(me, the youngest) and twenty-three. I must name them: Jean, Cécile,
Philippe, Tomas, Monique, Mélaine, Françoise, Alban, Thérèse, Mathilde, Jacques
and, of course, Victor.
Same day
We met in Father
Rochet’s presbytery on 1st November 1939. It was a large, yellowish room with a
very high ceiling, and a single central light without a shade. The grate was empty,
and you could smell the damp. There were no curtains, We were so cold that no
one took their coat off. Yet Father Rochet didn’t seem to notice.
He said he’d called us together to form a ‘Round Table’ of knights
dedicated to chivalry. I remember thinking that he must have been drinking. But
he was deadly sober. He said he’d always loved the stories of Arthur, the dream
of a fairer world and the longing for the return of the King. I recall that
distinctly He said life is a great waiting. There was no King, as yet. So we
had to struggle for the dream in the meantime.
Do what? asked Victor. Father Rochet said that if France fell the
Nazis would move against the Jews in a matter of months. Many would not be able
to escape. But we could make a small difference. The Round Table would smuggle
children to safety. He could not tell us when or how or where or who else was
involved. He just wanted to know if we would act as young parents, older
brothers and sisters, taking a child from A to B.
We all looked at each other, huddled in the cold, sitting around a
huge oval table. Father Rochet drew a circle in the air with his finger,
bringing all of us in on his scheme. Everyone nodded. Including Victor, but he
voiced some doubts.
I should tell you something else about Victor. He was an organiser. Very
practical-minded. He was the one who’d arranged the picnics, getting everyone
to the pick-up point on time, allocating different jobs and so on. He liked
lists and crossing things off. After Father Rochet’s little speech he said he
didn’t think the Germans would ever march along the streets of Paris. If they
did then the survival of everyone would be through cooperation, not
confrontation. Including the Jews. That would be the key, finding an
accommodation. In due course that is precisely what Victor did, at the expense
of everyone in that room.
As I recollect, Father Rochet replied that Victor would soon change
his mind about cooperation when he felt a jackboot up his bottom.
22nd April.
I discovered the
full explanation for The Round Table in two parts, one openly, the other at the
keyhole.
First, I asked Father Rochet and he told me it was a private
literary joke.
At the turn of the century a political movement called Action
Française had been formed, dedicated to re-establishing the monarchy It was an
extreme right-wing organisation, attracting certain types of Royalists and
Catholics. Its leadership and many members were notoriously anti-Semitic. Soon
it had a youth movement called the Camelots du Roi and they entertained Paris
by rioting in the streets with the Socialists.
So far, I understood it. Then he said this: he wanted to use the
myth of Arthur from the Middle Ages to carry out his own small purge of history
— the Christian persecution of the Jews. The Round Table, he said, would enact
the chivalry denied to Jews in the past. I didn’t understand what he meant at
the time. Father Rochet was a learned man, always reading something, and he
knew tracts of medieval verse off by heart.
But now the keyhole, which made a bit more sense.
Madame Klein asked the same question as me. Father Rochet replied
that he was swinging a punch at his old Prior who had thrown him out. There had
been a bitter election for the leader of the monastery and one of the
candidates had had connections to Action Française. Father Rochet had made a
stink about it, hoping to stop him getting elected. He’d failed. Shortly
afterwards, Father Rochet had been shown the door.
For opposing him? asked Madame Klein. Wasn’t there another
Philippe, Tomas, Monique, Mélaine, Françoise, Alban, Thérèse, Mathilde, Jacques
and, of course, Victor.
Same day
We met in Father
Rochet’s presbytery on 1st November 1939. It was a large, yellowish room with a
very high ceiling, and a single central light without a shade. The grate was empty,
and you could smell the damp. There were no curtains, We were so cold that no
one took their coat off. Yet Father Rochet didn’t seem to notice.
He said he’d called us together to form a ‘Round Table’ of knights
dedicated to chivalry. I remember thinking that he must have been drinking. But
he was deadly sober. He said he’d always loved the stories of Arthur, the dream
of a fairer world and the longing for the return of the King. I recall that
distinctly He said life is a great waiting. There was no King, as yet. So we
had to struggle for the dream in the meantime.
Do what? asked Victor. Father Rochet said that if France fell the
Nazis would move against the Jews in a matter of months. Many would not be able
to escape. But we could make a small difference. The Round Table would smuggle
children to safety. He could not tell us when or how or where or who else was
involved. He just wanted to know if we would act as young parents, older
brothers and sisters, taking a child from A to B.
We all looked at each other, huddled in the cold, sitting around a
huge oval table. Father Rochet drew a circle in the air with his finger,
bringing all of us in on his scheme. Everyone nodded. Including Victor, but he
voiced some doubts.
I should tell you something else about Victor. He was an organiser. Very
practical-minded. He was the one who’d arranged the picnics, getting everyone
to the pick-up point on time, allocating different jobs and so on. He liked
lists and crossing things off. After Father Rochet’s little speech he said he
didn’t think the Germans would ever march along the streets of Paris. If they
did then the survival of everyone would be through cooperation, not
confrontation. Including the Jews. That would be the key, finding an
accommodation. In due course that is precisely what Victor did, at the expense
of everyone in that room.
As I recollect, Father Rochet replied that Victor would soon change
his mind about cooperation when he felt a jackboot up his bottom.
22nd April.
I discovered the
full explanation for The Round Table in two parts, one openly, the other at the
keyhole.
First, I asked Father Rochet and he told me it was a private
literary joke.
At the turn of the century a political movement called Action
Française had been formed, dedicated to re-establishing the monarchy It was an
extreme right-wing organisation, attracting certain types of Royalists and
Catholics. Its leadership and many members were notoriously anti-Semitic. Soon
it had a youth movement called the Camelots du Roi and they entertained Paris
by rioting in the streets with the Socialists.
So far, I understood it. Then he said this: he wanted to use the
myth of Arthur from the Middle Ages to carry out his own small purge of history
— the Christian persecution of the Jews. The Round Table, he said, would enact
the chivalry denied to Jews in the past. I didn’t understand what he meant at
the time. Father Rochet was a learned man, always reading something, and he
knew tracts of medieval verse off by heart.
But now the keyhole, which made a bit more sense.
Madame Klein asked the same question as me. Father Rochet replied
that he was swinging a punch at his old Prior who had thrown him out. There had
been a bitter election for the leader of the monastery and one of the
candidates had had connections to Action Française. Father Rochet had made a
stink about it, hoping to stop him getting elected. He’d failed. Shortly
afterwards, Father Rochet had been shown the door.
For opposing him? asked Madame Klein. Wasn’t there another
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