City scene
Our parents were warned of roundups.

On July 4, 1942, the Vichy Government agreed to the deportation of all Non-French Jews from the South Non-Occupied Zone. On August 26 through August 28, 1942, round-ups of Jews in the South Zone took place; these roundups were effected exclusively by the French—be it Police, Gendarmes, Gardes Mobiles, Firemen or French Soldiers—almost anyone, except mail carriers, normally wearing a uniform.

Those caught were given the option of taking their children under 16 with them to their unknown destination (to the Death Camps) or of leaving them behind. Most parents decided to meet their fate alone. A Jewish welfare organization, OSE (acronym for "Oeuvre de Secours de l'Enfance"), took charge of many of these children, including newborns and infants, thus left alone.

Our parents were warned that roundups of non-French Jews were to take place; our father—in helpless desperation—poured boiling water over his bare feet in the hope that these wounds would spare him. He later realized the futility of his act. On the theory that women and small children were less likely to be arrested, our mother accompanied by Ernest and our widowed aunt Alma, one of our father's sisters, took the train to the nearby town of Issoudun, with such luggage as they could carry.