Hunting Down the Jews

Fearing Neither God Nor Man

The best known crime shall serve as an appropriate introduction. Estréa Asseo, an Auschwitz survivor, told Superintendent Victor Roton:

On June 6, 1944, I had just come out of Mr. Seguin’s store in rue des Fourbisseurs, when I noticed a Gestapo car that I knew well. I also noticed that some of its occupants had entered a shoe store.

I did hesitate for a few seconds, because, as an Israelite, I was afraid to be at the Gestapo’s mercy. After a few steps, Lucien Blanc whom I knew very well caught up with me. Blanc, my husband and I, had worked together at the “Bouchara” store.

At the time, I did not know that this man was working for the Gestapo and I greeted him. Lucien Blanc nodded to one of his acolytes and I immediately understood that I would not be able any more to escape.

Nevertheless, without losing my head, I walked swiftly toward rue Bonneterie, as I felt the presence of an agent of the Gestapo behind me. A few seconds later, this individual stopped me and I showed him my documents. He brought me back to the car still parked in front of the shoe store, and there I started a discussion with Lucien Blanc and a man named Merle. I was unable to convince them, all the more so since Blanc perfectly knew my situation as an Israelite.

They grabbed hold of me and pushed me into the car. On the way, I begged Blanc to let me go in exchange for a certain amount of money, namely all of my savings, because I was not rich. He answered that the money I could give him would not be sufficient. He also asked me where my husband and children were, I am sure, so that he could arrest them.

We arrived at my home, and Blanc and his acolyte whom I did not know searched my apartment in the hope of discovering money or jewelry. Blanc himself prepared a small suitcase with clothes for me and we came back downstairs to the car where Merle was waiting for us.1

It was Palmieri, aka Merle, the gang leader form Marseille who supervised Estréa Asseo’s arrest. One of his henchmen, Lucien Blanc from Avignon, did the dirty work. In June 1944, the process put in place by Palmieri to hunt the Jews was still running smoothly.

In any case Estréa Asseo was not the only Jewish person arrested around June 6. During a short period, Palmieri and his Vaucluse team conducted multiple raids in the département. The result was 68 Jews packed in a cattle car that left the Avignon train station for Drancy on June 13. Only one person, Raymond Brahinski, succeeded in escaping through a small skylight in the boxcar, before reaching Drancy. Most of them, including Estréa, were among more than 1,000 Jews sent to Auschwitz on convoy 76 on June 30, 1944. Estréa belonged to a small group of survivors.

The link between the Marseille gangsters and the hunt for the Jews in Avignon has already been established in a previous work.² In his deposition of March 13, 1945, Palmieri offered details:

I had both my office and my home at 8, rue Paradis [in Marseille]. I had in my possession a protection letter signed by the authorities of the German police accrediting me to the French authorities and giving me the right to bear arms. I was under the orders of a lieutenant named Kompe whose office was located at 425, rue Paradis. My mission consisted of looking for Jews and gathering intelligence about the Resistance.³

After providing the names of his agents and recalling his first operation in Avignon, he provided specifics about his second operation:

… again with my team from Marseille and that of Avignon, I carried out the arrest of about 10 Jews who were on a list prepared by Mouillade and Blanc.

And he added:

The other operations have been conducted similarly on the basis of information provided by my agents at Avignon. I do not remember exactly the number of arrests carried out. I must tell you that I also came pretty often to Avignon to pick up Jews arrested by the Germans.

The operations mentioned by Palmieri spanned the period from mid-March to July 1944, although his presence had been documented much earlier. Palmieri continued:

My salary was 10,000 francs per month, paid by the Germans. As to my agents, Bergeron, Blanc, Mouillade, and Josselme, they were making 5,000 francs per month. I know that these agents were carrying out looting operations for their own benefit. Besides Blanc has been arrested by the French police because one of these affairs and he left for Germany where he may still be.

The reasons for Lucien Blanc’s departure for Germany are unclear. The explanation given by his wife who talked about mobilization for the STO and a departure for Austria on July 6, 1944, does not hold. The Germans would have exempted him. Lucien Blanc preferred to blame a bad business decision as the cause of his drift and misfortune. Indeed, in the spring of 1943, he bought a lignite mine in Mondragon, in partnership with a man named Salvador. Blanc’s share of the investment amounted to 225,000 francs—no small change for an ordinary salesman at Bouchara. When asked about his profession, Blanc described himself an engineer. We know through the testimony of Mr. Nicollet, a former employee, that the company, called Les Lignites de Provence, “has always operated in the red and that it has not been possible to continue production due to a lack of capital.”

When interrogated on October 2, 1945, Blanc stated that “since he did not have the permit to operate his mine, he has engaged in some illegal trade and got involved in a deal involving tires.” This is how he got connected to Palmieri who arrested him for this violation and made him an offer: “I know that you have national views and that you are anti-Semitic… If you agree to work with us, this matter will have no consequences.” Blanc went into the terms of the agreement: “It was agreed that I would have to accompany him during the operations he conducted against the Jews. I was supposed to guide him through the streets of Avignon, because Palmieri did not know the city.” And he added “I have indeed acknowledged to the gendarmerie that the anti-Semitic struggle corresponded to my political ideals, but I deny having provided any information concerning the Jews, because Palmieri already had in his possession the list of Jews which had been given to him by the prefecture.”

In short, Blanc described himself as an “ordinary” militant of anti-Semitism who never went so far as to denounce Jews and establish lists. This was pretty clever since Palmieri had actually obtained a list originating at the prefecture among others, but of course, this was a half truth.

Robert Pierre, café owner, 19, place du Portail Matheron in Avignon, declared on October 22, 1945:

On the night of the arrest of Mr. Elie Cohen and Mme. Eugénie Cohen, I was at home. I have positively recognized Lucien Blanc among the members of the Gestapo who came and conducted these arrests. When I saw that these individuals were arresting Mr. Cohen, I made them aware that this man’s son was a prisoner of war and that he deserved some consideration… I have to say that these individuals knocked on my door, and when he saw me, Blanc declared “We are not interested in this one; he is not a Jew.”

Elie and Eugénie Cohen were arrested on March 29, 1944, and deported on convoy 71. Apparently, Lucien Blanc was not content with proclaiming his anti-Semitic “ideal”; he also took action.

In his final interrogation on December 1, 1944, Robert Conrad, interpreter and agent of the SiPo-SD, remembered that night when he followed Merle, who had come to Avignon to pick up Jews. His interrogator summarized the facts:

You were with Blanc and Bergeron, former miliciens, and four agents of the Gestapo of Marseille. You went to Mr. Valabrègue, rue Bancasse, at the “Coq Hardi” and to other Jews whom you arrested and took to the Hautpoul barracks. Several Jews succeeded in escaping and you arrested only five or six of them. On that evening, you heard Merle criticizing Blanc for having established inaccurate lists…

This action probably took place on May 16, 1944. This was the date of the second blackmail of Marie Riz in her restaurant “le Coq Hardi.” Contrary to the testimony of Robert Conrad, Marie Riz did not escape: she was released in exchange for money.

Who was Lucien Blanc, a 28 year old man, who claimed to be an engineer? In his investigation report, police Superintendent Roton indicated that Marc Asseo, the husband of Estréa, had worked with Blanc at Bouchara’s in Avignon and that after he was demobilized in 1940, Blanc was broke. Asseo had provided him with some help. Later, he knew him as a member of the Legion and the SOL, and an “active milicien *” and Blanc confided that he was making a lot of money from the traffic in gold and foreign currency. This was probably how he got the money for his share of the lignite mine in Mondragon.

The documents show nothing before his salesman job at Bouchara’s, and after that, the trafficking episode which pushed him into Palmieri’s arms. He was not an angel caught up in the system.

Before his accusers, Lucien Blanc seemed confident that his statement “the anti-Semitic struggle corresponded to my political ideal” would not be very damaging. But what was the nature of this “ideal”? His wife said that he had been an activist at l’Action Française since he was 17. Practically speaking, he did not have the profile of active member. After the defeat, like so many others, he joined the Legion and the SOL, but he was seen only once in uniform. There was no trace of his participation in the Milice either as a regular member or as an officer. Anyway, his advancement in the criminal ranks did not require it.

A more likely profile would be that of a young man barely making ends meet as a low level employee at Bouchara’s, this humming fabric business managed by Jews, where he did not see any prospects. The Statut des Juifs may have presented him both as revenge and the promise of a good life.

Also his hatred of Jews should not be overlooked, and the help he got from Marc Asseo apparently did not change his mindset, since he did not spare Estréa Asseo, but it cannot be separated from his greed. Of course, the payments Palmieri made to his agents for catching Jews were too good to miss. The deposition of Rodolphe Bride, a medical student and agent of Palmieri in Marseille, provides an insight about Blanc:

Lucien Blanc had a card in the Merle file. He owned a weapon, a small pistol 6.35 caliber which he carried on his belt… Blanc was put in charge by Merle of gathering information about the Jews in the Avignon region. I saw Blanc give Merle such lists. Merle was paying Blanc his travel expenses, as he was saying. I even noticed that Blanc was evaluating them every time at 500 francs per day; Palmieri commented that he was overdoing it.

Blanc made something extra on the side on every occasion.

In his deposition of February 8, 1945, Bride peppered the facts with personal opinions:

Blanc claimed to be the director of the lignite mines of Mondragon. He asked me once to type a whole file concerning the operation of those mines, specifying that he wanted to ask the government for permission to put them in service. He claimed to be an engineer. Unlike the other members of the Merle enterprise, I feel that Blanc and Mouillade acted out of a sense of political and racial conviction.

And in his report of March 1, 1945, he wrote:

Blanc has a file as an intelligence agent. He lives in Avignon, and brings information to Charles Palmieri on a weekly basis… He appears to be sharply anti-Jewish. Owns a few revolvers and gave two of them as a present to Charles. However, he does not reappear in June and Palmieri states at that time that he “messed around” in Avignon and that the Germans have sent him to Germany. He is a great friend of Mouillade and Bergeron.

Concerning this “messing around,” Palmieri clarified the issue during his interrogation of March 16, 1945, when he introduced his Avignon team:

Pierre Josselme, domiciled in Montfavet (Vaucluse)

Louis Bergeron, aka “Toto,” 23, rue Bonneterie

Lucien Blanc, rue Banasterie, deported to Germany because of a fake police raid

Louis Mouillade * route Nationale in Montfavet

Thanks to his “strategic” position, Etienne Petrucci, the boss of the “Café Glacier” on the Place de l’Horloge, was better equipped to help define the personality of Lucien Blanc. Superintendent Victor Roton recorded the deposition of Petrucci on May 1, 1945:

Lucien Blanc was a customer at the café belonging to Petrucci, who was aware that Blanc was an agent of the Gestapo. Blanc did not hide this fact and he even proclaimed that he went to Paris and asked for the creation of an Avignon office which he would manage. Petrucci adds that he had amassed a good amount of money (about one million francs) by selling vehicles hidden by the French military at the moment of the armistice in June 1940 to the Germans. He summarizes his view of Blanc as an unscrupulous individual capable of anything to make money.

Although the Germans were usually tolerant of this kind of “business deal,” at some point, they did not wish to excuse Blanc for his greed anymore. Was this because of the sloppiness of his work for the SiPo-SD, like the “inaccuracies” in the search for the addresses of Jews, made him less valuable?

With his circle of associates, Blanc was in good hands.

Mouillade, a 45-year-old native of Carpentras, a long-time city councilman, had a lot of acquaintances, many of them Jewish.4 He personally participated in the arrest of Henri Dreyfus, the former mayor of Carpentras, who was sent to Drancy, and his presence during the arrest of other Jews of the town, where he was born, was mentioned in the file of Gaston Barbarant, the chief of the Carpentras PPF.⁵ It must be said that all the preparation work, done as we have seen by his fellow Barbarant who provided the list of victims, made things much easier for Mouillade. Barbarant, the leader in establishing lists, received the death sentence, soon reduced to forced labor for life.

