French Connection
The Journal of Helene Berr was written between April of 1942 and February of 1944 by 21 year old Helene Berr, an English major at Paris’ prestigious Sorbonne University. The journal records her daily thoughts intertwined with her and her family’s struggles living as French Jews in the Nazi occupied capital of Paris during the 1940’s, struggles that were universal for much of Jewish society during that time period. From the Journal of Helene Berr, we may see that though the Jews were always an oppressed, religious minority in Europe, the idea that Jewishness overrode national identity (which was a major foundation of discrimination and extermination during the Holocaust) was not something that these prominent, highly contributing, and extremely patriotic members of French society accepted, but one that they were willing to risk their lives disproving.
Helene Berr was brought up in a prominent family, one that could not imagine being persecuted by their own country. Her father Raymonde was a graduate of the prestigious French University “Ecole Polytechnique”, and was a leading researcher during the beginnings of the field of industrial chemistry. He was a decorated, French World War I veteran, and had worked developing dyestuffs and explosives as the managing director at the headoffice of the Protestant organization The “Etablissements Kuhlmann”. Raymonde worked surrounded by high-level colleagues, including a friend who had been trained in Germany. (Bellos 6) Helene’s mother was a homemaker, and Helene and her four siblings were given fine educations, evident in her enrollment at the Sorbonne, and were raised by their parents and a housekeeping staff in a loving and comfortable home. On both sides of her family, Helene descended from wealthy and successful Jews who had been French for decades, despite having Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish roots. The biggest struggle for Helene and many Jews of her time, was that, contrary to Nazi beliefs, she did not see her Jewish faith as something that could override her French nationality and identity. Berr and other French Jews saw themselves as normal French citizens, and in an excerpt from her journal, Berr references and responds to a lecture given by one of her university professors: "Those folk have narrow sectarian minds. And what is really serious right now is that they lend credence to Nazism. The more they huddle in a ghetto, the more they will be persecuted. Why create states within states? He recalled one of the principles of the French Revolution, which recognized Jews only as individuals, not Judaism as a race. Surely it’s the only principle that still stands. Judaism is a religion and not a race. Anyway, in order to identify who is Jewish and who is not they can’t avoid talking about the religious issue." (Berr 111) Berr and many European Jews did not live lives that were influenced by Judaism in the every-day, and certainly did not let their religion define them ethnically. They were natives of France, grew up speaking French, and had the same cultural habits as any other French citizen. French Jews did not respect or appreciate the strong cultural boundaries that many of their Eastern European counterparts drew between themselves and non-Jews, seeing that segregation as a way of inviting extra discrimination from non-Jews. Berr and her fellow European Jews were patriotic, and contributed greatly to their society, leading them to feel, invincible from Nazi persecution, often until it was too late. Because they were good, upstanding members of society, French Jews did not see a reason to question whether or not their governments would protect them, whether or not they were safe, or whether or not they were French.
Part of the French Jewry's refusal to identify as anything other than French, was manifested in their refusal to leave their homes. Helene's family, despite the very high risk atmosphere in which they lived, made the difficult decision not to leave their home, even as their situation grew worse, seeing it as weak and unpatriotic. Helene writes: "To leave. That’s the vague foreboding I’ve had all week. My response to the idea was an abrupt feeling of annihilation. And then a feeling of revolt." she continues to write" I do not want to sacrifice my own happiness, because every kind of happiness I have ever felt is concentrated in the life I have here. But I can tell myself to do it; I can force myself to make that sacrifice. But there is more to it than that. There is also giving up a sense of dignity, if I agree to go away and join those who have already left. There is also giving up that sense of heroism and struggle that you feel here. There is also giving up the feeling of equality in resistance, if I agree to stand apart from the struggle of other Frenchmen."(Berr 84-85) To Berr and many other French Jews, the prospect of fleeing their homes was tempting and a most certainly lifesaving option, but was one that felt wrong. The French Jews had a deep love for and loyalty to France, and had worked earnestly for centuries to make decent, though in many cases very prosperous livings there. They knew that their leaving would be throwing an intrinsic part of themselves away, and saw self-defense and effort to prove their loyalty, as their only hope for a better life. Comparable to the residents of New York City and Boston, two cities that have faced bouts of terror over the last 20 years, the French Jews were proud to be French, and were determined to be resilient, even in the face of unimaginable horror. Bailing out was simply not an option for the French Jews, who lead lives that were not in any way different from those lead by other French citizens.
