Deported Children, Saved Children: The Young Jewish Refugees in Gers

Author: Gisėle Polya-Somogyi

Translator: Peter Feigl

On May 10th, 1940, they were forced into exodus. They and their families sought refuge in Gers (Southern France) where they hoped to find a little respite in a welcoming land. But in a wink they became "undesirable aliens", all told three hundred and seventy-six foreign Jews were marked for exclusion when they had to register with the authorities. 

On August 26th, 1942, terror struck. The French government had just agreed to deliver into German hands ten thousand foreign Jews living in the unoccupied zone, the quota for the Gers department having been set at 150...children included. 

Children deported and exterminated in Auschwitz with their parents, children separated, fleeing rescued: Their travails brought to light by Pierre Feigl in his diary begun the day after the arrest of his parents in Ausch and ending in Switzerland on the 26th of June 1944.

For the sake of remembrance, Gisėle Polya-Somogyi seeks to pass on these harrowing testimonials supported by historical research and meticulous digging in French, Swiss, and Belgian archives and those of the Center for Contemporaneous Jewish Documentation (in Paris)

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276 pages