An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia D'Albert-Lake (World War II: the Globa, Human, and Ethical Dimension)

316 Pages·2006·1.95 MB·English

by  Judy Barrett Litoff

An
American
Heroine
in the
French
Resistance
.................15705$ $$FM 12-13-0510:36:51 PS PAGEi
An American Heroine
.................15705$ $$FM 12-13-0510:36:52 PS PAGEii
in the French Resistance
The Diary
and Memoir
of Virginia
d’Albert-Lake
Edited by
Judy Barrett Litoff
fordham university press NewYork 2006
.................15705$ $$FM 12-13-0510:36:52 PS PAGEiii
Copyright(cid:2)2006by
JudyBarrettLitoffandJimCalio.
DiaryandmemoirofVirginiad’Albert-Lake
copyright(cid:2)2006byPatrickd’Albert-Lake.
Allrightsreserved.
Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or
transmittedinanyformorbyanymeans—electronic,mechanical,photocopy,
recording,oranyother—exceptforbriefquotationsinprintedreviews,withoutthe
priorpermissionofthepublisher.
WorldWarII:TheGlobal,Human,
andEthicalDimension,No.9
ISSN1541-0293
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Albert-Lake,Virginiad’,1909–
AnAmericanheroineintheFrenchResistance:thediaryandmemoirofVirginia
d’Albert-Lake/editedbyJudyBarrettLitoff.—1sted.
p. cm.—(WorldWarII—thegloba,human,andethicaldimension,
ISSN1541-0293;9)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8232-2581-X(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN90-8232-2582-8(pbk.:alk.
paper)
1.Albert-Lake,Virginiad’,1909– 2.Ravensbru¨ck(Concentrationcamp)
3.WorldWar,1939–1945—Prisonersandprisons,German. 4.WorldWar,
1939–1945—Personalnarratives,American. 5.World,War,1939–1945—
Undergroundmovements—France. 6.Prisonersofwar—Germany—Biography.
7.Prisonersofwar—UnitedStates—Biography. 8.France—History—German
occupation,1940–1945. I.Litoff,JudyBarrett. II.Title. III.Series.
D805.5.R38A43 2005
940.53(cid:2)44092—dc22
2005034897
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
07 06 5 4 3 2 1
Firstedition
.................15705$ $$FM 12-13-0510:36:52 PS PAGEiv
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Editor’sNote ix
Introduction:WomenandtheFrenchResistance:
TheStoryofVirginiad’Albert-Lake xi
JudyBarrettLitoff
RememberingMyMother xxxv
Patrickd’Albert-Lake
PartI:TheDiary,October11,1939–April1944
1 OutbreakofWartotheFallofFrance,
October11,1939–June23,1940 3
2 LifeaftertheFallofFrance,
June24,1940–August29,1940 50
3 LifeaftertheFallofFrance,
September1940–April1944 75
PartII:TheMemoir,‘‘MyStory’’
4 WorkingforCometEscapeLineandArrest,
Fall1943–June14,1944 91
5 ImprisonmentatFresnesandRomainville,
June15,1944–August15,1944 119
6 DeportationtoRavensbru¨ck,
August15,1944–August22,1944 142
7 InternmentatRavensbru¨ckandTorgau,
August22,1944–October16,1944 155
8 InternmentatKo¨nisgberg,
October16,1944–February2,1945 177
.................15705$ CNTS 12-13-0510:36:55 PS PAGEv
9 ReturntoRavensbru¨ck,
February2,1945–February28,1945 209
10Liebenau,
February28,1945–LateMay1945 223
11Epilogue 238
Afterword 242
JimCalio
Appendixes 247
FurtherReading 265
Index 267
vi] Contents
.................15705$ CNTS 12-13-0510:36:55 PS PAGEvi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The making of An American Heroine in the French Resistance is the result
of the aid and counsel of many thoughtful friends and colleagues. First
andforemost,IwouldliketothankthejournalistJimCalioforintroduc-
ing me to the diary and memoir of Virginia d’Albert-Lake. Jim had the
good fortune to know Virginia during the last decade of her life. He vis-
ited her several times at Cancaval, the d’Albert-Lake family home near
Dinard, Brittany, conducted lengthy interviews with both Virginia and
her husband, Philippe, and wrote about Virginia’s courageous wartime
workwiththeFrenchResistancefortheNovember–December1989issue
of PhilipMorris magazine. AlthoughI did notbegin work onthis project
until after Virginia’s death in 1997, Jim shared with me his extensive
knowledge of this remarkable woman. Virginia’s son, Patrick d’Albert-
Lake, graciously made the extensive d’Albert-Lake Family Papers avail-
able to me. My interviews and talks with him at Cancaval as well as our
many e-mail conversations further confirmed what a remarkable woman
his mother was. Patrick’s son, Sebastien, Virginia’s grandson, skillfully
prepared the illustrations from the d’Albert-Lake Family Papers that ap-
pearinthisbook.