Another part of Franco-Jewish national pride and resistance to Nazi terror, came in the war-time jobs that they chose to take. Helene Berr and her mother took on a job at the U.G.I.F, “Union Generale des Isrealites de France”, an organization that was put into place by the Vichy French government to govern the Jewish communities in France, at least until their deportation to death camps. At the U.G.I.F, the Berrs and other Jews did volunteer work, mostly with orphaned children and children and their families who had been deported to Drancy, France’s major labor and concentration camp. They took children to the doctor, bundled up packages for deported people and their families, sought out non-Jewish French families who could take in and hide Jewish children (much like the German Kindertransport), and performed many other tasks that aided French Jews. The job that Helene and her mother took on helped them (and the other Jews who worked there) by providing them with a distraction from their daily suffering. The Berrs, who were wealthier and more prominent members of the Jewish community, were for that reason spared from deportation for much longer than many other Jews in France. With all of the extra time that the family had, their jobs provided them with a way to remain busy, feel like they were making a positive difference for the welfare of other community members, and distracted them from their daily worries and misery. All of this gave them hope for a happier ending. This kind of work, though appearing to be effective in saving (or at least improving) the lives of the French Jewry, was something of a trap. The U.G.I.F provided a massive congregation of Jewish people in a single area, which a tool cleverly used by French and Nazi soldiers to make the roundup and deportation of Jews much quicker and simpler. (Bellos 22-23) Helene and her mother avoided an earlier deportation, simply by being off of work on the day when their office was raided. Helene and other high-ranking French Jews believed that their prominent position in society, their resilience, and their willingness to get involved in politics and Jewish served as great proof of their patriotism and French-ness, though in reality, they were being considered as ethnically Jewish, and not ethnically French, a mind-blowingly frustrating concept that drove them to hang on tooth and nail, no matter how much their safety was in jeopardy.
The Jewish people have occupied territories all across Europe for thousands of years. They live lives in which they have made great success and contributions that have significantly advanced society, yet they have been persecuted for their entire existence, most heavily during the 1940’s. The Jewish people, who are and were in every way citizens of their respective countries, were treated in their homes as shady foreigners. A group of people such as the Jews, so resilient in the face of adversity, were not willing to let the blatant terror of the 1940’s Nazi regime lose their national pride and move them from the places that they called home, though that resistance would cost them their lives.
Helene Berr was brought up in a prominent family, one that could not imagine being persecuted by their own country. Her father Raymonde was a graduate of the prestigious French University “Ecole Polytechnique”, and was a leading researcher during the beginnings of the field of industrial chemistry. He was a decorated, French World War I veteran, and had worked developing dyestuffs and explosives as the managing director at the headoffice of the Protestant organization The “Etablissements Kuhlmann”. Raymonde worked surrounded by high-level colleagues, including a friend who had been trained in Germany. (Bellos 6) Helene’s mother was a homemaker, and Helene and her four siblings were given fine educations, evident in her enrollment at the Sorbonne, and were raised by their parents and a housekeeping staff in a loving and comfortable home. On both sides of her family, Helene descended from wealthy and successful Jews who had been French for decades, despite having Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish roots. The biggest struggle for Helene and many Jews of her time, was that, contrary to Nazi beliefs, she did not see her Jewish faith as something that could override her French nationality and identity. Berr and other French Jews saw themselves as normal French citizens, and in an excerpt from her journal, Berr references and responds to a lecture given by one of her university professors: "Those folk have narrow sectarian minds. And what is really serious right now is that they lend credence to Nazism. The more they huddle in a ghetto, the more they will be persecuted. Why create states within states? He recalled one of the principles of the French Revolution, which recognized Jews only as individuals, not Judaism as a race. Surely it’s the only principle that still stands. Judaism is a religion and not a race. Anyway, in order to identify who is Jewish and who is not they can’t avoid talking about the religious issue." (Berr 111) Berr and many European Jews did not live lives that were influenced by Judaism in the every-day, and certainly did not let their religion define them ethnically. They were natives of France, grew up speaking French, and had the same cultural habits as any other French citizen. French Jews did not respect or appreciate the strong cultural boundaries that many of their Eastern European counterparts drew between themselves and non-Jews, seeing that segregation as a way of inviting extra discrimination from non-Jews. Berr and her fellow European Jews were patriotic, and contributed greatly to their society, leading them to feel, invincible from Nazi persecution, often until it was too late. Because they were good, upstanding members of society, French Jews did not see a reason to question whether or not their governments would protect them, whether or not they were safe, or whether or not they were French.
