World War 2 was a tremendous shock for Europe and its citizens. Let me introduce you to the story of Yvette, a French woman who is now 78 years old. Hello Yvette, can you describe your life in 1939?
Yvette : I was 4 years old, my mother was a cleaning lady. She was Italian and migrated to France, to Modane (in the Maurienne), when she was younger. My little brother was born on 1939 and at the same time, my father died. That’s why we lived in a small flat, with my grandparents and my uncle. Then the war began.
Did you think the war would be long?
Yvette : No, we thought it would be short… But when their attacks were more and more frequent, we understood the reality. From 1940, we lived in a little flat, and when we heard the sirens of the town, we hurried ourselves to go in the nearest mountain. It was generally at night, so we came back downtown the morning. One day, in 1943, we knew that we would be bombed, according to an alert, a week ago. That’s why everybody in Modane went to another place. A lot of families accepted to put up us. My family and I, lived with a parish priest, It was better than our passed life… In reality, Modane wasn’t bombed, it was a false alert.
Did you go back to Modane ?
Yvette : Yes, we came back on September, we thought we would be in security. But the 16th, September 1943, we were bombed, again, and this time, there was no alert. The most surprising is the fact that it was the Americans who bombed us. They thought there were German Officers. Shells fell from the sky to all over the town. One of them fell into our flat. Happily we survived. A part of our flat fell apart. You can’t imagine how scared I was. I thought it was my last day alive. My mother and my Grandmother were wounded. A part of the roof and walls fell on them. But we all managed to run away through the window.
What happened to your family ?
Yvette : Guess what, a few days later, Germans arrived here. A German doctor came to us to heal them, in secret of course, he wasn’t allow to do that ! We were really surprised, but we accepted his help. Then we thanked him, and he said that we must go away. Imagine if his boss had seen what he has done to my mother and my grandmother… He would have been fired, or maybe killed, who knows?
So we went away, to hide ourselves in mountains… We were afraid of being killed. You know, living the war is dreadful, but when your grandparents and your mother don’t speak very well the language of the country where you are, it’s worse. So, we lived the end of the war like homeless people. It was awful. Sometimes in abandoned houses, sometimes outside…
Since this moment, I can’t sleep very well. Each time I hear a plane, I wake up. I can remember all the details, and I can still hear the noise of their steps…
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