard labor for life by the decree of November 20, 1946.

-    Alfred André was recruited at the same time as Cappe.

-    Roger Boyer, so called “Boyer from Mondragon,” was named by his peers after the village he came from to avoid any confusion with the boss, Georges Boyer. He was liquidated by the Germans around August 18, 1944, before their departure from Avignon. They had decided to get rid of him after he had received money for a “Jewish deal” and greased the palm of a German captain. The captain in question had him executed to eliminate an embarrassing witness. A local member of the gang, Roger Boyer had probably been in the area from the beginning.

As to Kurt Gautsch von Sachsenthurn, former agent of the French intelligence before the war, he was hired around September 10, 1943, by the Avignon GFP:

My job consisted in translating denunciations provided by the PPF, the Milice, or anonymous letters, so that investigations could be launched. I was in charge of initiating these inquiries, conducting the interrogations and recording the minutes…

Although much testimony exists about gangsters working for the GFP, Von Sachsenthurn did not mention them specifically. The probable reason for this omission is that people like Alfred André and his associates were considered permanent members of the GFP. They were not seen as informers.

In the course of 1943 the head of the German police, Wilhelm Müller, who had operated from the villa at 32, avenue Monclar, surrounded himself with a growing number of very efficient French agents like Pierre Terrier and Robert Conrad. As a growing number of such individuals joined in, the persecution reached its peak in March 1944 with the takeover of the operations by Palmieri, who had started infiltrating the Vaucluse a few months earlier.

The Crime Villas

Today, the “Hôtel de la Cigale” in the rue Bancasse, two minutes away from the Place de l’Horloge, is called “L’hôtel de Blauvac” that was the marquis de Blauvac’s home in the 17th century. In the presentation booklet of this very well restored hotel, there is understandably no mention of its function during the war that could disturb the customers.

The villa at 32, avenue Monclar, is a beautiful impressive house, outside the city walls but very close to the train station, it remains untouched by time. Before the war, it belonged to Albert Carcassonne, a Jewish lawyer. In April 1940 his widow Madeleine and his daughter Andrée sold it to Doctor Gayraud. Interestingly, Andrée Carcassonne was married to Doctor Georges Pons, a Resistance figure, and the future mayor of Avignon after Liberation. Pons had his office in the villa, and at some point, even a clinic. Did he continue using the villa as his office after the sale? It is indeed possible. Anyway, the sale’s agreement stipulated that Gayraud would take possession of the property in August. Was there a tacit agreement so that Pons could continue using it? And did all of this play a role in the decision of the German police to settle there? It remains a possibility.

As for the French members of the GFP, they lived, according to Georges Boyer “at 2, rue Rempart de la Ligne, in a beautiful building belonging to the Jew Naquet, whose assets were confiscated by the Germans.” To get a better understanding, we need to go back to Jean Costa’s file.34 In his deposition, young André Naquet stated that “his father and several members of his family had a close call and escaped arrest by the French agents of the Gestapo who belonged to Boyer’s gang.” We also learn that the house was looted; paintings, fabrics, rugs disappeared from 2, rue du Rempart de la Ligne. After that the Germans decided to allocate it to Boyer’s gang providing him with sumptuous lodgings as well as offices for his “commercial activity,” focused on black market purchase and sale, and the disposal of stolen property.

Today, the Naquet residence has been replaced by the “La Cardère” condominium building, named after the thistle plant used for the carding of textile fibers; the enterprise of the Naquets, adjacent to their home, specialized in the treatment of the thistle that they sold in the textile industry. But the address is important: 2, rue Rempart de la Ligne is at the end of rue de la Banasterie, a stone’s throw from the Ste Anne prison. It was very handy for the arrests. On the other hand, if help was needed, one could always call upon Alfred André who lived at 30, rue du Rempart St. Lazare, in the immediate continuation of rue du Rempart de la Ligne. These two short streets run along the inside of the walls.

André Naquet testified that on October 28, 1943, the day of the operation against his family, he and his parents were absent. Only his cousin, Lily Meyer, née Amado, and her mother (Achille Naquet’s sister) were on the third floor. Two individuals who showed up to arrest the Naquets introduced themselves. The first, a young man, stated that he was a White Russian who spoke several languages. The other one was a paint salesman in Avignon. Probably, these two men were Nicky and Costa, whose personal data from their files matched their statements. Fortunately, Lily and her mother succeeded in escaping through the attic by pretending to go and fetch some clothes.³⁵

This was at the end of October 1943, and the French gangsters were already on the job. Georges Boyer was probably not yet in town, and we do not know whether he had a predecessor. However, his arrival coincided with significant criminal escalation.