The testimony of Henri Dreyfus, on October 4, 1944, provided a window into Mouillade’s soul.

On April 12, 1943, at about 10:00 a.m., at the moment I was leaving “l’Hermitage,” my property in Pernes where I was usually residing, I saw a German car stopped in front of my entrance. Two officers came out while a civilian remained inside.

After inquiring whether indeed I was Mr. Dreyfus, the two officers asked to speak with me, under the pretext of getting some information. They followed me into my living room, and there, without any other explanation, they stated that they were arresting me and taking me to Avignon. My wife, Mme. Dreyfus, and my brother, Mr. René Dreyfus, who were also present, were arrested and taken to Avignon at the same time as I was. When I came out to take a seat in the car that had brought the officers, I met the civilian who had come out. He was wearing a fedora hat lowered on his eyes, as well as dark sun glasses; his face was in the shadows, but I recognized nevertheless that he was Mouillade. I shouted at him “You, Mouillade, are doing such dirty work!” He answered “I was not speaking to you.” I got into the car with the two officers, my wife and my brother, while Mouillade remained to guard the place.

On my return [at Liberation], my employees appraised me of the conduct of Mouillade after my departure. This is how I learned that this individual had ordered lunch to be served to him, had forbidden the servants to leave the rooms he was in, and asked the farmer to tell him the location of the weapons I own…

I wish to add that during the conversation that Mouillade had with my personnel, he stated that his nationality was German. Following this arrest undoubtedly caused by this individual who knew me well, my wife was detained in Avignon for two weeks, my brother was deported to Germany, and I was interned for 8 months in a concentration camp.

Mouillade was incapable of appearing without a disguise before the former mayor with whom he has had political connections before the war. But this momentary uneasiness did not spoil his appetite, once Henri Dreyfus had been arrested. Very early—a few weeks after the beginning of the occupation, Mouillade volunteered with the Germans in the hunt for the Jews.

Mouillade confirmed in a report to Palmieri that he was about to receive the list of Jews of Lisle sur la Sorgue from Poutet whom he held in high esteem. Seven of them were deported; Edwige Mayer and Jacques Weiss, on convoy 61, Ernestine and Maurice Herzog, on convoy 74, and Jeanne and Jules Israel and Maurice Spitz, on convoy 75. In addition to the Dreyfus brothers, Mouillade took personal responsibility for the arrest of Adrien Naquet, arrested on May 15, 1943, in Carpentras and deported on convoy 59. On the same day, three other members of the Naquet family were arrested in Carpentras and deported, Gaston, to Auschwitz on convoy 58, Marcelle, to Auschwitz as well on convoy 59, and René to Aurigny on convoy 641.

For 1944, Mouillade acknowledged only the arrest in May of Leonore Stern and her daughter Maidy in Le Thor; they were deported to Dresden.

In the spring 1944, he went into a frenzy. The ministry of internal affairs reported that “during that period, he was gleaning everywhere information to locate Jews. After taking a seat in a car of the Gestapo, he shows the Germans two stallholders who were arrested shortly thereafter.” After Liberation, a member of the CDL, Lucien Grangeon, accused Mouillade of being at the origin of the arrest of the Hanania family from Vaison la Romaine, David, Myriam, Rachel and Vitalis, all deported on convoy 76.

Although Mouillade had been active very early on the Vaucluse scene, he was seen by the investigating judge as Palmieri’s lieutenant. His methods were well tuned. He practiced extortion, for instance when he proposed to Georgette Bloch, the manager of a newspaper kiosk in Avignon, to get her husband back if she provided him with lists of Jews, communists, and STO dodgers; Moische Bloch was deported on convoy 70. Mouillade also stole for his own benefit. To justify his dispossession of Jews, he decreed openly: “In this revolutionary period, the law gets done instead of being written.”

Before his judges, he did not hesitate to adopt an indignant style. As an elected representative of the people, he chose not to run away from the Germans. “His duty was to stay in Carpentras.” In his deposition of September 25, 1944, he went one step further:

I never accepted a salary from the Gestapo, because that would have turned me into their slave, but I admit having received 3,300 francs per month as an interpreter for the Luftwaffe. I wish to specify that, if I have had relations with Müller, Gauthier and Hans Bach * at the beginning, it was on a political and racial level. Twice a month they needed to establish a report about the fluctuation of French public opinion. They used to ask me according to current affairs: Was denkt das Volk—what do the people think? This was a kind of Gallup institute.

In short, he was only a specialist in “opinion polls” who brought information about Jews every time he went to the Merle office in Marseille, introduced himself with the Hitler salute and called Palmieri “the boss.” It is enlightening to observe that Mouillade did not hesitate to acknowledge his own “racial” attitude, because, in his own mind, denouncing Jews was less serious than denouncing members of the Resistance. It was a trifle on the scale of crime. An individual card, probably prepared by a member of the Resistance during fall 1943, described him:

MOUILLADE – Ecole de Cantarel - Avignon

Former communist, then Trotskyite. In 1940, he joined the PPF on the advice of Riety who served as his mentor on matters of racism. After having been designated as a party chief, he was dismissed at the end of 1941. In the spring 1942, he volunteered for the anti-Bolshevik Legion, but he was rejected in Versailles because of his age. Signed a contract to work in Germany and returned for a few days in Avignon, saying he was leaving for Ludwigshafen. Resurfaced only in September 1942…

Mouillade claimed he belonged to the “Front Franc” of Boissel^† and to the “Institut d’Etudes Juives.”^‡ Holder of a permanent [German] pass, he was rolling in 1,000 franc banknotes. When the free zone was occupied, he came back to the area. His villainous activity was interrupted during summer 1943 by an illness requiring him to check in to the Sanatorium of Lauris. Unfortunately, he was about to resume his activity.

Mouillade, an ex-convict, is an embittered man, who wants to take revenge on society. We know the despicable ways he uses to harm honest people.

Agent of the Gestapo. Very dangerous.⁶

In the same file, an additional information note gave added precision:

On Thursday, February 10, 1944, at about 11:30 a.m., Gaston Mouillade came to the Tourist office to inquire about the prefect of the Vaucluse, whom he suspects of supporting the terrorists… On this occasion, Mouillade gave a real speech against Mr. Mayer, the director of the Roquefraiche sanatorium, near Lauris; he accused him of being a camouflaged Jew who is spending his time stealing food rations from his patients and hiding Jews and Red Spaniards in his institution.

He expressed his great pleasure about the arrest by the secret police of two Jews hidden in this institution (these two arrests are surely attributable to him).

… Augusta Vernet: served as a liaison officer between Mouillade, when he was in the Sanatorium of Lauris, and the offices of the Avignon Gestapo.

She is a fanatic and very dangerous.

Mouillade, who proclaimed his great admiration for Josselme (he identified himself as his secretary), was not choosing a paragon of virtue as his role model. According to Palmieri, Josselme was the coordinator of all the information about the Avignon region. However, there is no Josselme file, but first-hand information in the file of his wife, Rose Chauveau, who was suspected by the judiciary police officer at the Vaucluse court of justice of “enjoying the use of assets which are the result of her husband’s treason.”7 How many of these ill-gotten gains have melted with impunity into the French fabric?

Josselme managed to make his commercial relations with the Germans work to his advantage, to the point of acquiring a magnificent property in Montfavet, where he received among others, the heads of the German police, Müller and Gauthier. A note by the Resistance described his dealings.

… PPF, former SOL, milicien. Last year, he was involved in illegal carrying of firearms and resisting arrest. Was not prosecuted thanks to the Milice.

Became very rich by selling trucks to the Germans. Recently, lists of arrested people were in his possession.

Very dangerous.⁸

Josselme was under surveillance by the Resistance that was planning to kill him. At the meeting of the PPF federal board on January 26, 1944, Renier shared a worry with the members in attendance:

Pierre Josselme got a warning from the terrorists, as a result of the publication of his obituary in the “Petit Marseillais.” Besides, a lady’s mourning hat had been sent to his wife a while earlier. It would be a shame if he was gunned down, because he lets the PPF largely take advantage of the millions he has made recently.9

These threats by the Resistance were no longer necessary. A few weeks later, on February 28, 1944, Josselme was gunned down by the French police during a bar scuffle between him and Bergeron, when a policeman was wounded. At the following PPF board meeting, on March 1, 1944, Idlas “states that Josselme fell with a bullet in his gut and that the police who were furious about the wounding of their colleague, finished him with several bullets at close range in the head…”¹⁰ This explained of course the absence of any legal action against Josselme. As to Bergeron, he was severely wounded during the settling of scores with his colleague.

On June 6, 1944, Bergeron participated in the arrests of Jews in Le Pontet, in company of Blanc, his childhood friend, Palmieri, and Billarz, a subordinate of Aloïs Brunner. As a result, there were seven deportees in convoy 76 from Drancy to Auschwitz: Moïse Benyacar, his wife Lisette, and their baby, Sylvain; Sarah Levendel; Esther Kramer and her son Georges; Anna Bitran. On July 29, 1945, Palmieri was confronted with Moïse Benyacar, the sole survivor, and admitted having made these arrests.¹¹

Since the scuffle with Josselme, Bergeron was given a weapon before leaving for a raid. He did not own one anymore, because his own Luger had been seized by the police in Avignon. But, since Bride liked to be precise, he added some more information in his testimony of February 8, 1945:

I wish however to specify that his index card carried the mention “Has a firearm permit.” Bergeron is a former member of the anti-Bolshevik Legion and he still has in his possession the cloth-covered military booklet, bearing his picture stamped with the German Eagle. He explained that he had spent one year in German uniform on the Russian front… During a conversation in the Merle bureau, Bergeron said that his parents owned a factory or an enterprise in Avignon, and that he had a brush with their workers in 1936.

This certainly shows where his sympathies lay, but does not show a lasting commitment to the hatred of “Judeo-Bolshevism.” Most likely, Bergeron was simply like the rest of the gangsters who had chosen the Nazis.

The Avignon hardcore of the Palmieri gang was surrounded by other individuals, informers of benevolent sub-contractors, like Fournier and Pontarelli^* from Graveson, Léopold Fosco from Chateaurenard, who distinguished themselves in the Avignon surroundings.12 Fournier and Pontarelli were occasionally seen in company of Blanc and Mouillade, in particular during “the arrest of a Jew in Boulbon (Bouches du Rhône) by Lucien Blanc.”¹³ The network around that nucleus spanned the entire Vaucluse and its surroundings, where the gangsters used their PPF membership to recruit voluntary informers. The beginning of the insurrection against the occupiers and their collaborators (early June 1944) put the gangsters on the defensive. An information note about Bergeron illustrates the situation.

… PPF since 1936, he was a “protection guard” [in the PPF] at the end of 1940, SOL in 1942, left as a volunteer worker in Germany, he returned rapidly and never went back. Miss Augusta Vernet claims that he gave great political service there.

Bergeron, who is considered as a killer, recently went to Buis les Baronnies for several days to guard the Achard family, whose father, a PPF, was wounded during a terrorist attack. Very dangerous.¹⁴

The network of gangsters was present in Buis les Baronnies (Drôme), very close to the position of the Resistance in the Maquis Ventoux. On the other hand, Bergeron, Deluermoz and Blanc went far beyond the Vaucluse, in lending a hand to Palmieri, their boss from Marseille. The report of Superintendent Castellan of October 7, 1946, placed them among other members of the Palmieri gang, on the side of his brother and right-hand man, Victor Palmieri, in the Basses Alpes during the arrest of 12 Jews on May 5, 1944. Castellan’s report of December 2, 1949, described the assassination of Fraim Slobodzianski in Mane (Basses Alpes), perpetrated by four members of the Palmieri gang on April 29, 1944.¹⁵ The gendarme Dailly recognized Deluermoz as one of the four gangsters. The assassination was corroborated by Nadia Karczmar, the daughter of the victim.¹⁶

Jacqueline Payeur, the wife of Charles Palmieri, also testified that Bergeron was in Cannes at her husband’s side.