Part of the French Jewry's refusal to identify as anything other than French, was manifested in their refusal to leave their homes. Helene's family, despite the very high risk atmosphere in which they lived, made the difficult decision not to leave their home, even as their situation grew worse, seeing it as weak and unpatriotic. Helene writes: "To leave. That’s the vague foreboding I’ve had all week. My response to the idea was an abrupt feeling of annihilation. And then a feeling of revolt." she continues to write" I do not want to sacrifice my own happiness, because every kind of happiness I have ever felt is concentrated in the life I have here. But I can tell myself to do it; I can force myself to make that sacrifice. But there is more to it than that. There is also giving up a sense of dignity, if I agree to go away and join those who have already left. There is also giving up that sense of heroism and struggle that you feel here. There is also giving up the feeling of equality in resistance, if I agree to stand apart from the struggle of other Frenchmen."(Berr 84-85) To Berr and many other French Jews, the prospect of fleeing their homes was tempting and a most certainly lifesaving option, but was one that felt wrong. The French Jews had a deep love for and loyalty to France, and had worked earnestly for centuries to make decent, though in many cases very prosperous livings there. They knew that their leaving would be throwing an intrinsic part of themselves away, and saw self-defense and effort to prove their loyalty, as their only hope for a better life. Comparable to the residents of New York City and Boston, two cities that have faced bouts of terror over the last 20 years, the French Jews were proud to be French, and were determined to be resilient, even in the face of unimaginable horror. Bailing out was simply not an option for the French Jews, who lead lives that were not in any way different from those lead by other French citizens.
Another part of Franco-Jewish national pride and resistance to Nazi terror, came in the war-time jobs that they chose to take. Helene Berr and her mother took on a job at the U.G.I.F, “Union Generale des Isrealites de France”, an organization that was put into place by the Vichy French government to govern the Jewish communities in France, at least until their deportation to death camps. At the U.G.I.F, the Berrs and other Jews did volunteer work, mostly with orphaned children and children and their families who had been deported to Drancy, France’s major labor and concentration camp. They took children to the doctor, bundled up packages for deported people and their families, sought out non-Jewish French families who could take in and hide Jewish children (much like the German Kindertransport), and performed many other tasks that aided French Jews. The job that Helene and her mother took on helped them (and the other Jews who worked there) by providing them with a distraction from their daily suffering. The Berrs, who were wealthier and more prominent members of the Jewish community, were for that reason spared from deportation for much longer than many other Jews in France. With all of the extra time that the family had, their jobs provided them with a way to remain busy, feel like they were making a positive difference for the welfare of other community members, and distracted them from their daily worries and misery. All of this gave them hope for a happier ending. This kind of work, though appearing to be effective in saving (or at least improving) the lives of the French Jewry, was something of a trap. The U.G.I.F provided a massive congregation of Jewish people in a single area, which a tool cleverly used by French and Nazi soldiers to make the roundup and deportation of Jews much quicker and simpler. (Bellos 22-23) Helene and her mother avoided an earlier deportation, simply by being off of work on the day when their office was raided. Helene and other high-ranking French Jews believed that their prominent position in society, their resilience, and their willingness to get involved in politics and Jewish served as great proof of their patriotism and French-ness, though in reality, they were being considered as ethnically Jewish, and not ethnically French, a mind-blowingly frustrating concept that drove them to hang on tooth and nail, no matter how much their safety was in jeopardy.
The Jewish people have occupied territories all across Europe for thousands of years. They live lives in which they have made great success and contributions that have significantly advanced society, yet they have been persecuted for their entire existence, most heavily during the 1940’s. The Jewish people, who are and were in every way citizens of their respective countries, were treated in their homes as shady foreigners. A group of people such as the Jews, so resilient in the face of adversity, were not willing to let the blatant terror of the 1940’s Nazi regime lose their national pride and move them from the places that they called home, though that resistance would cost them their lives.
Bibliography
Primary Source:
Berr, Hélène, and David Bellos. The Journal of Hélène Berr. New York.: Weinstein, 2008. Print.C
My primary source is the personal diary of 21 year old Hélène Berr, a Parisian Jew, living life and studying English Literature at the prestigious Sorbonne living in Paris under the wartime Vichy Government. The journal, written in both French and English but translated into English, records her daily life from April of 1942 to February of 1944. The serves as a very personal, first-hand look into the sentiments of frustration, fear, and hopelessness, that were not only present for Mlle Berr, but universal among French Jews of that time-period. The source highlights Helene’s struggles (which were universal for European Jews of the time) with their identity, due to the fact that the Nazi’s and their governments deemed them aliens in their own country. The Journal was an outlet for the free-spirited and enormously frustrated (caged in) Berr, to express her feelings, about her new, restricted life and the terrors of the war, while maintaining a sense of composure in her day-to-day life. It was essentially a way for her to express everyday feelings about her relationships, family life, and friendships, as well as to compartmentalize. The end of the book includes a letter from Berr after her capture, and letters from Berr’s fiancée and neice Mariette, which further clarify and explain Hélène’s story, and serve as extra primary sources to further help me develop and support my thesis.
