Very Nice

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A Jewish teenager avoided death in occupied France, thanks to the kindness and bravery of a doctor in a small resort town in the Alps. But it is a story That The Local people seem reluctant to Remember , Rosie Whitehouse discovered.

began to fall As the First Snow in December 1943, Huguette Miller and her sister Marion quietly left the French city of Lyon and travelled to the Alps, one of the highest ski resorts in Europe.

The City was no longer safe, such as Klaus Barbie , the SS leader, was known as The Butcher of Lyon had begun, intensified their search for Jews. The two Young Women were directed to the hopes of survival on The Village of Val d'isère, just a few kilometres from The Italian border.

Huguette had already had to escape from nice, which was a refuge for Jews, while it is still under Italian control. However, in September 1943, When Italy left The War , The Nazis rushed along The Riviera , the thousands of arrests.

One of them was captured Huguette 's and Marion' s mother, Edith, as she tried to get false papers for himself and Huguette. She was deported in late October and gassed on arrival in Auschwitz - a fact That sisters would only learn after The War .

at the age of 15 years, Huguette had made their way To Live in Lyon , a 23-year-old Marion. And now they were both back on The Road .

In the winter of 1943, But The Mountains were a dangerous place to hide. German soldiers, the Isère recently moved from the Russian front in the Val d ' Hotel des Glaciers. They raided hotels and restaurants, and burned chalets on the ground, if you are not prepared found someone who would have been to work in a German factory and was able to go. Locals still on the cast as " la terreur.

Val -d'isère in October 1939 - The Hotel des Glaciers on the top left of The SS was also on The Lookout for suspicious strangers. So why The Sisters ' 92 went to Val d'isère puzzles Huguette, now. One possibility is That Marion was advised, had to go, it from your future husband, Pierre Haymann, a member of the French resistance. But they found themselves in Serious Danger , as, not long before Christmas, Huguette slipped and broke her leg.

The Village doctor said the fracture was so bad That a teenager had to be moved to The Hospital in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, in The Valley below. Fear That questions will be asked and your cover is blown, Marion panicked and punched him in The Face .

On a misty morning in San Francisco , Huguette a sharp intake of breath makes, and will continue to tell the story of how The Holocaust have survived, under a doctor's care.

"I think I was there for six months, I can't Remember exactly - All I knew was That it was safe," she says.

Neither Huguette Marion ever talked about your time in the Alps. Marion waved her hand movement whenever asked for.

Only a photo of this time. Marion died in 2010, and her daughter-in-law, it fell to me to empty out of your house. In an old suitcase, which in addition to The War papers, there was a picture of her next to a mountain Chalet in The Snow .

Marion, in the Alps, It is only now, 76 years later, Huguette has decided That she wants Her Story to be told.

Both sisters were born in Berlin in the 1920s and to France fled from Germany with her parents in 1933, shortly After Hitler came to power.

While Marion false papers, Huguette had not. Her parents were careful to have her baptized, so there was no telltale J for Juif to your carte d'identité, But it did say she was born in Berlin. That would be enough for you to be arrested and sent to their death upon arrival at The Hospital in Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

Huguette, says The Doctor explained That without The Right medical care, you would end up with one leg shorter than The Other . "I replied That it was better to limp than be dead," she says. So, remarkably, he offered to care for them, for a period of six months, in his own house.

Why a total stranger was willing to risk his life for a teenage girl he had met, briefly, is a mystery. If he had been caught, he and His Family were imprisoned or shot.

It's a secret, Huguette is.

Huguette after The War , " When I says to was Val d'isère in the 1970s, to find him and thank him, it's Too Late ," she said. "His widow answered the door and said he was dead. That was. And now I can't Remember right his full name. "

A short Google Search restarts your memory. It is revealed his name in seconds. The large roundabout in Val d'isère Rond Point Dr Pétri. The Doctor , Huguette confirmed, Dr. Frédéric Pétri, who lived in a large Chalet with his mother and sister. "He was Very Nice ," she says. "He wore me out in The Garden When The Weather is better. "

genealogy web site shows That Pétri was later mayor of Val d'isère, welcoming royals and celebs on the slopes, among them Princess Anne and The Empress of Iran. But he has never mentioned someone That he had hidden and took care of a Jewish girl during The War .

Frédéric Pétri, In 1936, His daughter, Christel, is not surprised by the revelation. "He was driven by passion, not for plastering broken legs, But for the care for the people," she says. "He was deeply generous and All his life, he did everything he could for others. "

Today , Val d'isère, about three kilometers, stretches along a narrow plateau, But in the 1940s it was a tiny place with less than 150 inhabitants. "My Father 's house was on the main road," she says. To hide", a Jewish girl was to do a very dangerous thing to do. "Christel is also surprised That The Sisters decided to hide in such a small place. The Answer is That she thinks That is why her father came to Val d'isère in the First Place .

Pétris' Chalet on the main street of Val d'isère In the year 1939, the Chalet (centre) is located between The Hotel du Savoie (second left) and The Hotel du Dome in 1938, a passion for Winter Sports , the decided young doctor, with his friends, among them world-class ski champions, had the resort established a few years earlier. How many of the Young Men ran to the hotels and ski schools, he was born in Alsace, a region in Eastern France, which occupied before The First World War by the Germans. Christel believes, as a resentment against Germany, which was only intensified by the two years he spent in a prisoner-of-War camp in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1940 to 1942.

When the Germans arrived in the Alps in September of 1943, the Young Men and women in Val d'isère The Best weapons was you had against them - their skis. Adept at criss-cross through the mountain passes, you are setting up A Resistance network. One of The Group was Germain Mattis, a local ski instructor, was arrested by the Germans in June 1944 and died in a concentration camp at the age of 27 years.

This may also be the reason That Marion Val d'isère selected as a place to hide. Her future husband Pierre Haymann was not only a member of The Resistance , But His Family was from the Alsace region. He may have had connections to the resort.

trust in The Doctor , Marion left her sister in Val d'isère have a rest and went to Pierre in Toulouse. The Pause would take six months to heal, so it was not Until June 1944 That they have returned. Now pregnant, she was nearly raped and murdered by the SS on the way.

Hopes to learn more about resistance activities in Val d'isère, I sent a series of E-Mails, Links, and posts on the resort Facebook page. I just got a reply from a member of a famous Parisian hairdress sing-Dynasty - Roby Joffo, whose uncle, Joseph Joffo wrote of the marbles one of France's best-known Holocaust memoirs, A bag full of.

Roby's father, Henri, and his uncle, Maurice (Joseph Joffo the older brothers) were also lower in Val d'isère in the winter of 1943-44, But she felt safe enough to work in a hair salon on the main street, opposite the Pétris' Chalet . The Pétri and Joffo families remained in the vicinity since.

Roby is convinced That there are hidden other Jews in The Valley . He makes A Number of calls to Val d'isère, But no one seems to know anything about it.

The Holocaust in France about 75,000 Jews deported from France to concentration camps and death camps between 1940 and 1944. Only in 1995, French President Jacques Chirac has to explain to French responsibility. "These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our history and our traditions," he said. "Yes, The Criminal madness" of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state. "

Barbie , a German, was extradited from Bolivia to France in 1983 and 41 cases of crimes against humanity In July 1987, were convicted.

Christel is not surprised by the eerie silence. She says That nobody ever talked about what happened during The War , and as a result, the families That still live in Val d'isère Today , no idea That the members of the French operated The Resistance in your city.

the holocaust, france, long reads, skiing, world war two

Source of news: bbc.com