The Money of the Jews

During his questioning by Superintendent Fafur from the Squad for the Surveillance of the Territory (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire) in Marseille, Alfred André described the blackmail of André Mossé:

In November 1943, while I was at the Bar Central in Avignon, I overheard the conversation between the owner and a customer about an Israelite whose name I have forgotten. The client was saying that this Israelite was well hidden in Mollèges [Bouches du Rhône] and that he was rich. I carefully wrote down the name and the village. I told Boyer, and the next day, we went to that Israelite, Boyer, Cappe, Nicky and me. We asked around in the village, and we found the man in the company of his wife and a maid. Boyer showed his German police documents and announced that he had come to arrest him and his wife. The Israelite then proposed a deal and offered 40 pounds sterling in golden coins. We accepted and left him free. The sharing out took place during the trip in the car. Everyone got 8 pounds, because one share was kept for Vial who had provided the car. The Israelite told us he had decided to look for a hiding place in another region.36

Questioned on May 31, 1946, André Mossé identified the photograph of Boyer without any hesitation. Boyer, who did not deny the accusation, added: “After this expedition, we did not say a word about the deal to the German services.”

Then, there was the raid at Marie Riz’ restaurant, “le Coq Hardi”:

In November 1943, Cappe, together with Raineroff and André went to the woman Riz, an Israelite, took her in the car to Parietas, and under the threat of arrest, obtained a payment of 60,000 francs, from her given to Raineroff.

Then there was the Stora case in Villes sur Auzon, on June 3, 1944, which is also in the Cappe file. This was another instance of blackmail that brought in 180,000 francs in cash for freedom. The victim, Maurice Stora, an antique dealer living at 32 Bd Haussmann in Paris, testified on July 24, 1946:

It is correct that in 1942, more precisely in December 1942, I left Paris without my family to escape the reprisals against the Israelites. I sought refuge in the vicinity of Avignon, at Villes sur Auzon, where my brother-in-law Paul Cartoux still owns a villa. In that village, I first stayed at the hotel, then I rented a villa as soon as my family joined me.

In Villes sur Auzon, I had no problems until June 3 or 4, 1944. On that day, I received the visit of two individuals accompanied by M. Mus, a garage owner in Villes; he used to drive me to the dentist in Avignon… One of the individuals was hiding behind Mus… I immediately opened the door, the individual in question came in, gun in hand, and said “German police! Don’t breathe a word! Don’t make a move! You are Jewish, and I am going to arrest you and carry out a search…” He said that his boss was coming in a few minutes; he added that his boss had already made deals with several people and that there was no reason why he could not come to an agreement with me. Naturally, he said that after seeing the contents of a leather briefcase which contained my money, because I had asked to take it with me.

As I realized that he was impressed by the money in the briefcase, I asked how much I had to give him. He answered that he wanted it all, and that I would be better off in Villes sur Auzon than in a concentration camp.

At that moment, his boss arrives and introduces himself as “German police,” but he did not show any document… As they insisted on arresting me, I asked whether there was a way to strike a deal, as the first individual had suggested… The so-called chief refused. I insisted and he ended up accepting. I gave them the entire content of the briefcase, namely 180,000 francs approximately. This so-called chief asked for the authorization to take a new tie by Lanvin and a pair of pig skin gloves by Hermès, from a chest drawer. Naturally, I shrugged and did not even answer. He then took the two objects on top of the 180,000 francs. This happened on a Saturday morning. When they left, they said they would be back on the following Wednesday.

Stora did not wait for his due; he immediately left for Paris.

“One-armed Simon” was a name given to a man named Simon by those who had come to arrest him.37 A tip from Albert Sauvet and “Boyer from Mondragon” indicated that Simon and his wife were hidden in a farm in Morrières, on the road to Montfavet. Georges Boyer suspected that the man was very rich, so he needed to show class. He introduced himself as “Commissaire Boyer,” and after a thorough search, “Simon” understood clearly the reason for his arrest. Boyer continued with his deposition:

Simon proposed one million for his release and I accepted. In the meantime, my comrades had discovered the jewelry of Madame Simon in a safe, at the very least worth three million. They wanted to take the jewels. I objected because Simon agreed to leave the area on the very next day and not say a word to anybody about what happened. Moreover, my comrades had made a mistake when they drove the cars into the farm yard. I knew that the witnesses would write down the license plate numbers and I was afraid we would all be arrested the next day. Therefore, I insisted on leaving the jewelry. Simon paid 800,000 francs in banknotes and 200,000 francs in gold coins—louis and dollars. When we left, we said to the farm people that our investigation was a mistake and that Simon was in order, so that no news of the affair would get out. Simon confirmed in our presence. Then we drove to André, at 30, rue du Rempart St. Lazare in Avignon, where we divided immediately.

