Another online treasure recently discovered (see earlier “Arrival from Russia” here) is the full run of the Mennonite Historical Bulletin (1940–2012), a publication of the Historical Committee of the Mennonite General Conference (see here). The April 1984 issue (here) includes an article that will interest many readers of this blog: Rachel Shenk’s “Mennonite Central Committee in Europe, 1940–70.”
As many of you know, Grandpa Chris’s younger brother Henry and Henry’s wife Bea were active in the MCC’s relief work in Europe during the 1940s. Not surprisingly, Henry and Bea are mentioned several times in the letters that constitute the bulk of the article. Although the entire article is well worth reading, I highlight here the references to Henry and Bea.
Henry first appears in a letter written by Henry Wiens on 12 June 1941 that describes the nature and the location of their relief work:
Here in Lyon our milk distribution in the schools ceased about May 1, as the Red Cross program commenced. We have, however, been conducting a school feeding program through the cantines scolaires [school canteens]. … we have been furnishing about 2500 meals a day to the neediest school children in Lyon. The poor children suffer especially during these times, for their parents are not able to buy the nonrationed and much more expensive foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. They are confined almost exclusively to the very lean rations of bread, macaroni, and other staples. Moreover, we have distributed here in Lyon some 540,000 squares of vitamin A chocolate candies for the Quakers. This made a tremendous impression upon the local population and upon the school children. …
We are also distributing five tons of rice and five tons of pois chiches [chick peas] among the school children in the nearby industrial city of Saint Etienne, a city about forty miles south-west of Lyons. Being chiefly a coal mining region, the people are very poor and consequently suffer intensely. Either Mr. Buller or I have been going to Saint Etienne about once or twice a week to administer this project for the Quakers, as they are furnishing everything in the way of funds. Although we represent the Quakers there, we indicate that we are Mennonites and so the Mennonites also get considerable credit for this. … Moreover, we have also been distributing vitamins for the Quakers at Saint Etienne. We are distributing a total of 1,200,000 doses of vitamins for the Quakers there. As far as I know, the Mennonite office in Lyon has been responsible for the largest single distribution of vitamins in France by a non-French organization, and possibly we have distributed more vitamins than even any single branch of a French relief organization. (Shenk 1984, 3)
From this extract we learn that Henry and other members of the MCC relief team were distributing food and vitamins, among other staples, to the poor and needy people of Lyon and the surrounding area. The mention of Lyon is important, since it not only tells us where Henry and Bea were located but also provides insight into their situation.
As noted above, the letter was written in June 1941. By then, France had surrendered to Germany and the other Axis powers, and the nation had been divided into two regions: a northern zone occupied by German troops and a southern zone governed by the French Vichy government, which had been set up to collaborate with the Germans. As seen in the map below, Lyon was in Vichy France.
In other words, during this time Henry and his MCC colleagues were distributing supplies in the zone governed by French authorities, although under the ultimate authority of the Germans. This information helps us understand better the situation described in a second letter by Wiens, this one dated 28 June 1941:
I should like to add to what I have said before, namely, that the Mennonites were always much more conservative toward a possible evacuation than most of the other delegates. When the crisis broke about May 15, I happened to be in Marseilles. People talked as though we would all have to leave within ten days. When I suggested that we would still be here for the fourth of July, I was roundly laughed at. It is hard to imagine the hysteria that prevailed there then, and even more afterwards. There were many reasons for this, including the fact that the Marseilles consulate was apparently unusually nervous. In fact, about two weeks ago, the American Consulate at Marseilles was making it a regular policy to telephone the Quaker office every other day, asking them how many had left for America, and warning the rest to leave as soon as possible. About June 15, Brother Hoover was definitely notified by the Quaker office that it would be best for him, since he had a wife and obligations at home, to leave within a week. Upon Brother Hoover’s request, Brother Buller and I went to Marseilles immediately for a conference. We all agreed that there was no immediate danger, and that as long as telegraphic communications were open with America, we did not intend to leave without first communicating with you. We also absolved the Quakers of all responsibility for the evacuation of the Mennonite delegation, except that we hoped we would be kept informed of the general situation. At the same time, the Quakers received a reassuring telegram from Afserco, Philadelphia. At a general meeting of the delegate, we indicated that we believed that the work could continue rather indefinitely, and that the Mennonite work would go ahead as usual. (Shenk 1984, 4)
The crisis mentioned in the letter, dated to about 15 May, was presumably the negotiations (to use the term loosely) before and the signing of the Paris Protocols between Germany and the Vichy government led by Marshal Pétain. That is the agreement that led to the division of France into an occupied zone and an unoccupied zone. Clearly, some non-French residents of the unoccupied zone feared that they would lose their freedom.
