During the first months of 1945, Henry and other MCC workers in Europe had made great progress in reestablishing vital relief programs serving the war-ravaged population of France. As we read at the end of the last post, by the end of September 1945—which was only fifteen months after Allied forces had landed on the beaches of Normandy, a mere eleven months after the liberation of Paris, and only four months after the German surrender—the MCC had set up a new French headquarters.
2 October 1945 (page 12 here, upper right column)
A new headquarters has been decided upon for the French work. Communications to French workers should be addressed: Impasse Du Tranche, Chalon sur Saone.
Three weeks later, in the 23 October 1945 issue of The Mennonite (page 13 here, lower left column), we read a more extensive report on the French mission.
The Mennonite Relief Program in France
The present phase of the M.C.C. relief program in France—“Secours Mennonite aux Enfants”—began in March of this year when Samuel Goering and Henry Buller were able to enter that country. At the time of their entry, three children’s homes were in operation. Since that time three additional homes have been set up and a central office has been established. Eight Mennonite workers are serving in this part of the relief program and four more are under appointment.
The six children’s homes in operation are: (1) the former Canet-Plage convalescent home now at Lavercantiere, in south-central France about sixty miles north of Toulouse; (2) the “Le Dolivet” nursery at Plottes, about seventy miles north of Lyon; (3) the “Chateau Mont Simon” children’s colony, near Vescours, also north of Lyon; (4) the “Chateau du Chevagny,” a babies’ home near Macon, also north of Lyon; (5) a children’s home at Wissembourg in Alsace; and (6) a children’s home at Anetz par Ancenis, a town near Nantes in western France.
The central office of Secours Mennonite was provisionally set up at Pont-de-Vaux, a town north of Lyon and the former home of Roger Georges, the French Christian who directed the Mennonite work during the German occupation. More recently the central office has been permanently established at Chalon-sur-Saone, a city about ninety miles north of Lyon. Besides providing a center for the relief personnel in France this office is also serving as a clothing depot and distribution center. A center has also been established in Paris in cooperation with the Brethren Service Committee. This office in the capitol city will serve incoming workers and also be the headquarters when official and business contacts have to be made in the city.
There is a lot to unpack here. We begin with the location of the permanent MCC French office at Chalon-sur-Saône (the blue pin in the lower center of the map below), or Chalon on the Saône (River). Chalon-sur-Saône was a medium-sized city of approximately 32,000 people at that time, but it was strategically located. As noted in the report, it was 90 miles north of Lyon (where the MCC office had formerly been located); it was also much closer than Lyon to the Alsace region, where most French Mennonites lived (see discussion of Alsace here).
The report also locates the six children’s homes that were operating at that time. The pins on the map show the relative distribution of those homes. Three of the homes were close to Chalon-sur-Saône: Plottes (yellow pin), Vescours (purple), and Macon (black). The home that had been located at Canet-Plage (see here, here, and here) was now at Lavercantiere (orange, lower left). A fifth home was located in western France, in Anetz par Ancenis, or Anetz by the city of Ancenis (brown, center left). Finally, one home was located within the Alsace region, in the town of Wissembourg (green, upper right).
Finally, the reports states that eight Mennonite workers were based in the Chalon-sur-Saône headquarters and that four more had been assigned there. In six months’ time, from March through September 1945, MCC’s footprint had grown from two (Henry and Sam Goering) to eight, and it was scheduled to increase by another 50 percent in the near future.
The staff members assigned to France are not named here, but a subsequent report, dated 4 December 1945 (page 13 here, upper right column), identifies some of the workers.
French Center Gets Under Way
Henry Buller, in charge of Mennonite relief in France, writes in a recent letter concerning the activity at the Chalon Center:
“Counting John Fretz, there are now ten members in the French unit, a very nice increase since last March. The extra work and noise around the center are certainly welcome—especially the noise of B. F. Hartzler getting the place organized and fixed up with hammer and saw. The trucks from England arrived here at Chalon on Monday evening, October 29. Since that time John Fretz and Robert Goering have been putting motorbikes and bicycles together.”
From September to November (when the letter was written), two additional MCC workers had joined the team in France. Although we cannot say at this moment who the two new arrivals were, we do know that the Chalon-sur-Saône staff included Henry, John Fretz, B. F. Hartzler, and Robert Goering. No doubt there were other MCC workers at the new center, with still others staffing the six children’s homes spread throughout the country.
Not to be missed is the statement that Henry was “in charge of Mennonite relief in France.” This is, to my knowledge, the first reference to Henry as the director of the French operations. Whether he had been appointed to that position prior to his return to France or sometime subsequent to it is unknown. It may well be that his elevation to director took place at one of the organizational meetings held in Paris in July and September 1945 (see here). Perhaps this took place when Sam Goering was placed in charge of the northwest European operation (see the left column of the 4 December 1945 page linked above).
We hear nothing further about Henry in 1945 issues of The Mennonite; the next mention of him, a report of happy news, appears early in 1946. We will take up the thread of the narrative in a subsequent post, but first we will examine several photographs, both old and new, related to the MCC relief effort in France.
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