Immediately after the arrival of German troops in the southern zone, the German army occupied the territory west of the Rhône and also took control of a narrow strip along the eastern side of the river. The remainder of the southeast—except the Marseille area and a narrow coastal strip up to Bandol—remained under Italian control until Italy’s armistice on September 8, 1943. Italian troops occupied Orange and Carpentras.

The German military units were accompanied by an Einsatzkommando (special detachment) of about twenty police officers under the command of Heinz Hollert. This small group formed the embryo of the future SiPo-SD of Marseille.

Hollert established his regional center in Marseille at 425, rue Paradis. Reinforcements quickly followed and set up offices in the neighboring buildings. Building numbers 401, 402 and 403 soon accommodated the offices of the SiPo-SD (Sicherheit Polizei—Sicherheit Dienst). During this initial period, the Marseille group created two “antennas,” one in Avignon, the other in Nîmes.

Hollert did not remain in the service long. On January 3, 1943, he was transferred to Lyon, where he died during a bombing. He was replaced in Marseille by Rolf Mühler who provided a view of the coexistence with the Italians in his deposition of January 25, 1947.

The presence of the Italians complicated our work in the Marseille region a lot. There was a line along the Rhône from Lyon to Avignon which left the Rhône in that town and reached the [Mediterranean] sea between La Ciotat and Toulon. We did not have the right to carry out searches or arrests on the east of Toulon… For every arrest East of that point, we needed an Italian authorization for each one.17

It may be complicated. But this did not prevent the subordinate of Rolf Mühler, Wilhelm Müller, and Mouillade, the auxiliary, to “carry out the arrests” of the Jews of Carpentras on April 12, 1943, as shown in the testimony of Henri Dreyfus. The separation line between Germans and Italians was relatively porous.

Soon after the Italian defection, the Einsatzkommando in Marseille broadened its activity to the seven départements of the Marseille region: Gard, Vaucluse, Hautes Alpes, Basses Alpes, Alpes Maritimes, Var et Bouches du Rhône. This territorial expansion immediately triggered deep transformations. A new organization was set up, the KdS (Kommando der SiPo/Gestapo und des Sicherheitsdienstes) of Marseille; in short the command of the unified German police.

The antennas of Nîmes and Avignon were renamed Aussendienststellen, literally “external service stations,” and the grip of the German police was expanded with the creation of Aussendienststellen in Toulon, Digne and Nice as well as Aussenposten (“External posts”) in Draguignan, Brignoles, Cannes and Monte Carlo. Temporary units were sent to Aix-en-Provence, Orange, Hyères and Briançon. The Aussenposten of Cannes and Draguignan were eliminated on June 1, 1944, before the total retreat of the KdS on August 15, 1944, through the Rhône valley. In its stable state, the SiPo-SD network was more or less parallel to the organization of the French government, even if an occasional presence of the Marseille KdS could be found in some départements outside the Marseille prefectural region (Drôme, Isère, Ardèche). All these regional extensions strengthened the KdS grip.

Rolf Mühler, who had been the chief of the Lyon KdS before his assignment to Marseille, held his function until the end of June 1944, and Wilhelm Nolle replaced him until Liberation.

The KdS had multiple responsibilities: repression of the Resistance, black market, hunt of STO dodgers, military security, intelligence functions, operational functions, etc. With the growing opposition to German occupation, the struggle against the Resistance consumed an increasing proportion of the KdS scarce resources. This is why French auxiliaries became critical to its operation.

It is important to observe a significant parallel structure between the network of the German police and that of the French collaborators. The French auxiliaries were “accredited” to Charles Palmieri from Marseille, who was himself accredited to the organization of Rolf Mühler, the boss of Wilhelm Müller from Avignon. When Palmieri came to Avignon, his close association with the Marseille SiPo-SD gave him, in the eyes of his Avignon gang, the prestige expected of a big boss.

The chiefs of the German police, Müller and Gauthier, sealed their “professional” relations with their auxiliaries with the help of the carrot and stick approach. Conversely, the hoodlums picked up very fast whom they are dealing with, and they made sure that their masters wanted for nothing.

Should we be surprised by a true symbiosis between the SiPo-SD and the underworld?

Ernst Dunker was a perfect example of the “rehabilitated” German ex-convict in the SiPo-SD. He became a key sergeant major of the Marseille KdS. Philippe Aziz has reconstituted his path.

… he was born on January 27, 1912, in Halle (Germany), in the modest family of a postal worker… The family lived in a state close to poverty… In 1927, the father died, Dunker finds himself an abandoned orphan at the age of 15… He worked at small jobs, barely making ends meet; he pilfered here and there… Dunker steals and poaches; in 1931, he is sentenced to four months in prison; once released, he is sent to a reformatory until his coming of age. When he comes out, Hitler is in power. Dunker settles in Berlin… He spends his time in the slummiest parts of Berlin…18

He was recruited by a Nazi and became a party militant. He was known in the underworld as a pimp, the manager of the bar “Blaue Engel”^* and an enthusiast for raids at the service of the Nazis. He was drafted in February 1940. Later, he was sent to the Altenburg school in Thüringen when he was trained in spying and intelligence techniques. He was then assigned to Paris at the Hôtel Duquesne, headquarters of the 11th GFP group. His mission was not that exciting: a few searches and a meager salary. In April 1942, his encounter with Lafont, the boss of the French Gestapo of rue Lauriston, put him back in money, and “freshened” him up. Their similarly tormented youths sealed an immediate friendship between them. Lafont “introduces Dunker to Boemelburg^†, one of the great masters of the Paris Gestapo, and warmly recommends him… Under the protection of Boemelburg, Dunker neglects his strict German police duties and takes up the black market. He meets Abel Danos and Joanovici… and gets rich…”

But he was hit by a new hard blow.

On December 15, 1942, the Hotel Lutétia^‡ discovered the trafficking of Sergeant Dunker… He was jailed during one month. Once freed, he got his job back, thanks to the intervention of the Boss. He was demoted and transferred to Marseille; he chose a truly French pseudonym: Delage.

On January 28, 1943, Delage arrived at the St. Charles (Marseille) train station in the company of Abel Danos, aka “Mammoth,” a lieutenant of Lafont. Marseille which had been recently occupied was a town where gangs ruled the streets. Because of his mobster’s past, he understood the underworld, even if it was different from the one he had known in Berlin. He had the right instincts. His personality and his alliance with the Paris underworld would help him settle in and do a better job in Marseille. The Paris underworld had connections with their Marseille “colleagues” (Carbone, Spirito^§). They knew one another at both ends of the PLM railway line.^**

Dunker remained under the explicit pressure of his Paris SS chiefs who must have forwarded his file to Rolf Mühler. He would be either totally dedicated to the SS cause or return to prison, if not worse.

Dunker earned a reputation commensurate with his bosses’ expectations in Marseille and gratified his direct chief, Lieutenant Paul Kompe. He linked up with various gangs who shared the territory (arms trafficking, black market, prostitution), and with their help, his first priority was to tackle the Resistance networks. In particular, his offensive against the Ajax * resistance network of the police earned him the sympathies of the mob which saw in it a way to neutralize the police, their “class” enemies. Help was readily available. Not only did Dunker promise to protect “his” mobsters from the police, but in the case of the Ajax network, he ironically sent them to fight it. Dunker harnessed more than 200 active collaborators in the Marseille underworld.

In his deposition of May 11, 1945, Dunker emerged as a coldblooded killer, who had all that it took to get along very well with the other mobsters.¹⁹ Erick,^† a man parachuted into France to teach the new Resistance recruits, had proposed his services to Dunker in exchange for considerable payments. A few weeks later, Erick became worried that two officers parachuted with him were suspecting him of treason; he asked the Germans to kill these two officers. Instead, Dunker cold-bloodedly executed Erick in early August 1944 and got rid of his body on a deserted road; then he called the French police anonymously and told them where to pick up the body. He explained to his court interrogators: “I must tell you that the way Erick operated had already started making me sick…” Dunker’s anonymous call to the French police created the perception in Erick’s family that he had been killed by the French police.

Dunker provided the names of his Vaucluse collaborators; three of them, Bergeron, Fournier, and Garbarino, were lent by Palmieri. It is with this gangster, this killer in uniform, that Palmieri would cut his deals.

Dunker recruited Simon Sabiani to his cause. Sabiani was a former communist deputy (1928), turned socialist, and now the leader of the Marseille region PPF.²⁰

Charles Palmieri was a Marseille Sabianiste from the beginning, as early as 1933, and he became a protégé in exchange for a few electoral “services” jointly with famous bosses, like Paul Carbone and François Spirito, as well as other members of the Corsican underworld. One must realize that political supremacy comes with geographic supremacy; he who chases the opponents from a Marseille district and keeps them out wins the votes of that district. Hence the importance of employing a contingent of tough guys.

It was the period when Sabiani, a populist with left leanings, still was the éminence grise of Marseille city hall with a chance at becoming mayor. When the electoral wind turned against Sabiani after 1934, and city hall slipped away, he got closer to Doriot, and in 1936 became a member of the PPF, which the grateful Palmieri brothers also joined on their protector’s heels. Sabiani had no cause to be jealous of his new PPF boss, as he already had his army of shady characters even before his “conversion” from Sabianism, his self-serving ideology, to Doriotism.

After the 1940 defeat, the leader of the Marseille PPF strengthened the presence of these shady characters in its ranks. Doriot designated him as the General Secretary of the LVF for the southern zone.

In his December 22, 1944, deposition before an inspector of the Brigade de Surveillance du Territoire * in Paris after his arrest, Palmieri described his Sabianist autobiography:

I have been sentenced three times… I left the Marseille public schools when I was ten to sail with the Compagnie de Navigation PLM.^† I did my military service at the fleet depot in Toulon as a seaman; demobilized in April 1933, on the recommendation of Sabiani, I was hired at Marseille city hall. Since my salary was low, I lived by my wits until 1936, which is the date of my enrollment in the PPF, that had just been established in Marseille, under the direction of Sabiani.

… I was discharged in September 1940, and decided shortly thereafter, to go Paris where I hoped to find work much more easily.²¹

When he left, his criminal record already included two sentences for car thefts and acts of violence. Once in Paris, he married Jacqueline Payeur. With his “savings,” he bought “Le Mirliton,” a bar which was also a meeting place for influential members of the PPF. In 1942, he was sentenced to a 1,200 francs fine and a prison sentence for “violation of the laws about food supply,” in simple terms, the black market. His spouse was interrogated on September 23, 1944:

When he came out of prison after the intervention of Doriot who had his sentence lowered to one month, Charles sold his share in the bar to a man named Jean… I must say that my husband had been a member of the PPF since the creation of the party.

The Mirliton was a meeting place for influential members, Doriot, Jean Le Can,* [Victor] Barthélémy, General Secretary of the party, [Marcel] Marchal, mayor of St. Denis,^† Maurice-Yvan Sicard,^‡ Sabiani…

So Charles Palmieri was a regular of Jacques Doriot²² who was also surrounded by an additional number of gangsters: François Spirito, Paul Carbone, Marius Manuelli, Auguste Ricord, Paul Alessandri, Serge Laurent, Pierre Fettu, Henri Jourdan and Guy Lavigne;²³ and in particular three brothers, Alfred, Michel, and Laurent Palmeri, whose last name was very close to that of the Palmieri brothers, Charles, Alfred, and Victor. At times this similarity caused confusion for the investigators after Liberation. All members of Doriot’s “entourage” were Nazi collaborators, and some of them became familiar figures in the Marseille arena. This evidently contributed to tightening the links between the Paris and Marseille gangsters and the Germans.

