At the end of the previous post in this series (see here), we read the short cable that Henry sent when he arrived in Marseille. Although the cable had been sent on 26 February, the report appeared in the 8 April issue of The Mennonite. Henry makes his next appearance just two weeks (or two issues) later, when a letter dated 21 March 1941 is shared with the readers of The Mennonite:
22 April 1941 (p. 8 here, right column)
Henry Buller letter, Lyon, France, March 21, 1941
We have decided to take over a Convalescent Home for children on the beach near Perpignan. It will be for children from the camps who can not stand the rigors of the camp and yet are too well to be in regular hospitals. Miss Gerber, a French-assistant, and I are planning to go down there early next week to take over the work. The Quakers will send a directress to the colony of La Rouviere to keep charge while another directress is found by our directors. Dr. Lehman, Mr. Hoover, and Dr. Wiens are in Lyon now looking over the work there.
In view of the fact that the Red Cross is planning to bring into Lyon and its environs 83 tons of milk we have not gone ahead with the purchase of additional milk. Mr. Kershner suggested doing more direct relief to individual children in their homes. Either by providing them with milk and supplementary vegetables or giving them about five francs per day and letting the family provide additional rations. He also expressed the opinion that in most cases it would be better and cheaper to aid French children in their own homes rather than taking them into colonies. Mr. Wiens and I have not taken any action in this respect as yet.
Henry mentions a home for children that the MCC staff in France had decided to take over. This is none other than the Villa Saint Christophe, the twenty-room house where Lois Gunden (see here) cared for children of families detained at the Rivesaltes refugee camp. Lois Gunden and Helen Penner did not arrive until October 1941; according to this letter, Henry had initiated the work at the children’s home roughly six months earlier.
We next hear about Henry in a letter that Helen Penner sent shortly after she and Lois Gunden arrived in France.
11 November 1941 (p. 9 here, right column)
—Helen A. Penner, newest General Conference relief worker in France, wrote the following from Cerbere, France, on October 20, 1941: We arrived in France at about 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. … We crossed through a long tunnel, about one and one half miles long, and came out in France in Cerbere. The scenery from Barcelona on was beautiful. At first we could see the Pyrenees mountains in the distance and finally we were in them. The mountain sides were terraced for cultivation in many places. After we were in the customs house another American Express man told us that Jesse Hoover and Henry Buller were in town and had been looking for us the day before. Mr. Hoover obtained permission to enter the room where we were waiting. Were we glad to see him! The Mennonites have such a good reputation here that when he explained that we were also part of his group, they ok’d our baggage without opening it. That made us happy, too.
Although we learn nothing new about Henry, we do learn of another route that MCC workers took to get to their destinations. Whereas Henry sailed to Lisbon, Portugal, and then went on to Marseille, France, Helen and Lois sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar, past the Rock of Gibraltar, and on to Barcelona, Spain. From there they traveled north by train and across the border via the Balitres tunnel (above) that connected Portbou, Spain, and Cerbère, France. For a more detailed account of the journey, see Helen Penner’s “Traveling in France” here.
By late January, Henry had left the children’s home under the able management of the new workers and shifted his attention and efforts north to Lyon. His concern at that time was distributing powdered milk to the thousands of French school children there.
27 January 1942 (page 8 here, right column)
RELIEF
Appreciation for Milk Given to Children
A letter from Brother Henry Buller, December 2, describes the distribution of milk to the ten thousand or more school children in Lyon, France. Quoting from Brother Buller: “When our supplies of milk are taken against the large number of children found in Lyon, one realizes immediately that it is not enough to carry on an intensive program over a large period of time. Yet I am sure that even this little bit will do its part in helping the children through this difficult winter. We are passing through a period here when even a little bit counts for very much.… One begins to think more and more of the tremendous possibilities that could be realized if one had the almost inexhaustable [sic] supplies of food stuffs that we have in America.”
That letter, dated 2 December 1941, was followed by another a little more than a month later.
24 February 1942 (page 2 here, right column)
RELIEF NOTES …
Winter in France
Fortunately, the winter has not been as severe as it might have been according to reports of past winters. We have had one snowfall, which however, did not remain very long. Since Christmas time we have had a few traces of snow and ice on the streets. The colder weather makes things much more difficult for everybody. Winter out here brings with it the long lines of people waiting to buy their ration of food, whatever it might be, potatoes, break, milk, etc. It is a pity to see the undernourished people being forced to stand in lines, sometimes an hour or two at a time. Especially so, when one realizes that their clothing is often worn thread-bare and their homes poorly heated for lack of coal.