Here too, we have the victim’s testimony given on December 20, 1944. “Simon” was in fact André Himmelfarb, 46 years old, business manager, domiciled in rue d’Armény in Marseille. He indicated that he took refuge in the Gard with his wife and estimated the damage to three million and a half, a much larger amount than acknowledged by Boyer.

Finally in another expedition to demand a ransom from a couple staying in a hotel at Fontaine de Vaucluse in February 1944. On December 2, 1944, Georges Boyer claimed that it was Cappe who had been tipped by a third party:

Around 3 p.m., the four of us arrived at the hotel and learned that the couple in question was staying on the second floor. We went to their room, we presented our police documents from the German service, and threatened to have them arrested. We immediately carried out a search and discovered a pack of securities worth about one million. Pursuing our search, we found a metal box containing gold coins of different origins (dollars, pounds, sterling, and Louis). For his part, Nicky Raineroff had found two rings that he had kept in his possession.

We seized the box with the gold coins, and the Israelites asked whether they could leave immediately. We agreed to their request; however, we returned the securities that bore their name. We stayed a few more minutes in the room, but having not found anything of interest, we went down after them.

Nicky showed me the two rings he had stolen from the woman’s bag. He told me that we should share these two pieces of jewelry only between the two of us and leave Cappe and André out. The first, a platinum ring with a diamond, was worth about 150,000 francs, the other, of lesser importance, could bring in about 50,000 francs; it was also a platinum ring with a diamond. In agreement with Raineroff, I removed the diamonds so that I could easily hide them and sell them later. I sold the platinum, around 10 grams, but I do not remember who bought it.

The metal box with the gold coins was in the hands of Nicky, who shared the contents equally among us. This yielded a value of about 75,000 francs per person. As to the informer from Avignon who had tipped us off, we told him that our raid was negative and that the Jews had left the area.

While I was in Marseille around May 1944, I sold the two diamonds to a man named Max, an assistant jeweler, expert in the trade, for a sum of between 200,000 and 250,000 francs. I split the proceeds of this sale with Nicky without informing Cappe and André.38

It is during another questioning of Boyer, on December 29, 1944, that the victims’ names came to light; they were Robert and Martha Fischer, the parents of Max Fischer, the co-founder of the Maquis Ventoux.^* Boyer did not know this family link. Actually, they were targeting another couple who had left the village. And, in Boyer’s words, “in order not to come back to Avignon with an empty bag,” they made do with another hotel where the Fischers were staying. Boyer gave one more detail: “During the search, Raineroff threatened Mme. Fischer with his gun, because she had come to see what he was stealing.”

The sharing on the sly of the money coming from the sale of the rings opened a crack in the often romanticized “code of honor” of the mob. An anecdote by Boyer himself brings us back to reality. Under the mediation of his Marseille agent, “Lou from Toulouse,” Boyer had received in his warehouse at the Naquets’ villa, the delivery of 500 kg of green beans of coffee at 1700 francs a kilo by a Spaniard from Marseille. When he was about to pay the man, two “policemen” who were in fact Boyer’s accomplices, burst into the luxurious office of Boyer pistol in hand; they arrested everybody and “confiscated” the coffee beans. They finally released, only issuing a warning, the Spaniard who was only too happy to get off so lightly. Later, Boyer and his men split the proceeds of the sale of 500 kg of coffee beans. However, Boyer’s acolytes did not know that, in reality, the trusting Spaniard had delivered 1000 kg of beans and that Boyer had pocketed the money from the remaining “undeclared” 500 kg. Stealing from other thieves!

The Arrest and Deportation of the Jews

Of course, all these thefts, ransoms, extortions went in the same direction. And if we take them to the letter and forget the raid at the Rosenberg’s in Bollène, the facts can be misleading, as if it was sufficient to pay in order to pull through. Freedom in exchange of money worked in some cases, and Boyer and his gang provided ample details about them. But they kept the other cases under wrap. If we believe them, they limited themselves “to numerous instances of bogus police raids or blackmail of Jews.” They certainly had hoped that eventual prosecution witnesses would be rare or non-existent. Fortunately, several witnesses blew apart their defense and underscored their responsibility.