Palmieri was divided between Doriotism and Sabianism following tensions between the Paris leader and his Marseille associate, but he kept his ties to Sabiani for the moment, as he explained in his deposition of December 22, 1944:

Since I had been a member of the PPF in Marseille, I continued to meet the members of that party who were regular customers of the bar I owned [in Paris]. So I was attending the meetings, as much as my activities allowed me to.

At the conference of November 1942,^§ upon the request of Simon Sabiani, outraged to see the exploitation of his son’s death by party propaganda and who was being increasingly excluded, I personally intervened to trigger the incident that ended the session. I was congratulated by the man named [Paul] Santolini, the owner of the “Pershing” brasserie, on boulevard Pershing, for this intervention in favor of the man he called his friend and cousin.

The “exploitation” mentioned by Palmieri refers to Doriot’s wish to sell postcards with the photograph of Sabiani’s son, a volunteer of the LVF, who had been killed on the eastern front. The repercussion of this tension on the Avignon subordinates of Palmieri was evident, when Mouillade, back from his “attempt to enlist in the LVF,” took action:

Mouillade… reappeared only in September 1942. He went to see the Doriotist militants and urged them to leave the PPF, because “their chief is a phony.” His declarations caused a sensation among the local and regional chiefs of the PPF, but he was not excluded from the party for that…24

In spite of the diminishing influence of Sabiani on the party at the national level, his network in the Marseille region served him as a major asset with the KdS, after the arrival of the occupation troops in Marseille at the end of 1942. His relations were often dominated by his friendships—with hoodlums, with Gaullists, even friendship with some Jews. Gratitude for services rendered counted often more than ideology in Sabiani’s politics.

Shortly after his return to Marseille, Palmieri cut his ties to Sabiani and left the PPF, or more exactly did not set foot there anymore. The reasons of this break are not clear. Anyway, Palmieri found new masters in Marseille. He continued taking good care of his relationships with members of the PPF—established before the war and during his back and forth trips between Marseille and Paris from 1940 to 1942. The PPF remained one of his favorite recruiting grounds.

Palmieri consolidated his network around his direct collaborators:

In Marseille	André Simon^* [Paul] Giacometti Tomasini Jean Pozzo di Borgo Quinson Reynoird Ollivier, aka “Nettou”
In Avignon	Pierre Josselme Louis Bergeron Lucien Blanc Louis Mouillade
In Orange	Charras^*
In Vaison la Romaine	Docteur [Victor] Gaillard
In Cavaillon	Vinatie
In Graveson	Louis Fournier

This list does not include his two loyal brothers, Alfred and Victor, as well as other collaborators: Deluermoz from Orange, and Rodolphe Bride, Queudane, Simonnet, Marius Frézet, François Heiter, Jean Gibelin (aka Carteron), Guillaume Fasciola, all from Marseille. A few occasional associates also joined his operations: Bonavita, Guenouni, Manguerra, etc.

Frézet owned a map store at 8, rue Paradis, just below the office of the Merle enterprise, in front of his warehouse. His role was to detect members of the Resistance. When a suspect came in to buy maps, Frézet pulled an alarm rope, connected to Palmieri’s office, just above. This triggered the tailing of the suspected Resistance member hoping to reach the entire network.

Palmieri found himself at the center of a network of allies, subordinates, profiteers and volunteers, who were often linked to the PPF. Most of them were ex-convicts or professional gangsters. There was a constant concern on Palmieri’s part to maintain his political ties to the PPF, His network had a triple objective: serve the German police while lining his pockets and remaining shielded from the French police. On the German side, he had ties to individuals of the same ilk who understood him well.

Jean Gibelin, aka Carteron, hired by Palmieri at the end of 1943, specified the chronology of the Vaucluse activity which did not yet target Jews:

Around January 20, 1944, Giacometti introduced two new members: Josselme and Bergeron. They were accepted by Palmieri and provided addresses for operations in the Vaucluse.

A few days later, towards the end of February, Palmieri left for Avignon where he recovered at the home of a man named Daumas in La Motte d’Aigues, 40 tons of war equipment (Josselme and Giacometti had provided the tip for this deal).

On his return, Palmieri brought in three new agents: Lucien Blanc, Louis Fournier and Mouillade. These three agents had a mission to pinpoint the camps of [STO] dodgers and all the anti-German activities in the region.

Toward the end of February, upon Palmieri’s request, I accompanied him to Avignon… We returned to Marseille with numerous tips about dodgers in Pont St. Esprit and Bourg St. Andiol.

A few days later, I learned that Dr. Gaillard had informed the SD of Avignon of a camp in Séderon housing 40 dodgers who are said to have been massacred by the SD of Avignon, helped by the Avignon Milice and the detachment of DCA * of Carpentras…²⁵

This was an additional source of information which would have guided the Germans in the massacre of Izon la Bruisse.

However, at the end of 1943 and during 1944, the fight against the Resistance proved dangerous. With the allied advances on all fronts, Resistance groups became increasingly daring and the assassinations of collaborators grew in numbers.

The tragic death of Paul Carbone in a train sabotaged by the Resistance in 1943 must have cast a chill over the gangsters, and somewhat mitigated the satisfaction of seeing him disappear from the Marseille competition. Being at the service of the German occupier in the southeast in 1943–1944 was not the safest job.

Santolini, aka “Paul from Marseille,” was an independent mobster specializing in trafficking with the Germans in Paris. He was close to the Gestapo of rue de la Pompe²⁶ and had more than sympathy for Palmieri. Santolini served as his godfather back in Marseille.

Santolini, a friend of a man named Ottavi, both of them notorious traffickers on behalf of the Germans, introduced me to the latter who offered me to go into wholesale trafficking with them between Marseille and Paris.

With the objective of becoming purchasing agents for the Germans, we all went to Marseille, where we settled at the Hôtel Méditerranée.²⁷

It is important to realize that in Paris the Germans had set up a multitude of “purchasing offices” aimed at providing military units with all kinds of products they needed.28 This mechanism allowed the Germans to obtain supplies outside conventional channels while relying on mobsters who would not miss this godsend. Of course, the gangsters more or less closely affiliated with Lafont took advantage of this opportunity. The link to Marseille allowed them to expand their supply range.

The German purchasing offices in the hands of the gangsters contributed to the black market which the German police were in charge of combating. The same mechanism was found in Marseille. In the first deal recommended by his Parisian allies, things did not turn out that well for Palmieri:

Our next deal consisted of buying cognac and tires which I wanted to sell to the Germans through the intermediary of a man named Aubert, owner of a café, rue Bernard Dubois [in Marseille]. At the time of the sale, the buyers who were none other than Gestapo agents arrested us, claiming that the merchandise had been stolen from them. With Aubert and three other people, we were incarcerated at the St. Pierre prison, German section. After one month in jail, I was freed through the intervention of Ottavi, who had connections with the German services, as an SD agent of the Hotel Majestic in Paris.

Was this accusation against Palmieri a German maneuver to take control of him? Anyway, Palmieri was well connected and from that point on, his position kept improving. During a trip to Marseille, Santolini introduced him to friends who had come there. Their description says a lot:

Later, Santolini introduced me to a man named François Wilhelm who was the chief of intelligence for Gegoff in Paris. His entire gang was introduced to me in Marseille where they had come to perform some operations. This is how I got acquainted with Philippe, aka “Baron Delanoy,” Edmond Brémont, aka “Count of Timbuktu,” Lucien Scherrer (an Alsatian), aka “The Admiral,” Cazeau, aka “The Doctor,” and finally Jacques Lambert, who was introduced as Wilhelm’s secretary. I must add that the woman named Annie, an intelligence agent and mistress of Lucien, was among these people.

Palmieri continued to engage in “business deals.” In the company of Wilhelm, he requisitioned 40 tons of soap warehoused at the “Agricola” factory, and later 14 tons of soap at the “Rocca, Tassy and de Roux” factory. This last shipment was intercepted by the Gestapo. Palmieri landed in a German prison; then he was sought by the French police following a warrant for his arrest issued by M. Jouin, the investigating judge.

As Palmieri recounts his story:

After he learned that the French police were looking for me…, Wilhelm introduced me to Keller who also stayed at the Grand Hôtel and told me that he would see to it that I would get away with it. This took place in April 1943.

Then, as he stated in another document:

As for me, since I was sought by the French police, I got myself hired as an SD agent, by a man named Keller, who had been introduced to me by Santolini. I received a protection document from the Kriegsmarine and I became the general intelligence agent in charge of discovering French stocks. My salary was 10,000 francs per month, and I was earning, in addition to the salary, 3% of the official price of all the merchandise seized with my help.

Keller, who was about to leave Marseille, introduced Palmieri to Lieutenant Kompe, chief of Section IV-E of the SiPo-SD, where he met Dunker. Around September 15, 1943, the purchasing office at Merle was established to provide a legitimate cover for the intelligence activity. An apartment and a warehouse were allocated at 8, rue Paradis, and Palmieri also received a revolver and a submachine gun. Later, Palmieri explained his role: “My work consisted of collecting intelligence and more precisely the locations of the Maquis in the Var. I was receiving this information thanks to the complicity of Dr. Jamin, secretary of the PPF and SD agent in Toulon.”

Section IV-E was in charge of counterespionage. For Palmieri, this meant identifying underground radios, seeking information about the Maquis in the Var, a sore spot for the Germans, locating clandestine equipment. He also participated in the Dunker-Kompe operation against the Ajax network of the police; this operation was more or less a failure because most of the police belonging to Ajax managed to flee; even so, this half-success, to use the words of Dunker, did probably please his mob subordinates, since they had caused the police to run away. The arrests of members of the Resistance continued, accompanied at times by extortion for the benefit of all the participants.

The Germans had set the fox to mind the geese.

The tightening of the links with the SiPo-SD culminated with the Cannes episode in June 1944. In that city on the Côte d’Azur, Palmieri became the chief of the French Gestapo reporting to Bauer.

Toward the end of June, the services of the SD under Bauer moved, and he asked me to move my office to Cannes where the headquarters was established. On June 20, accompanied by André Simon, Ollivier [aka Nettou], Louis Bergeron, Quinson, and my brother Alfred, we left for Cannes where we were supposed to settle. The services included two sections, the French one, and the other, the German one, was under the high leadership of Bauer. The French section, which I headed, was based at the Villa Conchita, boulevard Carnot, while the German section was at the Villa Montfleury, Impasse Montfleury. In that town, I continued my Marseille activity, namely general intelligence, and more particularly, the arrest of Israélites.

In the investigation of the Marseille military court of justice, Bauer was described as “a warrant officer, 52 years old, chief of torture, transferred to Cannes in July 1944.”

The Jews were weakened by repeated attacks from Vichy propaganda organizations and by government legislation. This made the hunt for the Jews a lucrative activity without any immediate risk. Moreover, the Jews were not protected by the Resistance, which did not consider their security to be a strategic objective. Abandoned by all, they became easy prey.

Palmieri admitted the arrest of 30 Jews in the Bouches du Rhône, 70 in the Vaucluse, 50 in the Basses Alpes, and 18 in the Var. These numbers were probably underestimated since, for instance, his subordinates performed arrests in his absence. The activity of the Palmieri gang spanned the entire Marseille prefectural region and beyond, through a network of agents and collaborators. For instance, they were spotted in the Drôme, in Buis les Baronnies, where they arrested Jewish refugees from the Vaucluse. Their action has been documented throughout the Gard, and the Hautes Alpes.

