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September 27, 1945

The following is a translation of an article written by Yvette Baumann Bernard, René’s second cousin. A clipping of the original article, which was published in a French newspaper sometime in the second half of 1945 (perhaps on September 27) is reproduced in the sidebar. The preface reads in part, “The following article, written by […]

September 20, 1945

Below is René’s handwritten accounting of the surgical statistics of the 59th Evacuation Hospital – from Casablanca in December 1942 to Epinal II in January 1945. Next letter… * About René & Dear Folksies  ⇒

September 14, 1945

September 14, 1945Bad Wildungen, Germany No. 52 Dear Folksies,        Everything is, as usual, a mass of confusion around here. We have now been brought up to strength as far as enlisted personnel are concerned. We received some 40 men from the 91st and then 140 from the 2nd Armored Div. We were supposed to […]

September 13, 1945

September 13, 1945Bad Wildungen, Germany No. 51 Dear Folksies,         Well, today we finally moved!  We are now in the buildings we should have been in two months ago.  We are in the town of Bad Wildungen, which is 14 kilometers from our last spot, and is the town in which the 3rd Division Headquarters […]

September 12, 1945

September 12, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 (conclusion) Dear Folksies,          What is Yvette doing now?  She started an enterprise called “Revivre.” It is her baby and she is the boss. How many she has working for her, I have no real idea; but she is gradually taking care of more and more individuals.  Her […]

September 11, 1945

September 11, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 (continued) Dear Folksies,           Finally, one day a supposed American Officer (probably a French Liaison Officer with the American Army) arrived in search of some girl.  He did not find the girl he was looking for, but agreed that there was no point in going back without anyone. […]

September 10, 1945

September 10, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 (continued) Dear Folksies,        At Auschwitz, they tattooed a number on Yvette‘s arm. Since there are but few women who ever came out of there and returned home, Yvette’s arm is always attracting attention and many questions.  She has this tattoo on her left forearm, in the upper […]

September 9, 1945

September 9, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 (continued) Dear Folksies,             At Ravensbruck, the Germans seemed to have quite a nasty sense of humor or sadism, call it what you will. If a woman had to see the doctor for some internal ailment, she was sent to him completely clothed.  If, on the other hand, […]

September 8, 1945

September 8, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 (continued) Dear Folksies,            Yvette was taken in a convoy with 1,500 other people to the camp at Auschwitz in April 1944.  Of that 1,500, less than ten are now alive.  They rode in open flat-cars and part of the time in trucks.  When they arrived there, there […]

September 7, 1945

September 7, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 (continued) Dear Folksies,            When finally the Gestapo did catch up with Yvette and Jean Guy, they really had all the dope on them, including most of their aliases. When they were confronted with all that information, they knew the jig was up. They were both taken to […]

September 6, 1945

September 6, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 50 Dear Folksies,             Tonight, I’m going to attempt to jot down a few of the things told to me by Yvette and I am not going to try to make this chronological at all.           Let me preface my remarks about Yvette by saying that she is truly […]

September 5, 1945

Today we have a letter that Lilice Baumann wrote to René’s parents after his visit to Paris. Lilice is René Sr.’s first cousin. It is transcribed here exactly as Lilice wrote it in English. Dear Ones,       First of all I must tell you how happy we have all been when we knew […]

September 4, 1945

September 4, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 49 (conclusion) Dear Folksies,         After a couple of hours at Weill’s, Lilice and I left, Lilice going home and I going first to the hotel and then to pick up Yvette. Went with Yvette then, to her club, which is called the “18th of June.”  Reason for that […]

September 3, 1945

September 3, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 49 (continued) Dear Folksies,         After lunch, walked with Lilice to the Trocadero, which is a beautiful and elaborate place close to the Eiffel Tower, and then finally walked over to Marie Weill’s place. She and her family live on the fifth floor of a rather old, but nice […]

September 2, 1945

September 2, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 49 (continued) Dear Folksies,             Anthony Sternberg said that the British arrived at his camp [Lubeck POW Camp] on May 2, and he was flown in a C-47 to Brussels. He was supposed to get to Paris from there by train, but the pilot wanted to get to Paris anyway, […]

September 1, 1945

September 1, 1945Near Fritzlar, Germany No. 49 (continued) Dear Folksies,          The nite of August 30th, I went to the Sternberg’s for supper. I was greeted at the door by Nicole and Jean-Jacques. Jean-Jacques is 11 years old, has closely cropped red-hair, is smart as a whip and apparently quite a little devil. He is somewhat, […]