On May 4, 1946, Fanny Bleines (registered in the 1944 census at 4, rue Molière in Avignon) provided an insight in her deposition given to Inspector Dominique Felce, superintendant of the DST* of Paris:

In September 1943, while I was visiting one of my friends, Mme. Cohn, 1, impasse de l’Oratoire in Avignon, where I had been invited to a tea party with other ladies, five individuals introduced themselves by announcing “German police!” while showing their police badges. They immediately carried out a search in Mme. Cohn’s apartment and took away jewelry, linen, a brand new woman’s bag, two pairs of shoes, several perfumes and a radio set.

During the search, one of these individuals asked me to accompany him to my home, 4, rue Jacob, while the others continued searching the home of Mme. Cohn… He again verified my identity, did a cursory search, then asked me to pack my suitcase, to take a blanket and to follow him; he made it clear to me that he was taking me for deportation as an Israelite. Before leaving, he told me that he would set me free if I gave him the names of several Israelites that I knew were not in order… I told him that I did not know anybody in default. At that moment, he became very forward, and proposed that I sleep with him. I refused and left my apartment in his company. We went back to Mme. Cohn where he was supposed to discuss my case with his boss, “Superintendant Boyer.” I want to report that he grabbed my radio set when we left my home.

At Mme. Cohn’s home, these gentlemen caucused about our case, then they left with the loot only but without taking anybody.

A little later, in March 1944, my parents who did not feel secure in Paris, came to my apartment, to stay with me. My father, Salomon Lerner, is 69 years old, and my mother Sarah Lerner, 58.

Since the arrival of my parents, I stopped sleeping at home, because of the threat of arrest. For the same reason, my parents stayed there intermittently. Finally, during the night from March 28 to 29, 1944, a raid was carried out in Avignon, my parents were arrested and taken to an unknown destination and I have had no news from them. According to information I gathered, the arrest of my parents was carried out by a German assisted by a French team who claimed they belonged to the Gestapo. In my apartment, they engaged in real burglary and looted jewelry, linens, money, etc…

I insist on the fact that my parents were unknown in Avignon and that nobody knew my address, except the gang that came to Mme. Cohn in November 1943. Consequently, these individuals are the only ones who could have been at the origin of my parents’ arrest and deportation.

Among the pictures that you are showing me, I recognize clearly the men named Alfred André, André Vial, Antoine Cappe and Georges Parietas, aka Boyer, as the individuals who came to the home of Mme. Cohn where I was invited in November 1943. I do not recognize among the photos the individual who took me to my home, 4, rue Jacob, to search my apartment and took my radio set. I believe without being totally sure that his name was Nicky Orloff…39

During the confrontation that followed with Boyer, Cappe and Vial, Boyer confirmed that Nicky accompanied Fanny Bleines to her home. He admitted having participated in the raid on Mme. Cohn’s home. He provided however, a different angle claiming that “he carried out the search at Mme. Cohn’s home following an investigation by the German police about counterfeit rationing cards trafficking imputed to her husband. After making a deal with Mr. Cohn at his office, where he recovered the ration cards, he promised to leave him alone and advised him to hide.” On the other hand, Boyer made no mention of the arrest of Salomon and Sarah Lerner, deported on convoy 72. He was very talkative about the morals of the thugs, but silent about the deportees. The bottom line is that the hidden Jews with enough money were not necessarily safe. They too were vulnerable behind an imaginary shield.

On June 26, 1945, Jacques Senator, deported on convoy 76, who survived Birkenau and Monowitz, testified in the same vein as Fanny Bleines, before Charles Bonnet, Police Superintendant:

I used to live at 54, rue Bonneterie in Avignon, when I was arrested by three miliciens on May 30, 1944, around 2:30 p.m., at the bar of the Brasserie des Arts, on the Place de l’Horloge.

I did not know anyone of the three individuals who carried out my arrest. Here is how it happened: I was having a drink at the bar when a black Citroën front wheel drive, stopped in front of the café suddenly putting on the brakes. The three associates came out and accosted me. They surrounded me, asking whether I was Mr. Senator. Upon my confirmation, they forced me to go with them.

Once in the car, they asked me where I lived; since I could not refuse, I gave them my address.

In my apartment, they carried out a thorough search and turned everything upside down to find money… They found 7000 francs in my vest pocket. As they insisted and threatened to beat me, I told them that they could find under a pile of laundry another 20,000 francs, which constituted all of my savings. They attempted a blackmail maneuver by promising to let me free in exchange for another ransom, but I categorically refused, because I knew they would arrest me anyway.

