From 1942, the Wawer children lived in hiding in Barenton in La Manche, in the Bouquey family house. They had fled Paris thanks to Catholic sisters. Jacques Wawer recounts this period and his memories in the program “Here there are 80 years”.
In 1942, Jacques Wawer and his brother Louis, aged 6 and 7 respectively, were preparing to leave Paris. Their family is Jewish, and German roundups are increasing in the capital. Their father was arrested on August 20, 1941. He remained in the Drancy camp for seven months before being sent to Auschwitz. He won’t come back. Jacques carefully keeps the last postcard sent by his father from Drancy.
At the beginning of 1942, pressure further intensified on Jewish families in France. Women and children are now being rounded up in turn. Perla Wawer, the mother of Jacques and Louis, decides, on the advice of a friend, to entrust her two boys to a Catholic institution, which takes children to the countryside. Accompanied by two “good sisters” as Jacques says, the brothers take the train and arrive in Normandy. They are then transported by coach to Bareton in the English Channel. Initially, they were housed on the Pasquet family farm.
Our host family is made up of a widow of around 60 years old, always dressed in black, and her daughter Geneviève aged 25. In fact, it’s a one-story house with a miserable appearance, a few ducks and chickens roaming around in the yard. On the ground floor, the floor is clay. The furniture is rudimentary, a large Norman wardrobe, a rustic oak table with two benches, and a large fireplace at the back of the room. Located 2 km from the village, modernity has not yet reached our house, there is no electricity. In this environment of poverty, the affection shown to us by Madame Pasquet and the kindness of Geneviève soothes our pain of being separated from our parents.
Jacques Wawer
“Geneviève wrote to my mother that we lived in the open air, that we were doing well, and an idea began to germinate in my mother’s mind, her only chance of survival was to flee Paris” remembers Jacques Wawer.
At the beginning of 1943, Perla Wawer and her daughter Hélène, then aged three, joined the two boys. The family settled for a time in an abandoned farm. “Each new arrival in a town had the obligation to register at the town hall, and each owner before renting his house, had to ensure that the new tenant had complied with this obligation. Having no right not even that of changing domicile, these laws did not apply to Jews” explains Jacques Wawer. Housing can only be temporary. Perla Wawer starts looking for accommodation to rent and places a classified ad in the Barenton bakery. Louise Bouquey responds to the ad and suggests that the Wawer family move in upstairs in her home.
Very quickly, the Bouquey and Wawer children hit it off. “I have good memories of this time” explains Monique, one of the youngest of the Bouquey siblings. For Gérard Bouquey, it is important that Jacques and Louis Wawer are educated. He asks their mother to register the family at the town hall. She breaks down in tears and tells him that they are Jewish. Mr. Bouquey goes to the gendarmerie, the head of which is also the leader of the local resistance. Through him, the family obtains a legal existence in the commune. From then on, the whole village protected the Wawer. Jacques remembers it with emotion.
We are aware that the village of Barenton saved us. The baker, whose store was near a crossroads where the Germans often carried out checks, immediately alerted my mother during the checks. The mayor, Mr. Guillaume, sent us firewood in the winter, because he knew that we were cold and that we had no money.
80 years later, the Bouquey and Wawer children continue to see each other regularly. An unbreakable bond was created between the two families. In June 1992, Monique received, in the name of her parents, the title of Righteous Among the Nations, awarded by the Yad Washem institute. “It was the Israeli ambassador who presented me with the medal at the National Assembly in 1994” specifies Monique Bouquey, with a certain emotion in her voice.
Find out more about the history of these two families in the show Here 80 years agopresented by Anne Boétie on Thursday May 23 at 10:10 a.m.
To see and rewatch on the France.tv platform.
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