I lived through this war and I came out alive.
Today these memories feel like a novel to me.
to you, these things are not real
because you only read about them in books.
They are different to you
but they are real to me.
I was twenty years old, I wasn't a baby.
I experienced these events
at the cinema, in restaurants.
I saw the curfews,
the bombings, and the soldiers in the streets.
I saw the raids where
people were arrested and taken away
I saw the posters on the wall of buildings and
in the metro announcing that people had been executed.
Father came home with newspapers under his arm
and told mother: "War has been declared!"
It was September 1939.
I remember the war years.
Running in the streets
the bombings and hiding in shelters.
One of my sister's legs were paralyzed.
It was very sad and difficult time.
Between the years 1940-43
we suffered very much.
There were ration books for shoes
and vouchers for bread.
Everything was tightly controlled
and conditions were hard.
When the Nazis entered Paris and
the Government complied with their terms we Jews
were forced to have the word "Jew"
stamped on our Turkish identity cards.
Since we were recognized as Turkish Jews
we did not have to wear the Jewish Star
which was very humiliating.
It was terrifying.
We were constantly scared of
what they might do to us.
If we met Germans in the streets
my mother said:
"Even if they give you sweets, don't take them.
They might be poisoned."
We were always scared
even at school.
There were many restrictions.
We were not allowed into
the public parks, cinema and theaters
or to work in most professions
which didn't effect me at that age.
We could only travel in the last car of the metro
There was an evening curfew.
We were forced to turn in our radios.
It was forbidden for Jew to listen to the radio
During the occupation,
there were constant anti Semitic campaigns.
An infamous one at the Palais Berlitz Hall
had a huge billboard
with a horrible caricature of a Jew.
Anti-Jewish exhibits showed how
Certain "people" had infiltrated French life.
Those "people" meant Jews. The French said:
"We didn't know they were Jews."
A little boy pointed at me and told his mother:
"Look! A little Jew!"
What could we do? Grab our jackets and run?
I would hear Germans coming at night,
breaking down doors, then the sound of people crying.
They would kick in doors and
shout "RAUS, RAUS, RAUS"
as they dragged them away.
I was 12 years old and crying.
Hearing all of that was frightening.
We lived in fear for four years.
Every day we heard about people being deported.
We slept under the bed listening to
War news on radio London.
One of my strongest memories
is the sound of air raid sirens.
When they went off, we panicked.
I remember very well
how our parents would wake us in the middle
of the night to wrap us in blankets.
My handicapped sister and
another sister were with us.
They yelled "Hurry, Hurry!"
and we would all run to the basement.
I remember when Paris was bombed
we took our gas masks
and ran to the basement.
We took flashlights and candles.
We hid until the sirens stopped.
It was very, very cold.
Children were crying and
I was shivering from the cold.
I only remember fear. I was always worried.
Those sounds scared me.
I don't like sirens.
I shook from the bomb noise.
I was terrified.
When alarms went off
we ran to the metro station
and brought our gas masks, some sugar and water
and slept in the metro until the alert passed.
During the Vel d'Hiv raid in July 1942
people started asking what they were
doing to children and the elderly.
They were taking them to Drancy on stretchers.
Until then Nazis hadn't arrested children
but then they rounded up everybody.
They separated children from their parents.
Nearly 100 children were sent to camps at
Pithivier and Beaune-la-Rolande.
These children and crying babies
had no one to take care of them.
People finally noticed.
These camps were in the center of the town.
In July 1942 a friend in the French police
warned us about a big raid
in our neighborhood the next day.
My mother took me to the train station and said:
Hold my hand but act like you don't know me.
Go to the woman I show you
and go away with her."
My mother told me not to say anything.
My father was hiding
but I didn't say a thing.
I didn't talk to anyone.
During the big raid of 1942
No one returned.
No one returned.
As citizens of neutral Turkey
We were protected but
bad things could still happen to us.
Between 1940 and 1941 we were under
Turkish government protection.
French and German laws
forced Jews to wear the yellow star.
Foreigners went to their consulates
and embassies to seek protection.
Those who had registered
were considered "legal" Jews.
Those who hadn't renewed their papers
or married to Turks and
hadn't registered at the embassy
were "illegal".
Both groups wanted to be under Turkish protection.
Each year my father went to the Turkish Embassy
to pay his fees to keep his Turkish nationality.
He was still arrested three times between 1939-1943.
Each time he was released
because of the Turkish Consulate.
Unregistered Jews couldn't prove Turkish citizenship.
They were taught a few Turkish phrases
and when they were asked about their missing papers
and if they spoke Turkish
they repeated the words
they had memorized only a few minutes earlier.
With these few sentences the Ambassador declared
they spoke Turkish. This was considered proof
of Turkish origin, and they got a document.
This freed them form camps and
spared them from the daily raids against Jews in Paris.
My parents always told me
"Never, never say you are Jewish.
"You are a Turk" "You are a Turk".
They repeated this constantly.
I was the only Jew in my school.
They were scared I might say something
They drilled me not to tell anyone I had a star.
Never.
This is what saved me in the neighborhood.
My aunt was living at
Limoges during the German occupation.
When the police came to arrest her family
her Turkish passport saved her and her two children.
and was deported.
We never found out what happened to him.
When the Germans announced
Selahattin lkmen contacted the SS General
on the island to tell him
Turkish Jews living there were Turkish citizens
and the Turkish constitution makes
no distinction of race or religion.
It wasn't easy to convince the German General
but he relented and 42 Jews were saved.
Many Turkish diplomats showed initiative
and risked their own lives
to save Jews from certain death.