Driven to the Gestapo of the Hotel de la Cigale in rue Bancasse, they made the same blackmail attempt which I resisted again, and after written questioning, they sent me to the Ste Anne prison… Before my departure [for Drancy], they took 3500 francs out of the 7000 that I had given; I had hidden my last 19,000 francs inside the lining of my coat.

… After my return to Avignon, I mentioned my arrest to Mme. Tourel, I think the owner of the Brasserie des Arts; she said that she recognized “Superintendant Boyer” as one of the three individuals.40

Charles Palmieri, an agent of the SiPo-SD in Marseille, a central figure in the hunt for the Jews in the Vaucluse, gave undeniable proof that the members of Boyer’s gang did not limit themselves to extortion; they did not hesitate to deliver their victims to the Germans, their masters. Only the hope of additional gain could make them to delay an arrest.

In his deposition of March 15, 1945, Palmieri declared:

In Avignon, I had several agents: Bergeron, Mouillade, Lucien Blanc, Pierre Josselme. Bergeron and his colleagues come often to Marseille to provide information and reports about the activity of the Resistance. They also brought the list of Jews to be arrested. I organized a few operations in Avignon. The first one was in the company of Thomas Ricci who brought around 15 of his agents while I brought 10 of mine. Bergeron, Mouillade, Blanc and Josselme* from my service as well as Georges Boyer, Alfred André and Nicky took part in it. On that day, we arrested 44 Jews who were transferred to Marseille by bus…⁴¹

The various gangs were able to collaborate when numbers were needed to hunt down the Jews leading us to the conclusion that Boyer and his gang had several modes of operation. If their employers were out of sight and their victims had significant liquid assets, they vigorously used extortion in exchange for freedom. Of course, discretion was the rule. If the victims had modest means, the gangsters stole whatever they could and delivered the victims to the Germans to make the quota. Finally, when the German police “needed Jews,” they asked Boyer and his men, as well as other auxiliaries to join forces with them or to deliver their own designated victims. If the victims were rich, it was more difficult to appropriate the loot without arousing the suspicion of the German police that had seen it all.

Everybody wanted something in return: the Germans wanted Jews and some of them were interested in their money; the gangsters wanted money and the opportunity to continue making money. To stay in business, Boyer had to find a balance: not an easy task. The use of the mob by the Germans produced conflicting results. It contributed to the death of hundreds of Jews from the Vaucluse, but the greed of the gangsters allowed many of them to save their lives.

At the beginning of the summer of 1944 the gangsters from Avignon were not the only ones hunting the Jews. In his report of July 31, 1944, the director of the SEC for the Marseille region, Raymond Guilledoux, informed his bosses in Vichy:

Increasingly, the Jews or their friends are being swindled, often outrageously, by individuals who pretend to have been sent by the German authorities to arrest them… and who agree to a delay of 24 hours in exchange for 25, 50 and even 100,000 francs.⁴²

As illustrated by the SEC’s track record, it is unlikely that this report of Guilledoux was motivated by ethical considerations.

Boyer’s “Exile” to Marseille

In May 1944, Albert Sauvet joined the GFP team. He ran two brothels, one in Avignon and the other in Nimes. He also owned a hotel in Nice in his wife’s name. But this month of May stands out because of Boyer’s serious problems with his employers. He described his own tribulations:

In May 1944, the Avignon police superintendant received several complaints about our schemes, and he informed lieutenant Rupp… The [French] authorities had decided to arrest my entire team, but I must tell you that the Germans were not keen on having us booked by the French police. However, a certain Major von Bock* decided to have us arrested by the Reich’s military, more specifically, units of the Brandebourg regiment. Informed ahead of time, I fled in company of Raineroff and we took refuge in Marseille, while Cappe, André and his wife, Boyer from Mondragon and Albert Sauvet were apprehended by the Waffen-SS and taken to Pont St. Esprit.^†43

Technically unemployed, Boyer and Nicky renewed their contact with Rupp from Avignon who declared that they “can no more be of any use to him,” but he gave them a note recommending them to Lieutenant Walter from the Marseille GFP at 348 boulevard Michelet. Their remuneration, was the same as in Avignon: it was agreed that they would manage on their own. Looting Jewish assets was clearly an integral part of German strategy as long as the French did not complain. The “firing” of Boyer was merely a smoke screen for the French police.

Boyer began his Marseille episode in June 1944. He rebuilt a new spider network around himself and relied on the occasional help of his Avignon friends, who were soon released from Pont St. Esprit and returned to serve under the orders of Lieutenant Rupp. Boyer, who didn’t drive, hired Cabagno as his driver.