Palmieri showed his hand in his statement of March 15, 1945:

… I organized a few operations in Avignon. During the first one, I was with Thomas Ricci who had brought 15 of his agents while I had 10 of mine. Bergeron, Mouillade, Blanc and Josselme * of my unit 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.

During the second one, still in the company of my Marseille and Avignon teams, I arrested 10 Jews from a list provided by Mouillade and Blanc.

The other operations were also conducted according to information provided by my Avignon agents. I do not remember exactly the number of arrests. I must add that I often happened to come to Avignon to pick up Jews arrested by the Germans.

… I know that my agents were organizing looting operations for their own benefit. Besides, Lucien Blanc was arrested by the French police for one of those deals…

I knew a few agents of the GFP, the individuals named Alfred André, Georges Boyer, [Albert] Sauvet, Nicky, Marcel Cappe,* Roger Boyer (from Mondragon).

As I already told you, the lists of Jews were provided by my Avignon agents, but also, at times, by Müller, the SD chief, who himself got them from the services of the Avignon prefecture.

I knew Feroldi, the milicien, through the intermediary Pierre Terrier, SD agent in Avignon. I have met Feroldi several times at the headquarters of the SD, boulevard Monclar in Avignon.

I knew Idlas when I also belonged to the PPF. Later, I saw him two or three times in Avignon, and I am aware that he was giving information to Josselme.

I was arrested on July 31, 1944, in Marseille, by the Germans who held me in custody for questioning about the Ajax network. I was released on August 13, the day of the landing and I immediately left Marseille…²⁹

This provides a global view of Palmieri’s activity in the Vaucluse: looting, arrests, collaboration with the various gangs to set up and execute large-scale operations.

In the sixth paragraph, Palmieri mentioned that Müller had at times given him lists of Jews from the prefecture. If we take his statement to the letter, Müller may have had a “mole” inside the prefecture. However, we have not been able to verify this possibility.

The second possibility, which does not exclude the first, is that he was speaking about the list of foreign Jews who had transited through Raymond Guilledoux, the regional director of the SEC and boss of Jean Lebon.^†

Providing this list would have been for Vichy a compromise that could have spared French Jews. Such a list was found in Palmieri’s office at 8, rue Paradis in Marseille. In his request for information of May 29, 1945, Jean Fabre, the investigating judge of the Marseille court of justice, cited Charles Palmieri:

These are list of Jews established by the French authorities during the census of the Jews. They were provided to Bauer [Palmieri’s direct boss for Jewish Affairs in Marseille] and were given to us much later. I had sent these lists to my Avignon agents, specifically Mouillade so that he can find out whether these registered Jews still live at the recorded address…³⁰

In fact, Palmieri’s lists were partial copies of the census of foreign Jews. There were only 189 names out of more than 400 names recorded by the prefecture. In addition, he had a list of about 20 French Jews, which may have been a separate pool of potential victims.

For added efficiency, he had the addresses verified. For instance, Modka Korzec was first listed in Avignon at the address of his wife, then stricken out from Avignon, and finally recorded in Lauris. Other names were directly added with the address, where they were “hiding,” like Hedwig Delange who was not on the census list. The names of people already arrested were stricken out.

Several testimonies stand out. Some Jews, who had been victims of extortions in exchange for their freedom, were ready to talk after Liberation. Since not all of these cases were willing to come forward, it is impossible to determine the exact number of Jews who were arrested and then released. However, one is left with the impression that the numbers are significant. In a report of May 2, 1945, Police Superintendent Victor Roton wrote:

… then in Orange, where, in the absence of the father, I recorded the testimony of Miss Danielle Mossé, age 20, unemployed, living in that town. She indicates that she was arrested on April 6, 1944, by several individuals and taken to the Gestapo, together with her father Samuel Mossé. Among the photographs, she recognizes Charles Palmieri and François Heiter. She adds that she and her father were released in exchange for 120,000 francs.

Mr. Edmond Carcassonne, age 56, businessman in this town. On March 23, 1944, several individuals came to his home. He was not arrested, and for that, he had to pay 130,000-135,000 francs. He recognized Charles Palmieri’s photograph without any doubt.

Mme. Valentine Geismar, née Wildenstein, age 68, unemployed, in Orange. She declares that on October 8, 1943, three individuals arrived at her home and stated that they came to arrest her son-in-law Bomsel. They undertook a search of the house and grabbed the sum of 10,000 francs as well as various objects.

Among the photographs, she recognizes without any hesitation Charles Palmieri. He behaved brutally toward her and slapped her.

Later in Cavaillon, where on April 3, I recorded the declaration of Jacques Lévi, age 81, unemployed, living in this town. He indicates that on April 12, 1944, he was visited by several armed individuals who took him to the Police station of the city. They wanted to know the whereabouts of his son Maurice. They grabbed various objects during the search of the apartment. Then he was released two hours later…

On June 8, 1945, it was Samuel Mossé’s turn to tell the story of his liberation with his daughter Danielle. The details he provides are worthy of an historical detective novel.

… After my daughter finished preparing her suitcase, she proposed to one of these individuals to release us on bail. I followed suit by offering the chief the same thing, but he answered “that he was having nothing to do with that.”

We were then taken to the Kommandantur, but we never entered the offices.

After entering the Kommandantur, the two individuals came out and took us back to our home.

The “assistant” told me that he was accepting our proposal, namely the immediate payment of 120,000 francs.

They took us back to the Kommandantur; again, we stayed in the car while the chief entered the offices. He came back in company of the German commander who looked at us; they both went back in.

The chief came back a few minutes later and told the driver of the car “Take them wherever they will want, they are free.”

I asked to leave in the direction of the Champlain neighborhood, three kms away from town, I asked the car to stop and before giving the agreed amount, I asked my daughter to get off first. After she got out, I paid as agreed, and when it was my turn, I was prevented from getting out.

The second individual who was with the chief at the beginning told me then: “Do not go back to your place and take it into your head that if we catch you again, you will be gunned down, you and your family, because we are doing something that we should not be doing.” I was then released.

Palmieri knew very well who among the Germans “was having something to do with that”! In fact, during his confrontation with Samuel Mossé on July 24, 1945, before Judge Jean Fabre from the Marseille court of justice, Palmieri stated:

… The claim of the witness is correct, it is me and Heiter who have arrested Samuel Mossé and his daughter; we had them released in exchange for money.

I left part of this money at the Kommandantur and the remainder went to the coffers of the bureau Merle…31

In his deposition before Judge Larat on March 10, 1945, Palmieri confirmed that the Orange Kommandantur affair was not an isolated case:

… We carried out the arrests, and then, we took the Jews to 425, rue Paradis. At times during a roundup, some Jews would give us money (100,000 or 200,000 francs) and we would let them go; of course we would keep the money for ourselves. Sometimes, we would find jewelry in the apartments abandoned by Jews, but we would give that to Bauer who was the chief of the anti-Jewish section, at rue Paradis.32

It must be noted that in the spring of 1944, jewelry seemed more practical than foreign exchange offices.

Palmieri responded cynically to Edmond Carcassonne who accused him of having arrested him on March 25, 1944, together with his wife and mother in law, then released them in exchange of 130 to 135,000 francs:

I have to say that I was expected to put the seals on the apartment of Mr. Carcassonne and that I did not do it; I even carried their luggage to their place of hiding.

During a later confrontation, on August 7, 1945, with Edmond Carcassonne, Palmieri cited Lucien Blanc as an accomplice in that extortion. We also learn that Palmieri had started the discussion with a demand for 5 million francs. It was possible to haggle with Palmieri who could listen to reason.

In another report of May 25, 1945, Superintendent Roton recorded the following facts:

Then on March 30, the testimony of Marie Riz, age 40, businesswoman, 27, rue Bancasse.

She states that on May 15, 1944, two individuals whom she has learned since then are Palmieri and Conrad (he was executed since then) arrested her at her domicile listed above. She adds that the individuals named Charles Palmieri, Robert Conrad, Isnard, Pierre Terrier, Félix Olivier, as well as another one she thinks is named Costa, looted her apartment, on the second floor, and took with them fabrics, food, liqueurs and other. Then, they let her go free under the promise that she would bring them 100,000 francs the next morning. On the agreed day, Félix Olivier came to the home of Mme. Riz, but after he could not come to an agreement with her, he brought Charles Palmieri, who, out of his mind with anger, assaulted Mr. Gustave Vonet, a friend of Mme. Riz. Then, he arrested him and took him to the St. Anne prison. Two days later, Mr. Vonet was released in exchange for 100,000 francs.

She recognized Lucien Blanc, Louis Bergeron and Charles Palmieri in the photographs that were shown to her.

Marie Riz had already been ransomed by the Alfred André gang a few months earlier, in November 1943.*

Jean Lebon and the SEC were not the only ones interested in the stallholders. A note about Gaston Mouillade provides an insight:

Gaston Mouillade had the stallholders on the place Pie arrested on Thursday, March 16.

He was looking for Jews engaged in the black market and owning stocks of merchandise which have been promised to him in payment.³³

The stallholders on the place Pie were on the list of the Palmieri gang. The shortages at the time made the little merchandise they may have owned even more desirable, all the more so since everyone knew that some of them continued their small trade in order to survive, in defiance of the CGQJ anti-Jewish measures. But there was more to it: some of them were well connected, and this could become useful to street tyrants who were pursuing them.

Victor Roton recorded the deposition of Marthe Angel, née Arokas, given on March 24, 1945:

In March 1944—I am not able to provide the exact date—my husband told me that the man named Joseph Allemand, stallholder in Avignon, claimed that he can arrange to free his stepfather, Jacques Toledo, at the time detained in Marseille, at the prison of Les Beaumettes, in exchange for 500,000 francs. After my husband, who could not afford that amount, refused he was summoned a few days later at the home of Mr. Yaffe, stallholder, place des Carmes, by an individual whose name I have learned to be “Merle.”

This man stated to my husband that he could do nothing for his stepfather, but he strongly suggested that he pay 200,000 francs if he wanted to avoid being arrested. After a discussion, my husband handed over the requested amount to Merle, and on his advice, my husband left for Buis les Baronnies where I joined him.

One month after our departure from Avignon, my husband was arrested by three German soldiers and three French civilians.

Among the photographs you are showing me, I recognize without any hesitation Joseph Allemand, a neighbor of mine, and without being completely certain, the individuals, whose names you gave me as Gibelin, aka Carteron, and Louis Bergeron, were probably among the people who arrested my husband in Buis les Baronnies.

Marthe Angel did not seem to know that Lucien Blanc had also participated in the Buis les Baronnies operation.

The court file against Joseph Allemand shed light on this strange episode, in spite of a few details that remain unclear.34 In a statement otherwise rather favorable to Allemand, Moïse Yaffe declared on March 27, 1945, that “…he was arrested on March 15, 1944, by four individuals who introduced themselves as members of the German police; he recognized Palmieri among these four individuals. He was taken to St. Anne prison where he was brutally beaten, then released the next day because of his Turkish nationality.”

Charles Palmieri shattered Moïse Yaffe’s explanations with his own deposition during Joseph Allemand’s trial:

I am the one who got him released because the Germans were arresting the Turkish Jews. A few days later, Moise Yaffe gave 5,000 francs for the German Red Cross.

Then, Moise Yaffe came to ask me to free a man named Toledo, arrested at the German prison. I was unable to have him freed because there was an ongoing blackmail affair; some people had come to see the stepson of Toledo and were asking for money to release him. I refused to handle this issue any more.

