Stories of past generations in France: A bag of marbles and the Red Ball Express.

Have you ever met someone who lived in Europe during 1940 to 1945?
Or did one of your family members serve during WWII?
Have you ever been to Paris, Nantes and talked to people who are over eighty?
Have you ever met someone who was in Auschwitz?

To these three questions, I would answer yes.

My grandfather Robert Lee Lawrence served in the army of WWII and participated in the Red Ball Express during this war.

When I was in high school at Junipero Serra (San Diego California), I met an elderly lady who was in Auschwitz and survived the war. I will never forget when she showed me the tattoo number on her arm.

I remember when I was a little girl my grandfather would talk all the time about his time in the war, but I was too young to really grasp and understand what he was trying to communicate to me.

Years later, I never would have thought that I would be living in a country that was occupied by the Nazis :

• A city like Nantes that was destroyed by the war. Paris, where people had to put antisemitism signs in their windows and wear stars on their clothing.
• I met and talked to my friend’s family members who lived during this time. Some lost family members and others escaped right before their building blew-up. It was such a long time ago, but you can still see the pain in their eyes.

All these memories quickly came back to me on one Friday morning. I told HB, “let’s go to the movies tonight”. I had no idea what was playing at the local theatres in Metz. I found par hasard (by chance) a film called Un sac de billes (A Bag of Marbles).

From the poster, I thought it sounded like a Goonies adventure but à la française. H.B quickly corrected me, “Non, j’ai déjà lu ce livre. c’est pendant la guerre”.

We watched the trailer together and I was gung-ho on seeing this movie. H.B was reluctant because he had already read the book, but I was able to persuade him..

This movie is one of the millions of untold stories in France. Joseph Joffo tells his story of life as a young Jewish boy during WWII in Paris (18th arrondissement). I used to live in the 18th arrondissement in Paris when you walk down its street you feel the history.

The movie shows the journey of two brothers fleeing a Nazi-occupied Paris, their father forcing them to grow up very fast and confront the reality of life during that time. Joseph was ten and his brother Maurice was twelve years old, taught from a very early age to be proud of their family and also Jewish, but faced with the fact that they had to hide their true identity to save their lives.

Quite confusing for a child…

Their father knew that they all would have a greater chance of survival if the family separated. He gave them twenty thousand francs with instructions to flee Paris by foot, train, and bus, and join their brothers Henri and Albert in Menton (in the south of France on the Mediterranean coast, border to Italy), a free zone. They had to cross the demarcation line at Hagetmau (Landes) without being caught by the Nazis. That’s 963 km by car, can you imagine being a kid and doing some of that journey by foot?  In the movie, you see historical places like d’Aix-Les-Bains and Rumily.

You think 1940 to 1945 was a very very very long time ago but it’s not.

My Grandfather was born in 1922 and was one of the soldiers who helped liberate France. He died February 20, 2015, at the age of 93.

After the troops broke-out from the D-Day beaches in Normandy (in 1944),  I would have loved to hear what he had to say about the Red Ball Express. The Red Ball Express was the codename for one of World War II’s most massive logistics operations: trucks marked with a red ball, a fleet of over 6,000 trucks that supplied over 412,000 tons of ammunition, food, and fuel to the Allied armies moving quickly through Europe. Seventy-five percent of the drivers of Red Ball Express were Black American; thus my grandfather being one of them.

All his stories that I didn’t get a chance to document are gone.

The elderly lady who survived Auschwitz that I met back in high school is probably gone too. And what about her stories?

I feel it’s important to remember the past and appreciate how its effects can be felt today.

It’s still current in today’s life.

Is there anyone in your family that lived during that time?

What untold stories do they have to tell?

Un sac de billes is a great true story and a must-see movie, not only to improve on your French but to learn more about France and the people who have lived here.

So the next time you meet someone who lived in Europe during 1940 to 1945, ask them to tell you a story, a story about their lives during that time.

• What did they see?
• How did they live?
• Who did they lose?

In the comments below, I’d love to hear from you.

So, please share:

Have you ever met someone who lived in Europe from 1940 to 1945?
Or did one of your family members serve during WWII?
Have you ever been to Paris, Nantes and talked to people who are over eighty?
Have you ever met someone who was in Auschwitz?

I love learning about other people’s stories during this time.

So, please share yours!