Jean-Baptiste Cabagno’s file is replete with information about this petty Marseille gangster, a member of the PPF who avoided the STO and worked for the Gestapo in 1943. He got into trouble after the heist of a jeweler, Paul Eyssantier. The loot was estimated at one million francs. Boyer succeeded in setting Cabagno free and hired him as his driver. The prosecutor’s statement was unambiguous:

The man named Cabagno, together with the man named Georges Parietas, agent of the German police, who employed him as his driver, participated in Marseille in the arrest of several Jews and several patriots. In addition, he would also loot the apartments of the people he was arresting.44

Although Cabagno denied having officially been a member of the Avignon or Marseille GFP (a fact confirmed by Boyer), he nevertheless maintained contact with the GFP until October 1944, even in Germany where he had fled. The Germans attempted to use him after sending him to a radio course at Tübingen in preparation to parachuting him back into France. Finally, “taking advantage of the allied advance, Cabagno succeeded in entering a camp of French prisoners where he pretended to have been sent to Germany by the STO. Repatriated under a false identity, he reconnects in Paris with a former member of Boyer’s gang, Robert Bonhoure, who informs him about the warrant for his arrest in Marseille.”

Bonhoure was no small fry. His questioning, gives a good picture about the type of person he was. Back from the First world war, he managed his own café in Paris, a gift he had received from his father, a dairy producer from Seine et Oise. If we believe his interrogation of December 27, 1944, for 25 years he had lived the colorless life of a small businessman.⁴⁵ He bought and sold several businesses, always cafés and restaurants. “In addition to my activity in business,” he added, “I was taking care of race horses. I even owned a racing stable at Maison Lafitte before the war in 1939.”

Boyer was at least more direct:

One of my old acquaintances, the man called Robert Bonhoure who also called himself Robert Le Meur^* had just arrived at the service in boulevard Michelet^†. He was an ex-convict and had been a bookmaker with me in Paris.

Bonhoure explained his arrival in a discreet way:

In 1943 and 1944, I had no job, but there was a warrant for my arrest coming from Epinal,^‡ and I considered it a good thing to leave the capital and get some distance in Marseille. In the past in Paris, I had known the man named Georges Parietas with whom I was dealing at the races, and I learned that he was working for the GFP in Marseille. So I wrote him from Paris to inform him that I was being sought by the Germans after a heist and to ask him whether I could seek refuge in Provence. On Sunday, June 18, 1944, I arrived in Marseille. Boyer stated that he was going to get me into his [sic] Avignon service and in the meantime, I would be his driver… On July 1, 1944, he gave me a certificate signed by him, stating that I belonged to the GFP.

Boyer helped out his friend in need, and on June 18 1944, they met at the “Brasserie Le Gaulois” as agreed. But in his questioning of December 28, 1944, Boyer became very explicit:

He told me that he had worked in Paris in the German police services of the rue Lauriston under the orders of Lafont. During a mission in Epinal, he grabbed assets belonging to Jews which had been sealed. This was a large amount in Treasury bills that he had later disposed of on the black market. But the certificates had been stopped and Bonhoure had to reimburse the buyer. In the meantime, the German services of rue Lauriston had become aware of the matter and Lafont summoned him to his office demanding an explanation. He was relieved of his German police badge and he was threatened to be turned over to the French authorities, who effectively issued a warrant for his arrest after he had fled to Marseille.

During the first week of July 1944, I introduced Bonhoure to Rupp at the office of the GFP in Avignon. He received a badge similar to mine under the name of Le Meur.

Boyer had a good opinion of his friend: “He has executed all the missions that were assigned to him.” But he was seemingly not aware of Bonhoure’s entire itinerary. Before joining the gang at the rue Lauriston, Bonhoure had been a member of Rudy von Mérode’s gang, also known as the “Neuilly Gestapo” which had amassed hundreds of millions of francs. This gang represented a formidable competitor for Lafont who succeeded in having their German police badges canceled and their network liquidated.46 As it was customary, Lafont picked up a few men from his former rival’s gang, among them Bonhoure, who used this opportunity to make a few bogus cop operations on his own. In Tulle, he also took part in several lootings, one of which degenerated into a machine-gunning⁴⁷.

During his Marseille period, Boyer clearly did not break his links to the rue Bancasse, in spite of his “dismissal,” since he got Rupp to hire Bonhoure. It is useful to know that, at the beginning of August 1944, Boyer resumed active service in Avignon. Several raids and hauls against the Resistance—one of the headaches of the GFP—demonstrated that a link did exist between the GFP of Avignon and that of Marseille. Therefore, the residual GFP kept a separate hierarchical chain of command aligned with the army after the SiPo-SD absorbed some of its staff, but it continued collaborating with the SiPo-SD, among others in the hunt of the Jews.