I want to add that, since I learned about an upcoming roundup of Jews, I was keen to tell Yaffe that I did not want him arrested a second time, after having saved him. I posted André Simon [in front of his door] with the instructions not to let Yaffe communicate with the outside, but to let him go after the roundup was finished; that is what happened. At the same time as Yaffe, I bailed out Elie Angel, who had been arrested as I have already explained.

Charles Palmieri was changing into a Good Samaritan in front of our eyes! He was evidently ready to use all means at his disposal to save his skin. As to Moïse Yaffe, he somewhat corrected himself in his next testimony:

I have been forced to make a gift to the Red Cross. It is true that Palmieri warned me about a roundup and that I would be let free at 5:00 a.m. There were 4 other Israelites in my apartment, my wife, Toledo, Toledo’s brother-in-law and Angel. After my departure, there was a search in my home, but I was already gone. After I came back to my apartment building, I was not bothered any more.

With the help of the traditional techniques of the underworld, the gangsters put pressure on their victims to identify through them the most affluent Jews. Then they discreetly contacted the targeted Jews and extorted money in exchange for freedom. Palmieri put around the neck of his victims the same kind of noose he used to get his own subordinates to toe the line; exactly the same way his Germans bosses were able to do with him.

For his victims caught in the spiral of brute force and intimidation, terrorized by the fear of deportation, there were very few choices: either submit or become a destitute runaway. How many others, faced with the same choice, took the same road? What would each one of us have done under the same circumstances?

Although Palmieri had no scruples, he seemed however to keep his word and released his rich victims after a ransom, if he was not being watched or if he was able to bribe his German partners. It was good for business to keep a good reputation, especially among future victims. This “honesty” was apparently not the case for other Avignon gangsters, the Parietas gang, who took advantage of their victims as if there were no tomorrow.* Palmieri and his gang did not neglect smaller amounts, between 5,000 and 35,000 francs, during organized roundups. A good network of informers showed him the path to follow between the rich Jews and the less affluent ones. Palmieri knew how to optimize his business: filling his own pockets while delivering enough Jews for deportation.

On November 17, 1945, Rousselier, the Marseille court psychiatrist provided an assessment of Charles Palmieri:

… he has a sharp and intelligent eye, he is in a pretty good general state of health… A good memory, attentive, well balanced, demonstrates judgment and will, shows no psychotic behavior…

About the accusations against him, Palmieri insists that he has always been a good Frenchman, without any intent to damage the external security of the state… PPF since its beginning, he left the party in 1942 “because of Doriot.”

… He specifies that his wife has been faithful…

The man claims to have normal sexual activity, to be free of any venereal disease, to drink only one liter of wine per day, to consume a few rare aperitifs, to smoke little, four or five cigarettes a day, to use no hard drugs, not to be an habitual gambler.

The man is very calm, has full self-control, and has not once tried to make any “self-serving statement” nor has he simulated any symptoms.

Moreover, this defendant, very direct, very precise in his statements, affirms that he has never had any anti-national intentions; and he claims he can explain his acts only because of political convictions, and that it is because of his convictions that he wanted to fight the internationals and the Jews.

Today, Palmieri, who claimed “to drink only one liter of wine per day, to consume a few rare aperitifs,” would be considered a “functional” alcoholic. Alcohol may have unleashed his brutality.

Palmieri looked dapper, as confirmed by his photograph in his court file. In his memorandum of March 1, 1945, Bride, his secretary, painted the portrait of a boss and provided testimony against him.

Charles Palmieri was the “director” of the Merle enterprise. The round pink face of a doll, irascible and brutal at times, he never smokes, but he drinks and likes going to bars and night clubs… He loves money, and in my judgment, if he works with the Germans, it is toward a lucrative goal, since I saw him deceive them when it is profitable. And what’s more, he liked to say “Everybody likes dough, but you must know how to earn it cleverly.” He is always armed, a revolver in his belt and a sub-machine gun at his reach. He loves sartorial elegance and has expensive suits tailored at Severin, rue Paradis… He often brags about his relations with the krauts, in particular Bauer, an officer of the Gestapo in Marseille, Richard, an officer of the Gestapo in Marseille and in Cannes, Bilharz,* another member of the Gestapo… He often goes to the racetrack in Avignon^† with Bauer… He constantly praises the krauts and the miliciens. He is openly against Sabiani and declares not to set foot in the PPF anymore. He owns a grey family front wheel drive which he claims having bought in Cannes together with Régis Balthazar for 100,000 francs. He owns a covered truck which he uses to transport the Jews he arrests and is driven by Albert Simon… Albert Simon and Queudane take care of his cars.

He displays a violent hatred against the Jews and does not hide that he steals from them and loots whenever he can; he lets them know, especially if they are rich, that he will deliver them to the Germans if they do not pay him off generously. If the Germans approach, he lets the rich Jews escape… He delivers the poor ones to the Germans mercilessly. During my presence at the office, he got several “reprimands” on the part of the Germans who do not want him to take money from the Jews, but only to deliver them.³⁵

Palmieri used the language of violence, with snappy formulas. During the arrest of Sarah Levendel, he refused to let her go in spite of her pleas: “You don’t have a heart!” He replied: “We do have one, but it is made out of steel!”³⁶

On July 6, 1945, David Kreikeman testified about his own arrest and that of his family, a little more than one year earlier.

Palmieri criticized me for hiding my wife and my child: “Now we know their address, and we are going to pick them up!” He hit me several times on my shoulder with a cane he had taken in my wardrobe… Jean Pozzo di Borgo and Charles Palmieri arrested my wife in my presence. Palmieri conducted a search and seized a jewel box containing [gold] coins of 10 and 20 francs, a radio set, and a camera. He ordered my wife to take some clothes and he took us to the truck with our two-year old toddler. Then I asked Palmieri what he was going to do with my son and he replied: “Sausage meat and we’ll make you eat it!”

He was a tough guy who did not tolerate any resistance. The testimony of the Cavaillon police superintendent, recorded by Victor Roton on April 3, 1945, testified to it:

The man named Charles Palmieri, who carries a Gestapo badge with the name Merle, conducted operations in Cavaillon several times, often accompanied by Frenchmen, or by Germans, and in particular a man named Gauthier, Superintendant of the Gestapo in Avignon. Concerning the arrest of Levy and Grech, here is what took place:

Merle arrived at the police station at about midnight, accompanied by twenty or so PPF. He tried to obtain the list of all Cavaillon Jews; in particular by pressuring my sergeant who warned me immediately.

As soon as I arrived at the station, Merle demanded the complete list of all the Cavaillon Jews; I refused categorically.

As he insisted, while indicating that he would arrange for Captain Müller of the Avignon Gestapo to order it, I repeated my refusal, and I phoned the prefecture chief of staff, who told Merle that he had no right to ask the police for information. He insisted and ordered the chief of staff to go immediately to Captain Müller who will order him to provide this information.

… I want to specify that he was accompanied by fifteen or so individuals, all armed with sub-machine guns and revolvers; they arrived with two cars and a truck. These individuals were carefully watching my people’s every move as well as our telephone exchange…

Merle accused me of having provided Grech with a fake ID card and told me he was a Jew. I intervened several time while vouching for Grech whom I knew very well. Merle consented to release Grech and his wife temporarily, and he warned me that if Grech were to escape from Cavaillon, he would arrest me…

Merle had told me and my services that he was the boss of the entire organization fighting against the Jews in the Marseille region.

Confident of his own power, Palmieri turned the situation round: the gangster threatened the police superintendent.

It is not hard to see the pattern in the archival documents, although he had once in a while been touched by a passing emotion, as in the case of the arrest of the Benyacar—Maurice, age 24, Lisette, age 22, and their baby Sylvain, age three and a half months. Palmieri proposed to Lisette to go away with her baby. Unfortunately, she refused; she wanted to stay with her husband. The result was deportation on convoy 76. Lisette and Sylvain were gassed on arrival, but Maurice survived.

The testimony of Jacqueline Payeur, Palmieri’s “faithful” wife shed additional light on the personal world of the boss.

… I must tell you that I met Francois Heiter at “Marianne Michel”… He became my lover in August 1943… I rejoined [Charles] at the end of December, and I renewed my contact with my lover. At that time, I arranged for my friend Heiter a position as interpreter for my husband at a salary of 10,000 francs per month.

…my friend Heiter who had left the Merle office about the end of May [1944] joined me in Paris, where I hid him in my apartment…

… If I have housed and hidden Heiter, even though I knew that he was the interpreter of my husband, it is because he was my lover and I was pregnant by him…

François Heiter probably did leave the Merle office fearful of Palmieri’s anger who was suspicious of his relationship with Jacqueline, but he used his flight for his defense, according to the report of investigating Judge Jean Fabre: “… this work was making you nauseous and you were about to leave.”

Queudane was one of Palmieri’s Marseille subordinates who participated in the roundups of the Vaucluse Jews. On December 18, 1943, gun in hand, accompanied by Alessandrini, Cabagno and two other acolytes, he ransomed Ernest Girard from Aubignan: 155,000 francs in banknotes, jewelry, gold coins and bearer bonds, in total a 300,000 franc value. The investigating Judge Caralp recorded the testimony of Arnaud, subprefect of Carpentras:

… It seems that this theft had not been perpetrated by terrorists or ordinary bandits, but that we had here skilled specialists, who had succeeded in avoiding the severe penalties of French law concerning the use of counterfeit police badges. They did so by betraying the good faith of the German security services and obtaining genuine German police badges, in order to elude the just punishment of their wrongdoings.

Of course, we have noted many times the “good faith” of the German Security services. Anyway, on February 15, 1944, an arrest warrant was issued by a Carpentras investigating judge against the “bogus-real” police.

Cabagno, who had been caught, was released following “the visit of man named Meyer, introducing himself as an SD agent in Avignon… who warns that Cabagno was attached to the same service.” A word to the wise was enough.

As to Queudane, he was going a bit farther. Again, the sub-prefect Arnaud testified:

On June 7, 1944, at about 5:30 p.m., the investigating judge was visited by three individuals introducing themselves as German police; they provided identification on the judge’s request.

From the beginning of the conversation, these individuals, among whom Queudane was present, declared to the High Magistrate… that in the case of the Girard husband and wife theft, he had acted thoughtlessly, by ordering the arrest of Queudane…

However,… after the discussion resumed, these individuals forced the investigating judge, under threat and pressure, to sign a letter addressed to “M. Merle, German Security in Marseille,” in which the magistrate declared that the man named Queudane was released, because no element in the criminal file justified any legal action.

While leaving with the letter in hand, these three individuals swore at him, and delighted in informing the Magistrate that the president of the court had already been executed, and that the police superintendant, who had launched an investigation against them, was already locked up.

… Let me underscore the significant number of thefts perpetrated in the region under the cover of the protection of the German security services.

Queudane, the gangster, became the judge. It was a scheme that may be found elsewhere in France.37 Two observations are now in order. The original incident against the Girards, which took place on December 18, 1943, indicates that some members of the Palmieri gang were already operating in the Vaucluse before the boss’s arrival as a Jew hunter.

In addition, the incident in the judge’s chambers in Carpentras occurred on June 7, 1944, the day following a major roundup by Charles Palmieri in Avignon. A little detour through Carpentras before returning to Marseille was well worth the effort.

This episode was not held against Queudane.

Palmieri claimed that the Germans jailed him toward the end and Dunker confirmed it. They supposedly suspected him of being a double agent for the Resistance. Did Palmieri have a last minute change of mind? Dunker provided an insight.

… I wish to avoid any confusion that Palmieri has worked for our service, in Section IV-E with Kompe.

