Alfred Mauricet, ex-Moritz, was now considered a Catholic who went by the sobriquets of either "Refred" or "Ricet." His brother Ernest Mauricet became known as "Renesse."

The widow Aubert, who had become our warden, led a hardscrabble existence on a subsistence farmlet in the remote hills of the Cevennes range. Her only cash income was the monthly stipend she received from OSE for harboring us—the poverty of this region being instrumental in saving lives.

Alone
Alone in the world!

Besides herding our flock of goats and two cows, I was "farmed out" nearby to help with the potato harvest. Payment consisted of a sack of potatoes—a welcome addition to our diet of black chestnut bread soaked in salted goat milk.

While farmed out, I slept in the barn on some straw on the cold cement floor, together with the farmhands. These rough fellows had, as children, been wards of the state—the farmers receiving a modest stipend from the Social Agencies. As adults or in their late teens, in order to escape this bondage, many enlisted and, assigned to the 156th Ardèchois Regiment, were assigned to guard the Les Milles Concentration Camp where our father had been incarcerated. No doubt, given their antecedents, that they wondered why these spoiled foreigners complained of having to sleep on straw, on the cold ground , when this had been all they had known since childhood.

Although illiterate, our widow did own an illustrated children's catechism book which Refred, being an avid reader, learned by heart while herding her two cows and goats. I thus became the star pupil at Catholic catechism classes in the imposing Vernoux church. We learned that there existed, in this wonderful set of beliefs, a Savior who preached a Gospel of Love—a very surprising discovery for a thirteen year-old boy who thought to himself that, if this be love when THEY want to kill me, it's a good thing that THEY don't preach hatred.

Jews did not exist in these mountains and would have been considered a curiosity; they had been exterminated in the Middle Ages and their existence was mentioned only once a year, during Easter Mass.