Secondary Sources:
"A Look at Vichy Law." Case Western Reserve University Center for Professional Ethics 2.1 (1999): 1-12. Web.
A Report on a speech (in PDF form) “Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France” given by Dr. Richard Weisberg. The speech report highlights and explains the role that the French government and legal system played in the annihilation of the Jews during WWII, independently from Nazi force. This report is important in understanding that France, though occupied by the Nazis, chose to enforce anti-semetic laws and policies all on their own, and thus, helps me support my thesis. I will depend heavily on this source to be able to comprehend and explain Vichy law in relationship to the primary source’s in-depth and emotional, eyewitness account of this historical time-period.
Primary Source:
Berr, Hélène, and David Bellos. The Journal of Hélène Berr. New York.: Weinstein, 2008. Print.C
My primary source is the personal diary of 21 year old Hélène Berr, a Parisian Jew, living life and studying English Literature at the prestigious Sorbonne living in Paris under the wartime Vichy Government. The journal, written in both French and English but translated into English, records her daily life from April of 1942 to February of 1944. The serves as a very personal, first-hand look into the sentiments of frustration, fear, and hopelessness, that were not only present for Mlle Berr, but universal among French Jews of that time-period. The source highlights Helene’s struggles (which were universal for European Jews of the time) with their identity, due to the fact that the Nazi’s and their governments deemed them aliens in their own country. The Journal was an outlet for the free-spirited and enormously frustrated (caged in) Berr, to express her feelings, about her new, restricted life and the terrors of the war, while maintaining a sense of composure in her day-to-day life. It was essentially a way for her to express everyday feelings about her relationships, family life, and friendships, as well as to compartmentalize. The end of the book includes a letter from Berr after her capture, and letters from Berr’s fiancée and neice Mariette, which further clarify and explain Hélène’s story, and serve as extra primary sources to further help me develop and support my thesis.
Secondary Sources:
"A Look at Vichy Law." Case Western Reserve University Center for Professional Ethics 2.1 (1999): 1-12. Web.
A Report on a speech (in PDF form) “Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France” given by Dr. Richard Weisberg. The speech report highlights and explains the role that the French government and legal system played in the annihilation of the Jews during WWII, independently from Nazi force. This report is important in understanding that France, though occupied by the Nazis, chose to enforce anti-semetic laws and policies all on their own, and thus, helps me support my thesis. I will depend heavily on this source to be able to comprehend and explain Vichy law in relationship to the primary source’s in-depth and emotional, eyewitness account of this historical time-period.
My primary source is the personal diary of 21 year old
Hélène Berr, a Parisian Jew, living life and studying English Literature at
the prestigious Sorbonne living in Paris under the wartime Vichy Government.
The journal, written in both French and English but translated into English,
records her daily life from April of 1942 to February of 1944. The serves as a
very personal, first-hand look into the sentiments of frustration, fear, and
hopelessness, that were not only present for Mlle Berr, but universal among
French Jews of that time-period. The source highlights Helene’s struggles
(which were universal for European Jews of the time) with their identity, due to the fact that the Nazi’s and their governments deemed
them aliens in their own countries. The Journal was an outlet for the
free-spirited and enormously frustrated (caged in) Berr, to express her
feelings, about her new, restricted life and the terrors of the war, while
maintaining a sense of composure in her day-to-day life. It was essentially a
way for her to express everyday feelings about her relationships, family life,
and friendships, as well as to compartmentalize. The end of the book includes a
letter from Berr after her capture, and letters from Berr’s fiancée and niece
Mariette, which further clarify and explain Hélène’s story, and serve as
extra primary sources to further help me develop and support my thesis.
"Those folk have narrow sectarian minds. And what is really serious right now is that they lend credence to Nazism. The more they huddle in a ghetto, the more they will be persecuted. Why create states within states? He recalled one of the principles of the French Revolution, which recognized Jews only as individuals, not Judaism as a race. Surely it’s the only principle that still stands. Judaism is a religion and not a race. Anyway, in order to identify who is Jewish and who is not they can’t avoid talking about the religious issue. (Berr 111)"
"Those folk have narrow sectarian minds. And what is really serious right now is that they lend credence to Nazism. The more they huddle in a ghetto, the more they will be persecuted. Why create states within states? He recalled one of the principles of the French Revolution, which recognized Jews only as individuals, not Judaism as a race. Surely it’s the only principle that still stands. Judaism is a religion and not a race. Anyway, in order to identify who is Jewish and who is not they can’t avoid talking about the religious issue. (Berr 111)"
In the above video, Helene Berr's niece, Mariette Job, speaks about her aunt's life through her famous journal.