“At 8 years old, my childhood came to an end”, confides Francine Christophe, arrested in 1942

Francine Christophe is a writer, playwright, woman of letters and poet. She was a child when World War II broke out. According to her writings and testimonies, she was a “privileged” little girl, because with her mother, she knew the concentration camps and no extermination … She publishes The child of the camps, published by Grasset. A testimony which, 75 years after the fact, seems unreal.

Elodie Suigo: We are in 1942, you are 8 and a half years old and with your mother, you are fleeing to the free zone to escape the Nazis. You are at La Rochefoucauld station, near Angoulême, at the dividing line between the occupied zone and the free zone. And there you are going to get arrested. This is the starting point of this book …

Francine Christophe: My mother had been told that we had to cross the line at La Rochefoucauld, because it was a small town that had not yet been occupied. And then, as they got off the train, they started to check the papers. However, we had false papers, since the real ones had a big stamp marked: “Jewish” in red. So they looked at the false papers, then they put us aside. When the whole train was inspected, we left for the Kommandantur. They put me in one room and mom in another. In this room, I was guarded by an armed soldier, with a big dog, that’s where my fear of dogs dates from. And then I heard mom in her corner shouting: “No, no, no, no, I’m not Jewish. No !“

Mom had explained to me: “If by misfortune, we are arrested and you are asked if you are Jewish, you say no, but in addition, without stopping, add that ‘papa is a prisoner of war ‘”. I was made to pass in front of a large table with a whole bunch of soldiers questioning me: “Are you Jewish?“, “No sir, I’m not Jewish“. After a little while mom came out. They showed me and they said:”Do you see the child? So you confess or we take it.“Now, mother knew that there had already been children separated from their mother. What does a mother do in such a case?”Yes sir, we are Jewish“.

You write in this book: “At 8 years old, my childhood ended when it had barely started “…

It was exactly that. What I’m going to know is not a childhood. I always say I had a wonderful early childhood, not a childhood, and after a tough teenage years.

After your arrest, were you taken to Drancy?

I always say that Drancy was the pain camp and it’s true, people were suffering in Drancy. And then I saw something in Drancy, so that I do not forget, it was terrible.

I saw a thousand children arrive alone, without their mothers. All these children looked dead. They had dead eyes. They had forgotten their name. They were dirty, hurt. Much later, I learned that all these children were part of what was later called the Vel ‘d’Hiv roundup.

Francine Christophe

to franceinfo

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And I was so scared that I would be put with them. I threw myself into mom’s arms and shouted: “But not me, not me“No, not me. It was also there that I understood what the Geneva Convention was, which meant that I, the daughter of a prisoner of war, did not mix with these children.

Once in Drancy, you left for Loiret and the Pithiviers camp. He’s had times, in this whole storm, magical, like when you see that piano coming up. Did your mom play the piano and you started singing?