So it was that, six months later, on 22 December 1941, another MCC worker, Joseph N. Byler, wrote:
I have just been to see Mr. Vance and he informs me that, while they will do all they can to help us leave with them, if and when they leave, they can give us no guarantee that it will be possible. So the situation is not at all as easy as I have hoped. It seems to me that it is up to us to decide definitely what we want to do. I am writing Mr. Kirshner to find out if the Quakers are leaving at this time. I also want to know what he thinks are the chances of getting both money and supplies for the continuation of relief. Buller has decided to stay for the time being. For myself, I am still undecided. I may wait and chance going with the consular staff. … I think we will have to face the facts. If you decide to stay, it may mean considerable hardship and a long duration. Of course, we may be able to leave with the Consulate, but we cannot bank on that too much. It is my personal feeling that it might be best for you to leave if the Quakers are leaving. I should know what they are doing in a few days.… (Shenk 1984, 4)
In November 1942, less than a year after Byler’s letter, German forces occupied the southern zone where the MCC relief work was located. Henry and Bea, along with Lois Gunden, continued the work to the best of their ability until they were taken into German custody in early 1943 (Shenk erroneously gives the year as 1944). They were then interned in a hotel-prison in Baden-Baden, Germany, 260 miles to the northeast of Lyon.
A July 1946 MCC report offers additional details:
On the morning of November 11, 1942, the German armies crossed over the demarcation line and totally occupied France. This date became a turning point of our French relief program which had been started in the summer of 1940 by Ernest Bennett. We were at this moment carrying on two major projects: the convalescent home at Canet-Plage, where Lois Gunden was stationed, and the boys home of Tourvielle; this latter in cooperation with the city of Lyon. The next two months before going into internment, we spent looking about for someone to carry on our program and placing our funds in such a manner that general requisitioning would not reach them.
Through our friend, Mr. Samuel Ybargoyen, counsul of Uruguay at Lyon, we found Mr. Roger Georges, who carried on the work of the Secours Mennonites throughout the war period. Mr. Roger Georges carried on with the funds that were left him and kept the home of Canet-Plage going, as well as opening up other homes as the demands for evacuating children from the bombmenaced cities increased. The money that we left Mr. Georges, of course, was not sufficient to keep the program going indefinitely, but Mr. Georges was able to secure subsidies from French organizations, official and otherwise, so that children could be maintained away from the danger of warfare. It was thus that at the end of March, 1945, when Bros. Sam Goering and Henry Buller arrived in France, they found a larger program in operation than the interned workers had left. (Shenk 1984, 5)
Although the general outline of events is clear, some details remain fuzzy. For example, Shenk (1984, 5) writes that the Mennonite workers were interned for a year and a half, but Bea’s Mennonite Weekly Review obituary (here) states simply that is was “more than a year.” Henry’s obituary (here) supports the shorter time frame, dating the internment from January 1943 to February 1944.
Another discrepancy concerns Henry and Bea’s return to France after being released. According to Shenk (1984, 5), all three detainees returned to the United States after their release, then after the war ended (8 May 1945) Henry and Bea returned to their MCC work in France. Bea’s obituary offers a different story, reporting that Henry returned to France “soon after their release in February 1944.” The MCC report, for its part, dates Henry’s return to late March 1945, which was not only nine months after D-Day but also within weeks after Allied forces had pushed the Germans entirely out of France and back into Germany. In this case, it seems best to accept the MCC report’s precise and entirely reasonable dating rather than the ambiguous “soon after” of Bea’s obituary. According to Bea’s obituary, she joined Henry in France only after the war.
Although this post has filled in some details of our family history, there is so much more waiting to be discovered and remembered. For example, research for this post uncovered an article titled “Guests of the Gestapo,” which includes interviews of U.S. diplomatic personnel originally stationed in Vichy France who had been interned in a hotel in Baden-Baden, Germany (see here). Although it is possible that this was a different hotel than the one in which Henry and Bea were interned, their respective accounts share striking details in common, which leads me to think that the interviewees were interned together with Henry and Bea. The intereviews are freely available online and well worth reading. In addition, to learn more about Henry, Bea, and their experiences, see the 2014 Buller Time post titled “Uncle Henry, Aunt Bea, and the Nazis” (here).
Works Cited
“Guests of the Gestapo.” 2013. 9 July post on the website of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Available online here.
Shenk, Rachel. 1984. “Mennonite Central Committee in Europe, 1940–70.” Mennonite Historical Bulletin 45.2:1–9. Available online here.
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