My dear friend and colleague, Suzanne Cane, took a personal interest
in this project, and I can never thank her enough for her indispensable
assistance.ShetranslatednumerousandvitalFrenchdocuments,traveled
withmetoFranceinthesummerof2003tomeetwithPatrickd’Albert-
Lake, and answered a multitude of questions about French life and cul-
ture. She also read and carefully commented on the entire manuscript
severaltimes.Herattentiontogrammar,syntax,andhistoricaldetailhas
greatlyimprovedthiswork.Overthepastseveralyears,wehavealsohad
many lengthy and productive conversations about the life and work of
Virginia, none more memorable than when we picnicked together that
gorgeousJulydayinthebeautifulgardensofCancaval.
Once again, Bryant University has been enormously supportive of my
work through the awarding of summer research stipends, course reduc-
tions, and, most recently, a sabbatical that allowed me to complete the
project. The research staff at the Douglas and Judith Krupp Library at
.................15705$ $ACK 12-13-0510:36:58 PS PAGEvii
BryantUniversity,inparticularColleenAndersonandPaulRoske,expedi-
tiously fulfilled my numerous research requests. Linda Asselin, a faculty
suite coordinator at Bryant, efficiently corrected errors, formatted chap-
ters,andcametomyrescueonnumerousoccasionswhenIbecamefrus-
trated because of computer glitches. Without her help, this book would
havebeenmuchlongerinthemaking.
The research staff at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
was enormously helpful in answering questions about Ravensbru¨ck, Be-
sanc¸on,Vittel,Torgau,Ko¨nigsbergNeumark,andLiebenau.Inparticular,
I would like to thank, Dr. Peter Black, Senior Historian, and Severin
Hochberg.KennethSchlessingeroftheTextualArchivesServicesDivision
of Modern Military Records at the National Archives at College Park,
Maryland, carefully answered my queries about RG 498 MIS and MIS-X
series.JoeRawson,librarianattheProvidencePublicLibrary,andEvelyn
M.Cherpak,Head,NavalHistoricalCollection,NavalWarCollege,New-
port, Rhode Island, answered a number of puzzling historical questions
thathavebeenincorporatedintothenotes.RobertOppedisano,Director
of Fordham University Press, provided invaluable guidance, as did G.
KurtPiehler,professorofhistoryattheUniversityofTennesseeandgen-
eraleditorofFordam’sWorldWarIISeries.WilliamC.Newkirk,graphic
designerandfacultymemberattheRhodeIslandSchoolofDesign,kindly
prepared the maps. Thanks and appreciation also go to David J. Board-
man,DavidE.Cane,andDavidC.Smith.
My adult daughters, Nadja Barrett Pisula-Litoff and Alyssa Barrett Li-
toff,continuetosupportmyworkwithlove,companionship,encourage-
ment, and scholarly advice. They bring great joy and fulfillment to my
life.Thisbookisdedicatedwithloveandaffectiontotheyoungestmem-
berofourfamily,mygranddaughter,DorothyBarbaraPisula-Litoff.
viii] Acknowledgments
.................15705$ $ACK 12-13-0510:36:59 PS PAGEviii
EDITOR’S NOTE
ThehandwrittenwartimediaryofVirginiad’Albert-Lakedidnotsurvive,
butfortunately,Philippe d’Albert-Laketypedout thediaryafterthewar.
The original typescript is in the possession of Virginia’s son, Patrick
d’Albert-Lake. Occasionally, in order to enhance the diary’s readability,
spelling and grammatical errors have been silently corrected. In a few
instances,thediaryentrydateswerenotcorrectandthey,too,havebeen
silently corrected. Given the difficult conditions under which Virginia
wrotethediary,itisnotsurprisingthatspellingandgrammaticalerrors,
although rare, did occur. Likewise, it is understandable that Virginia oc-
casionally misdated her diary entries. Immediately following Virginia’s
reunion with Philippe in May 1945, she began writing a memoir of her
last eleven months as a kind of letter to her mother, who had recently
died.Shecompletedhermemoirin1946.Theoriginaltypescriptisinthe
possessionofPatrickd’Albert-Lake.Here,too,forthesakeofreadability,
a few spelling and grammatical errors have been silently corrected. The
chapter divisions for both the diary and memoir have been added and
were not part of the original materials. Explanatory footnotes that pro-
vide historical context and identify key persons, places, and events have
also been added to both. The documents in the appendixes are repro-
ducedverbatim.
.................15705$ EDIT 12-13-0510:37:03 PS PAGEix