The Fall

From this partnership between Boyer and Bonhoure sealed at the Paris race tracks, one can infer a high probability that Boyer also collaborated with the SiPo-SD in Paris area—perhaps under yet another alias. He left the capital at the end of 1943 and did not seem surprised at Bonhoure’s mention of the rue Lauriston. It was as if he had heard it all before.

Boyer’s account of how he and Bonhoure fled ahead of the allies is worthy of a film scenario:

I did not want to leave with the Germans because I could tell that in their retreat they would drag me along to Germany and could get rid of me by executing me in cold blood. So I stayed with Bonhoure in Avignon. During the German retreat, a SS unit seized my car, and when time came to leave the city to evade the allies, I was without transportation.

While in Avignon on August 14 or 15 near the PPF headquarters, four vehicles arrived from Marseille. One was a commercial truck completely closed with Jeannot Carbone, Charles Palmieri, Olivier Charles as well as others I knew only by sight (a total of approximately 18 people). Palmieri, alias Merle, was in command of the group, and I went and asked him for a space for Bonhoure and me.

It was agreed that he would take us with them in the direction of Paris, but I would have to provide the gasoline and split with Bonhoure the cost of the meals for everybody. I accepted and provided 100 liters of gasoline and 200 liters of diesel fuel that I was holding in reserve in my garage. The roads were congested and for fear of bombing, we drove only at night. Once in Lyon, three days later, and because of the excessive expenses run up by the group, that I did not intend to follow anyway, I decided not to continue and to abandon them.48

The two fugitives succeeded in taking refuge in Trévoux (Ain) for one month. Bonhoure found a way to reach Paris where he was employed on probation for a while by American intelligence. We know this from Cabagno who found Bonhoure again in the capital in May 1945. For his part, Boyer got into gambling to make his last francs work for him; until he was arrested.

In his deposition of December 22, 1944, Palmieri mentioned the escape of Alfred André toward Germany, but he placed Boyer in Auvergne, where he “had a friend, a man named Maurice, an agent of the SD of Paris and collaborator of Bony Lafont.”* In the underworld, one did not lose track of one another, even during a rout.⁴⁹

A long time had passed since the Naquet’s house at 2, rue du Rempart de la Ligne had become a hub for all kinds of trafficking and a memorable torture chamber, as André Naquet testified in front of his visitors. He remembered the changes to that effect in the bathroom, and if one needed exhibits, it was sufficient to examine the two clubs abandoned by the gangsters on top of a wardrobe. André Naquet had kept them to this day.

The violent Alfred André also resurfaced. Like Boyer, he was deeply enmeshed in the arrests of the Jews. Alfred André was part of the regulars of the Bar Carnot, probably established by François-Henri Blanchard, a member of the Resistance collecting information about the French agents of the Gestapo, miliciens, and PPF. Next to André’s name one reads the mention “The killer.” In the file of Marcelle Véran, a dancer and hostess at the Troubadour cabaret in Paris, also a Gestapo informer and André’s mistress, a police report dated September 4, 1946, described her life style in Avignon: “She carried on with him and his friends openly in public, in the large cafés, bars and restaurants of Avignon, where she gave herself over to uninhibited debauchery.”⁵⁰ Well in the spirit of the times, the police reporter railed against the “temptress” who probably limited herself to benefiting from the money taken from the Jews, while her lover took care of sending them to their death. An aside in the same report indicated: “Alfred André was arrested, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad in Nimes, together with the milicien from Avignon, Lucien Blanc.” Before kicking the bucket, Alfred André burned the candle at both ends. There was a lot of money, and André and his men spent it as if there were no tomorrow.

One can imagine the reactions of the French police, powerless in the face of the excesses of Boyer’s gangsters, who, confident in their immunity, must have thumbed their nose at them. There may also have been some admiration for these passing tough guys, who had succeeded in turning the tables on them.

As evidenced in the court files, the willingness of the gangsters to talk freely in court about the money of the Jews may have been a defense strategy. By admitting to bogus cop operations, they risked prison terms at the most. However, the arrest of Jews to deliver them to the Germans fell into the category of intelligence with the enemy, a capital offence. As for the manhunt of members of the Resistance, it would have sealed their fate.