A few days before our departure from Marseille, during the first half of August, Palmieri who had played bogus cop and robbed everybody and everywhere, by taking advantage of his functions with us and with Bauer, was arrested under the orders of the assistant of Kommandeur Gustav Meyer.* By coincidence, he was put in a cell with the American officer “Lucas”… I do not know what he had told Lucas. Anyway, he must have earned his trust, since this man shared with him secrets that Palmieri rushed to write down and forward—or at least attempt to forward—to Kompe, with whom he was in very good terms. One of these letters missed its destination and landed in the hands of Pfanner,^† who was taking a jaundiced eye of the friendship between Kompe and Palmieri…³⁸

Palmieri knew how to take advantage of every opportunity.

We are faced with another unexpected situation during Palmieri’s confrontation with Andrée Pons, née Carcassone, who was arrested on the day following the arrest of her husband, a notorious member of the Vaucluse Resistance.

Andrée Pons: I recognize Charles Palmieri, although he has lost weight. He is not the one who arrested me. I saw him at the St. Anne prison. I was transferred from the St. Anne prison in Avignon to Marseille by bus. I stayed in the bus and was not taken to the Gestapo [in Marseille].

I spent the night in an office at the end of rue Paradis, near the Place de la Bourse. On the next day … Palmieri, the man here, came alone and told me I could leave under the condition I do not return to Avignon, in which case I was risking being arrested again.

I gave him the address where I was going to stay, 27, rue Sainte. I was not bothered anymore…

I must specify that Palmieri never asked for any money.

Charles Palmieri: I have been told to transfer Mme. Pons from Avignon to Marseille. Upon the insistence of members of the Resistance whose names I do not want to mention, I freed her… One of them came to see her in my apartment where Mme. Pons had spent the night.³⁹

The aforementioned transfer was requested by the Avignon or Marseille SiPo-SD. It was impossible to confirm through other sources whether Andrée Pons had really been freed following a specific request form the Resistance or whether this was a gesture taken on Palmieri’s initiative. Anyway, the liberation of the wife of this member of the Resistance would certainly serve as an insurance policy in the near future. Apparently, Palmieri had been wise enough to keep a back door open to his enemy, the Resistance.

By rendering some services to the Resistance, hunting the Jews, extracting information from an American prisoner for the benefit of the German police, the man was always cultivating multiple relationships; a good practice in the underworld and an insurance policy for the future.

Let us follow Palmieri’s story during the hours that preceded the liberation of Marseille:

On August 15, I left Marseille under surveillance, accompanied by members of the SD, in the direction of Belfort through Lyon. On our way, I met Kompe, who got me released in Belfort. In that town, I met my brother Alfred, Bergeron, and Kalpadjian…

Since we had been asked to spy on our compatriots, we asked to be relieved and we were sent to Berlin… two individuals told me they belonged to a group headed by Obersturmführer Neyser whose mission was to train agents susceptible of returning to France. At their request, I was introduced to Neyser, who accepted us into his group…

When we arrived at that school, in the presence of the instructors, Captain Winter and Lieutenant Lang, we signed a paper in which we promised not to divulge the secrets of the school. Any failure on our part to do so could get us executed.

… The classes were about explosives… Lieutenant Lang trained us to shoot the revolver and the sub-machine gun, while Captain Winter was in charge of classes about tactics and reading survey maps… At the end of the course, a first group left for the front… A second group left the school ahead of us… Their mission was to attack the pipeline along the Rhône valley…

As for my team comprised of two groups, one formed by three SS and the other by my brother Alfred, Bergeron, Karadjian, and Albert Jeanne, it was supposed to attack the pipeline between Cherbourg and Paris or Paris and Nancy… In addition to explosives and food, we were each given 25,000 francs, 100 dollars, 36 pounds sterling, and for the entire group, four Louis gold coins. My brother and I had 80,000 francs which belonged to us personally. A few minutes before the departure, we were given a vial of poison we were supposed to use in case of arrest… On the eve of December 14, we boarded an American four-engine plane with German colors…

The flight took place at an average altitude of 3,000 meters and I do not know why we were parachuted in Chemery instead of Marolles (Yonne). At 00:20 a.m., Mer, who was keen to accompany us, ordered us to jump. Once landed, the whole team gathered except Jeanne, whose tracks we never found. On contact with the ground, my brother Alfred dislocated a knee … I ordered the whole team to leave the bags and the material on the spot. We met in an abandoned house; in the small hours of the morning, two peasants came to our landing area and they were able to identify the landing spots when they saw the bags. Fearing that these peasants would trigger an alarm, the three SS wanted to take them prisoner before fleeing, I objected, and after leaving the explosives and my bag, I left with my brother to get him medical attention. After learning in Chemery that American headquarters were in Blois, I planned to make myself available at their headquarters and to inform them about the objective of my mission and provide them any information they might be interested in. But on our way, between Chemery and Contres, the gendarmes who had been warned by the peasants, patrolled the area and arrested us. Fearing torture by the French police, as the German propaganda had indicated, my brother swallowed the vial he had received when we left. He died a few minutes later. I spontaneously gave mine to the gendarmes and asked my comrades to do the same.

I asked to be immediately given over to French military authorities, to provide all the information I intended to give to the Americans when I left Chemery… I want to underscore, and this pleads in my favor, that I have voluntarily abandoned the bags and their contents on the landing spot, that when I left Germany, I was firmly intent never to accomplish my mission and to contact the American forces…

Bergeron was caught in company of the SS attached to Palmieri’s commando. He was transferred to the military tribunal in Orléans, sentenced to death and executed on February 2, 1945. He was found guilty of treason and sabotage attempts against the allies in the Fifth region. Although his activity in the Vaucluse and the Marseille region was considerable, it was not held against him.

Palmieri was handed over to the DST, which at the time was worried about the residue of collaboration, the new crime families and the members and sympathizers of the Communist party. In many parts of the country, the provisional government was engaged in arm wrestling with the left wing members of the Resistance it suspected of seeking a violent power takeover.

A letter from the Paris Criminal Investigation Direction indicated that Palmieri’s final gamble of Palmieri was not a success.

Paris, August 25, 1945

Police Prefecture

Criminal Investigation Division

REPORT

The investigation conducted per request of the Investigation Judge reveals the following: Monsieur Briel, Police Superintendent at the DST in Orleans, could not be auditioned.

Monsieur Bernard, Divisional Superintendant at the DST in Paris, who was heard, declares: “Charles Palmieri was supposed to be made available to M. Briel, police superintendant at the DST in Orleans, that was going to use him for police operations, but because of the lack of results obtained in Paris between Messrs. Orabona and Palmieri, this project was abandoned, and Palmieri was handed over to the Marseille court of justice.”

Before his transfer to the Marseille court of justice, Palmieri was seemingly free and went back to his usual lifestyle, as we learn from an anonymous denunciation that was ignored by the court as long as the DST kept the “Palmieri project” going.

Monsieur the head of security,

I am writing to you as a patriot who has suffered, I am writing to you to designate to justice four hoodlums of the Gestapo. These are the three Palmieri brothers domiciled at la Madrague Ville; their names are Charlot Palmieri, No. 1 agent of the Gestapo… his brother Alfred Palmieri… as for the third one, he was rejected by the Gestapo because he is a hunchback and an informer for the two other brothers…

These three individuals, dangerous to the population, are still free and parade at La Madrague. The fourth agent whose nickname is Nettou… has just bought the bar Moutier at l’Estaque for 500,000 francs. All this money was stolen from his victims…

P.S. If they are not arrested, I will contact the CDL directly.40

The author of this anonymous denunciation recognized the members of the Palmieri gang, but erroneously situated Alfred Palmieri in La Madrague, while he had committed suicide after his unfortunate parachute incident.

After Palmieri’s return from Germany, his network of acquaintances, who, for the most part, had worked for the Germans, had been decimated and his friends had become rarer: some had eluded justice and were working for bosses who had helped the Resistance; a few were on the run; others were in prison awaiting trial.

Palmieri himself testified for many months before the courts of the Marseille region; these were the last services he was able to render before his death sentence in May 1946, and his execution on August 22, 1946, at La Malmousque in Marseille.

Ironically, it was Bride, deeply implicated in the Palmieri gang, who gave the coup de grace to his boss’s defense. This penniless student, that Palmieri provided with a good monthly income, saved his own skin by using a stratagem concocted shortly before Liberation. At the last minute, he set up a good insurance policy. The investigating Judge Fabre, who was not fooled, reported to the court:

In the course of a confrontation, Charles Palmieri attempted to knock out Bride with a telephone ear piece.

All the other members of the Merle gang are trying more or less to accuse Bride. It is difficult to determine whether they are sincere…

In summary, Bride has been the denouncer of the Palmieri affair.

He has provided the DGER * and for the court investigation a slew of documents that he had collected during the time he worked in Palmieri’s office and that allowed uncovering part of Charles Palmieri’s activity. It is important to note that the other defendants who pretend to be in the Resistance (Leca, Quinson, Pozzo di Borgo, Renucci) have provided only insignificant information.

It is clear that, right after Liberation, Bride did not deem it necessary to tell the whole truth to the DGER as a precaution…

Anyway, it is certain that without Bride most of the defendants in the Palmieri case could not have been put on trial, that without the documents he has provided the charges against them would have been minimal.⁴¹

Contrary to Judge Fabre’s statement, it was unlikely that Bride acquired the documents in question “during the time he worked in Palmieri’s office.” The boss would probably have noticed it. He must have picked them up later, during the confusion following the allied landing, at the time Palmieri had clearly become the loser and was locked up by the Germans. “Bride did not deem it necessary to tell the whole truth to the DGER as a precaution”? Nevertheless, Bride became a “friend of the court.”

Rodolphe Bride was acquitted “for services rendered to the court.”

Justice had been severe and swift in the first weeks following Liberation, when the CDLs were channeling public vengeance. In the case of Gaston Mouillade, the questions to the jury reflected the haste of the court.

1. Is the defendant Frédéric Gaston Mouillade guilty of having belonged to the PPF, an organization aimed at helping all the enterprises of Germany against France, while these two nations were at war?

Yes, by a majority.

2. Is the defendant guilty, as a Frenchman, of having belonged to the Gestapo?

Yes, by a majority.

3. Is the defendant guilty of having delivered or denounced French people * to an enemy organization and of having arrested them or caused them to be arrested by this organization?

Yes, by a majority.

4. Are there extenuating circumstances in favor of the defendant?

No, by a majority.⁴²

The first question corresponded to article 2 of the ordinance of August 26, 1944, and implicated Mouillade in the crime of national indignity. The second and the third question fell under the definition of article 1 of the ordinance of June 26, 1944. However, the third question was limited to “French people” in spite of the fact that a large number of his victims were foreign Jews.

Judged and sentenced to death by the Avignon court of justice on October 7, 1944, the prefect rejected his plea for clemency on the afternoon of the verdict and he was executed on October 10, 1944. On October 17, 1944, a note from the Government Commissioner near the court of justice to the prefect evoked the last chapter of Mouillade’s life:

… it is evident that the firing squad in charge of Mouillade’s execution was composed of inexperienced recruits. It would be wise to make sure that these recruits be more experienced… We support all the measures which are aimed at sparing the victims an unnecessary ordeal.⁴³

At the beginning, judgments were hasty, and executions were hasty. After the government took back control of justice, the interventions of the French minister of justice resulted in a significant softening of the verdicts.

However, Lucien Blanc did not benefit from clemency. Let us go back to Estréa Asseo’s story.

I was taken to the Hautpoul barracks and two days later to the St. Anne prison. Eight days later, I was sent to Drancy, then to Poland at Birkenau (Upper Silesia).

We were about 15,000 in this camp; we suffered more than a human being can bear, and on arrival, we were tattooed on our left arm, as you can see my number is A.8521; on my back I also have a cross made with an acid that ate away at my flesh.