The above is an extract from the latest letter of Brother Henry Buller, dated January 6, 1942.
Conditions in Lyon were terrible: undernourished and poorly clad people standing outside in the cold for several hours to secure whatever food they could, then returning to their poorly heated homes to eat their meager rations. The only bright spot was that the winter of 1941–1942 was not as severe as it had been in the past.
In the midst of their demanding work, Henry and his colleagues did take time to reflect on their efforts and to refresh their spirits, as reported in a May 1942 news item. At the time of the conference, on 30 and 31 March, Henry had been serving in France for thirteen months.
26 May 1942 (page 12 here, right column)
RELIEF
French Workers Hold Conference
On March 30 and 31 the Mennonite relief workers in France, Brethren Joseph N. Byler and Henry Buller together with Sisters Lois Gunden and Helen Penner met in a two-day conference at Vernet-les-Bains.
Writing about this conference, Sister Gunden says: “Our Mennonite conference at Vernet was quite profitable to all of us.… During our sessions of Monday evening, Tuesday morning, and afternoon we went over our whole program, considered the possibilities of our future work and spent time together in devotional periods.”
Five months later, The Mennonite published “Have a Heart in a World of Need,” by Helen A. Penner. We met Helen Penner earlier as a colleague of Lois Gunden; the two of them assumed responsibility for the children’s home on the Mediterranean shore in Canet-Plage. Unfortunately, Helen suffered a nervous breakdown two months after arriving in France. She rested and recovered during a lengthy stay in Vernet-les-Bains (this no doubt explains why the two-day conference mentioned above took place there), then returned to the U.S. in mid-May (see Gunden 2013). It was back in the U.S. that Helen authored the article excerpted below.
20 October 1942 (page 6 here)
In our program of aiding war sufferers in France we are working in a number of different ways. At Cerbere we have a canteen where forty-five children are fed regularly, at Banyuls and Collioure, a distribution center gives out food to need families of three small towns, at Canet Plage we have a convalescent home for sixty children from the concentration refugee camp near there. In Lyon and surrounding districts where Brother Byler and Henry Buller are working, we are helping needy children by feeding them at school. Brother Byler has estimated that about 35,000 were aided last winter.
Helen’s report offers both an informative overview of the MCC work in France at that time and Henry’s role within it. Six months after Helen returned, another MCC relief worker in France, Joseph N. Byler (see further here) also came home. With him he brought greetings from Henry and Lois, as well as hints about an uncertain future.
29 December 1942 (page 12 here, lower left and middle right columns)
RELIEF
Greetings from Workers in France
Before leaving France on November 6, 1942, Brother Joseph N. Byler was asked by Brother Henry Buller and Lois Gunden to extend to their friends in America the season’s greetings and to thank the churches for their prayerful support. Both Brother Buller and Sister Gunden were in good health and spirits at the time of his departure.
…
Brother Byler Returns from France
On November 29, 1942, Brother Joseph N. Byler reached Philadelphia, having sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, last November 16 abroad [sic] the Portuguese vessel, Serpa Pinto. Brother Byler left France on November 6 or several days before the present French crisis.
At the time of his leaving plans for the winter relief program were completed and Brother Henry Buller and Sister Lois Gunden were prepared to carry on through the winter. A cable from Geneva, Switzerland, dated November 27 states that Lois Gunden and Henry Buller are in Lyon. Brother Byler offers the opinion that they are there directing the relief work and may be allowed to continue though this is uncertain. There is a reserve of funds on hand which would permit work for about a year.
The “present French crisis” that the report mentions was the German occupation of Vichy France on 11 November 1942. That was the same day, you may recall, that Henry and Bea were married. Curiously, neither the wedding nor Bea herself is mentioned in the cable sent from Geneva; we will see a similar pattern in the next post’s reports from The Mennonite.
For the moment, we need only observe that the cable was sent from Geneva, presumably because direct contact with the U.S. and other Allied countries was impossible, now that the German army controlled southern France. The most that Joseph Byler could say about the future of the MCC work was that, although the funds were available, Henry and Lois did not know if they would be permitted to continue. We do know what happened next, and that part of the story will be the main focus of the next post in this series.
Work Cited
Gunden, Mary Jean. 2013. “Lois Gunden: A Righteous Gentile.” The Mennonite. 1 September. Available online here.
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