The Vaucluse Model

Georges Boyer had established a network loosely connected to Paris through close friends from Henri Lafont’s gang. The network was composed of concentric circles around a nucleus of tough guys at the head of which he had appointed Alfred André for Avignon and the Vaucluse. André’s main customer on the German side was Wolfram, aka Gauthier, a fanatic according to testimony. His boss Müller put him in charge of the Resistance, draft dodgers or the Jews, depending on the needs. Gauthier behaved as a jack of all trades, and Müller delegate with full powers to the GFP, whose independence he was wary of.

The men Boyer and André used were mostly ex-convicts, purposefully snatched out of the clutches of French justice by the Germans and turned into loyal servants, while allowing them to work for their own profit under the nose of the French police. That technique proved to be an excellent strategy for the Germans on two levels. On one hand, they had turned them into allies whose prosperity depended on their good will. On the other hand, part of the loot was making its way up to the head of the SiPo-SD, Wilhelm Müller, a man with a misleading gentlemanly appearance.

Several witnesses, among them those of Charles Palmieri we already cited, indicated that the network of Georges Boyer, Alfred André and Gauthier occasionally collaborated with other networks also controlled by Wilhelm Müller. The head of the SiPo-SD diversified his repression enterprises by simultaneously betting on several horses and encouraging competition between his various sub-networks.

Although the study of occupied France in its entirety goes far beyond the scope of our research, we may state on the basis of multiple testimony and documents that the activities of the Vaucluse gangsters extended far beyond the department and reached the Gard, Bouches du Rhône, Isère and Drôme; that they had links with Auvergne and the Paris region, and that their bosses were covering a large part of the Marseille prefectoral region.51 Moreover, it is likely that the members of the German police were a party in looting by the gangsters, to the point that the discretion of one side ensured the tranquility of the other.

After Liberation, Captain Gervais shared his observations in a report to “M the Commander of Military Security XV”:

It is already clear that the Merle enterprise [Bureau Merle], constituted along the principles of the Gestapo, was not unique in France.

In Toulouse, the Marty brigade, and in Tunisia, the Saffy brigade have a strange resemblance with it.52

Apparently, the “Merle Enterprise” (Palmieri gang) was not unique either in Avignon or on the national stage, as we have just seen. Of course, this raises a question which cannot be answered in the context of this work: what role did the underworld play in the execution of the Holocaust in France?

The study of the Vaucluse leads us to believe that the German strategy was to put in place a similar model in the whole country, for several reasons. First, the small workforce of the German police was spread too thin, especially after the invasion of the southern zone, and they had to seek the services of ten times more “loyal” collaborators.⁵³

It cannot be said often enough how indispensable it is, for the understanding of the persecution of the Jews, to take into account the manner in which it was carried out on the ground and its motivations, often a mix of ideology, evil and greed. The history of the Holocaust cannot forego the grassroots level.

____________________

* Blaise Bounias was executed on July 9, 1944.

† Jean Poutet, a registered milicien et head of the PPF in Lisle sur la Sorgue (3U7/255, Procédures de la Cour de Justice du Gard, Archives Départementales du Gard). His name will come up again several times.

* Titien is the French name for Tiziano.

† We have established circumstancially the identity of the informer, but we do not have a positive proof.

* One is actually Marceline Rosenberg, but the two others are friends, Marie and Suzanne Melman.

** Literally, “barracks for the passengers”; subsidized lodging offered by city hall to distinguished personalities on “temporary” assignement in Avignon.

† We will return to the Feroldi case later on.

‡ My Chaotic Life.

* Such a delegation, residing at the Crillon Hotel, was mentioned in the reports about the Avignon demonstrations of July 14, 1942.

* SS rank equivalent to warrant officer.

† SS rank equivalent to chief warrant officer.

* See Chapter 9 about the Palmieri gang.

* The PLM (Paris-Lyon-Marseille) is the company which operated the railway line between these three towns.

* The Maquis Ventoux, a Resistance group in Mount Ventoux, was founded by Fischer and Beyne.

* Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire, French equivalent of the FBI.

* Palmieri is probably mistaken about the presence of Josselme, who was gunned down by the police on February 28, 1944, while the first operation by Palmieri in Avignon took place at the end of March.

* A German officer, who was based in Aix en Provence and served as a military liaison to the GFP of Avignon and Marseille.

† The fortress of Pont St. Esprit was the base for units of the Brandebourg Waffen-SS regiment.

* In a document already cited, Bonhoure uses the alias Le Moël. Le Meur is yet another alias. He has also used Chausaudme and Amouroux.

† Address of the GFP offices in Marseille.

‡ This was a French warrant.

* The “Bony Lafont” gang is in reality the gang of Lafont whose lieutenant was former police inspector Bony.