I cannot describe all the suffering without shivering, just at the thought of it. Lucien Blanc and Merle are the only ones responsible for my deportation to the German slave camps. When Lucien Blanc is arrested, my wish is to be confronted with him so that he has the opportunity to justify my arrest.

This statement of Estréa Asseo was given on May 27, 1945. On that date, Lucien Blanc was still at large. He was arrested on September 10, 1945, by the gendarmes of Meyruis, a village in the Lozère, during an identity check. He was holding counterfeit documents. After coming back from Germany, he buried himself in the sticks, or at least he thought so. The immediate verification in the fugitive list of the Mende gendarmerie proved fatal.

Estréa Asseo fulfilled her wish to confront Lucien Blanc. In the hall of the Nîmes court of justice, the defendant’s wife, who saw Estréa after her testimony, hurled about: “Bitch!” Estréa Asseo later shared with Isaac Levendel that during her Auschwitz hell, she only wanted one thing: having Lucien Blanc arrested and testifying against him.44

Lucien Blanc was executed on February 11, 1946, by a firing squad of 12 soldiers.

The underworld purges in the Marseille region followed the same pattern as the other “professions”; they were limited to a handful of scoundrels—“une poignée de misérables,” to use de Gaulle’s words.⁴⁵ The bigger scum—Palmieri, Parietas, André, Blanc, Mouillade, and some others also implicated with the occupiers—were rapidly eliminated. Others were on the run until they got caught or had tried to “rebuild a good position for themselves” in foreign countries, at the service of other governments or for the own benefit.

For others from Palmieri’s inner circle, a new era opened up. Quinson, Queudane, Toussaint Renucci, Pozzo di Borgo, and the likes, were recycled by the new Marseille godfather, Mémé Guérini, who had chosen the resistance side from the beginning and got rewarded for it. Their late conversion to the patriotic ideal threw a veil over their actions against the Jews. Before the court of justice, Guérini “confirmed” their membership in the Resistance. He had “indeed caught a glimpse of them on the barricades on the day of Marseille liberation.”

The Berg affair illustrates well the low priority of the crimes against the Jews on the scales of justice at the Liberation. Alberto was a “double agent” in the Mouraille gang at the service of the intelligence network of German Captain Hans Senner;* Palmieri gave an occasional hand to Mouraille, and vice versa. In particular, Alberto and François Heiter escorted a Jew to Paris to pick up a 500,000 francs ransom. Palmieri rewarded Alberto with a 50,000 francs bonus. In the Berg affair, it was Heiter who reciprocated.

On February 28, 1945, Alberto testified: “For a few months already, other French agents working for the Gestapo, particularly a man named Charles Palmieri, had started suspecting me… Under these circumstances, I showed a spectacular zeal when I went on missions for the Germans, so that they would think that I was the most sincere agent of the German consulate”⁴⁶

After Liberation, Alberto landed a job as a driver for the Nice DST. Georges Berg, a victim of looting by Alberto in company of the SiPo-SD, filed a complaint at the gendarmerie of La Turbie which fell on deaf ears. On February 23, 1945, he expressed his feelings in a letter to the public prosecutor in Marseille:

… Almost one year has passed since Alberto committed this theft; he has not been arrested, he is still free, he even kept his job in the police even after the authorities were informed of his case…

Alberto has admitted the facts. He pretends having informed his superiors who detached him to the Marseille Gestapo before and after the theft. It is incomprehensible that his superiors did not fire him…

I do not know whether Alberto’s statements have been verified and whether a search took place in his home; this search would have been fruitful, because the Gestapo was giving significant bonuses in kind, so that Alberto probably owns the objects stolen at my home… Alberto pretends that he could continue working for the Gestapo only if he provided value to them…

I cannot understand why Alberto is still free 6 months later, while he has admitted the action. The size of the theft—a one million franc value—is surely not so small that the guilty person should not be punished.

Possibly, Alberto has rendered services to France by his work as a spy inside the Gestapo… but is it proper that one individual only pay the cost?⁴⁷

Georges Berg’s intervention was no more than a small detour toward a dismissal of the charges.

The Jewish trade organized by the Germans and their helpers in the Vaucluse yielded in 1943–1944 three times more Jews than the hunt by the prefecture in 1942.

To accomplish their various tasks—getting supplies of all kinds, searching for STO dodgers, tracking the Resistance, hunting the Jews, etc.—the Germans needed efficient, French speaking and unscrupulous personnel. In order to obtain better results, their choice went to the bosses and their soldiers in the underworld. After recruitment, the German “work permit” gave the gangsters official status along with the power it brought. It guaranteed impunity from the French police, which allowed them to erase past offenses and gave carte blanche for offenses to come.

An economy emerged that worked in a very simple way: the Germans paid, and paid, and paid. They paid comfortable, but not extravagant, salaries which were the basis of that economy. They paid bonuses in exchange for merchandise they coveted—an amount per head for Jews, a percentage for various supplies, or something in each case; they paid for incidental expenses. They also provided the work tools: Gestapo badges, cars, trucks and weapons.

Palmieri’s case offers an exceptional window on the trading in Jews, a true market of crime. As long as the gangsters provided a reasonable “yield,” black mail against the Jews was tolerated and even welcomed in some cases, since they were a “gold opportunity” which could satisfy everybody along the way. Moreover, Palmieri cared about his reputation as an “honest businessman.” During the arrest of Danielle and Samuel Mossé, Danielle already knew probably through rumors that she could ask Palmieri to let them go “free on bail.” This “trustworthy” purchase of freedom with cash was the guarantee of considerable future profits from new “customers.”

From the German viewpoint, this economy had leaks. Its yield was far from 100%. However, without the prospects of raking in enormous amounts of money, the motivation of the gangsters would diminish and the yield would be even lower. The German police had a good understanding of the economy of the Jewish trade. As long as the yield was reasonable, they did not intervene. On the other hand, when their bosses in Marseille, Paris or Berlin became restless, one worked twice as hard… for a while, by bringing in helpers from Avignon, Marseille or elsewhere. And if the gangsters went too far, they were grounded for a time and lost their privileges.

The trade took on a determining role in the history of the deportation of the Vaucluse Jews under German presence. It hinged on the general conditions prevalent in the entire country. The shortages of German personnel grew as the front expanded and the military situation deteriorated. Generally, the French did not have much sympathy for the Germans, those “hereditary” enemies. The language barrier made the situation worse and the allied advances did not encourage much voluntary collaboration. Finally, and very importantly, the scattering of the Jews was not conducive to focused and efficient operations.

But there was a fundamental question which lingered at the end of Palmieri’s story. What was the role of ideology in his criminal life? We must acknowledge the increasingly vocal anti-Semitism of the PPF, although it did not have a monopoly on it. The association of the local and national leaders of the party with the mob exploded throughout the documents of the various courts of justice, in Avignon, Nîmes, Marseille, and the military tribunals. These links often preceded the war. A similar scheme unfolded from the activity of the Paris mob under Henri Lafont’s rule.48 So much so that a question cannot be avoided: what was the dominant motivation, ideology or villainy?

Whatever the answer, the Germans had obviously been adept at using the bearers of a gangster ideology in the hunt for the Vaucluse Jews.

As to Palmieri, his last message was omitted from the minutes of his trial; fortunately, a reporter of Rouge Midi^* recorded it on May 23, 1946.

The president of the court asks: “Palmieri, do you wish to add anything?” Palmieri approaches the witness stand; his face is convulsed; he is shaking. In his hand, he holds a sheet streaked with red markings. “I am not shaking because of fear; I am just angry…” In a fury, he calls cowards those whom he has helped in the past and who wouldn’t testify in his favor. “I know I am going to die, but I don’t care. I am going to name the men who are holding today resistance credential and higher functions, in spite of their collaboration with the occupier. I am going to read in front of you German documents I was able to steal in the offices of Luchaire, the former Vichy minister of Information… Maljean,^† Barraud,^‡ Lemoine,^§ former prefects, have established lists of Jews to be arrested… I have never arrested French citizens… As to police superintendants Lefort, Novara, Aquilo, Creysonne, Etienne, I accuse them of having arrested Jews, exactly as I did.” Notables from the Vaucluse and Alpes Maritimes are thus implicated. He takes to task the BST^§ and the officers of the second Bureau Bureau whom he calls cowards. “The only thing I did,” Palmieri says, “was to collect Vichy’s leftovers.”

The arrest statistics of Palmieri’s gang definitely contradict his assertion “I have never arrested French citizens…” But he is probably not making a legal argument, and is rather expressing his own view of the Jews as strangers in their own country—a common idea of his time.

____________________

* It must be noted again that “milicien” is here taken in the broad sense of a “Nazi collaborator” and not strictly speaking a member of the Milice.

* The real first names of Mouillade are Gaston Frédéric.

* Hans Bach was a subordinate of Wilhelm Müller.

† Jean Boissel was the founder of the “Front Franc,” a small far right anti-Semitic group.

‡ Institute for Jewish Studies.

* Pontarelli was assassinated in April 1944, and his body was found after the Liberation.

* Blue Angel.

† At the time, Karl Boemelburg is the head of Section IV, in charge of Gestapo, sabotage, terrorist attacks, Resistance, counter-espionage, communists, and Jews.

‡ Headquarters of the intelligence services of the Abwehr.

§ Spirito disappeared in 1944 thanks to his relations with the mafia. Reappeared in the US in 1948. Was extradited in 1954 and acquitted for insufficient evidence. Died in Marseille in 1967.

** Paris-Lyon-Marseille railway.

* Centered on Marseille, the Ajax network extended to the bordering départements, in particular the Vaucluse.

† Erick is the assumed name of the double agent who is in fact a member of a Marseille family.

* Brigade for the Surveillance of the Territory, analogous to the FBI.

† Palmieri probably means La Compagnie de Navigation Nicolas Paquet, PLM being a railway company.

* Le Can was the owner of a construction company in Bordeaux.

† Marcel Marchal, a Dorit’s lieutenant, was St. Denis city councilman and not the mayor.

‡ A journalist, postwar author of several books glorifying the LVF under the pen name Saint-Paulien.

§ He is referring to the famous “Conference Toward Power” organized by Doriot in Paris.

* Albert is often used as Simon’s first name.

* This is Joseph Casimir Charrasse and not Charras.

* Défense Contre Aéronefs (Defense Against Aircrafts).

* Palmieri was mistaken with respect to the participation of Josselme, who had been gunned down by the police in February 1944, while this operation took place at the end of March 1944.

* This is Antoine Cappe and not Marcel Cappe.

† Part One, Chapter 4.

* Part Two – Chapter 7.

* Rolf Bilharz is a subordinate of Aloïs Brunner.

† The race track, Roberty, is located in Le Pontet, near Avignon.

* Gustav Meyer is the assistant of Rolf Mühler, the head of the Marseille KdS.

† Pfanner, who by that time had replaced Nuttgens as the head of Section IV, was the boss of both Kompe (Section IV-E against the Resistance) and Bauer (Anti-Jewish Section IV-B).

* The DGER (Direction Générale des Etudes et Recherches) was formed in November 1944 by unifying all the intelligence services, including those of the Resistance.

* Underlined on the court document.

* According to Dnker, Hans Senner was in fact a member of Berlin’s SD Section IV, who had established a spy network under the cover of the German consulate, even before the occupation of the southern zone. His network was “recovered” by the Americans after the war.

* Communist newspaper in the south of France.

† Emile Maljean, prefect deputy of the Bouches du Rhône in 1944, was exonerated.

‡ Pierre Barraud, prefect deputy of the Bouches du Rhône in 1943, was exonerated.

§ Marcel Lemoine, regional prefect of the Bouches du Rhône in 1943, was exonerated.

§ Bureaux de la Surveillance du Territoire (Office of Territorial Surveillance).