I never wore the yellow star because
we were living in an occupied France and
recognized Turkish Jews
were exempt from wearing the star.
But several members of my family living in Paris
were arrested in the metro for not wearing
the yellow star despite being Turkish.
Our position became slightly privileged
Even though our identity papers were stamped "Jew"
we were not obliged to wear the yellow star.
This was a huge favor to us
thanks to the Turkish government
who intervened for us to the German authorities.
The fact that my father Fikret zdoanc
had quite good relations with the German General
von Choltitz worked in the Turkish "Jews" favor
All Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star
on their coats saying Jew.
This was compulsory.
My father argued forcefully with General von ChoItitz
to change this order.
They finally reached a compromise:
Turkish Jews would wear the yellow star on the inside
of their coats rather than the outside and
would no longer he banned from
restaurants and public places.
During the occupation we were relatively protected
and we didn't have to wear the yellow star because
my parents kept their Turkish nationality
One day, the Gestapo rang
our doorbell and asked for our papers.
He showed his documents. They saw the Turkish stamp
and said "Fine, fine," and they left.
We lived on the fifth floor when the Gestapo came
to arrest my father they never walked up the stairs
because the concierge always told them that
"Mr. Mizrahi is a Turk and
works for the Turkish Embassy."
This wasn't true.
The Turkish consulate told us
that they were protecting us
but said they could not always bu sure
what the Germans would do.
They told us don't go to parties
and he careful what you do.
The atmosphere was heavy.
We couldn't unimagine what was going
on inside concentration camps.
It was unimaginable.
Later they started detaining Jews.
I was coming out of the metro on the Champs Elysees
on 12th December 1941.
We didn't know it then but it was the start
of the first major round up of the Jews.
The police were ordered to arrest 1000 Jews that day.
They had lists and were seeking Jews in their homes.
But they didn't fill their quota
by raiding homes.
Around four or five that afternoon
they started rounding up Jews in the streets.
On the 11th of December 1941 , a German colonel
was killed on the bank of the Seine
The Germans instantly declared a curfew
starting at 6 pm.
The following day I met a friend
in a restaurant at the place de la Republique.
We arrived and sat down.
Suddenly we heard a noise.
Vehicles and motorcycles stopped
in front of the restaurant.
SS Came in and
demanded to see everyone's documents.
We pulled out our identity papers.
My identity card had "Jew" written in big red letters
I showed them my identity card and
took out my Turkish Consulate document.
He said in French:
"You may he Turkish, but you are Jewish".
They arrested me.
My friend was a Catholic and
I asked him to go and
tell my mother I had been arrested.
My mother went immediately to the Consulate
They told her not to worry and
they will do what ever they Could to solve this problem.
Coming out of the metro
German military police asked for my papers.
When he saw "Jew" written on them
and he told me to follow them.
I don't know how much later but we arrived
at the Compiegne station in the dead of night.
We got off the train.
We were surrounded by soldiers holding guns.
I think we marched in rows of five.
We didn't know where we were going.
We just marched.
It was winter December 1941 and very cold.
I was only wearing a coat.
The raids were a nightmare.
I think the big raid in the 11th district was in 1943.
The raids and arrests continued non stop, every day.
It was the atmosphere of that time.
There were warnings but the arrests never stopped.
There were bigger raids but this one made
the occupation all too clear.
I had many relatives in the quarter and
there were several dramatic scenes.
My cousin got married and her husband
was deported the day after the wedding.
The war atmosphere was very heavy, very difficult.
The German occupation, the raids...
Many people were sent to Auschwitz
but at the time I didn't know it was a death camp.
We thought it was a labour camp in Germany.
The fear came later.
We had no idea what would happen to us.
They transferred us to Drancy.
Drancy was a horror.
It was very hard life. Barracks with no heat.
We lived there six months with very little food.
It was very hard.
Later The Germans, of course I mean Nazis
imposed these shortages on everyone in Paris.
My sister was free and every week
she went to the Turkish Consulate
on Blvd. Haussmann to ask officials what they could do.
The Turkish Government wanted to protect
and save Turkish citizens.
A humanitarian act...
If you were Jewish you went to concentration camps.
What a pity!
Some among us died of cold or hunger.
people were ill, they were old, some had diabetes.
They couldn't withstand the cold.
The daily head count in the freezing cold
lasted three to four hours.
But I was 20 years old and I could bear this treatment.
We stayed there about fifteen days
with awful shortages.
Later the situation was the same for
the deported as for those who stayed.
There was nothing to eat.
We lived, if you can call that living
with nothing to do.
While at Drancy we were under pressure every day.
The daily headcount at Drancy was done in the garden
several times a day because
they were afraid that we might escape or be saved.
It was very difficult to stand for hours in the cold.
Everyday brought news someone had been sent to
Auschwitz to other camps or had died.
Wars occur but
when only one race is attacked, it is really horrific.
It is inhuman to kill someone for their religion
I think people later felt ashamed
they had allowed this to take place.
to be hungry is one thing.
But to feel you are dying of hunger is something hard
to understand for people who haven't experienced it.
We were ill from hunger.
It was very hard to live in fear
We were unhappy. Very unhappy.
It wasn't an ordinary camp.
It a a special camp. A selection camp.
The Germans didn't want to make
the mistake of killing everyone at once.
They could kill me.
Or sending me to Auschwitz.
It was a place of selection.
people were chosen, taken aside.
as who would not he killed were taken.
and a maximum 2,500 returned alive.
The Turkish Consulate came to get us out
about fifteen days after we arrived.
I was released after two and a half months
because I was a recognized Turk.
Later I learned my mother had gone to the Consulate.
After three months
in prison at Drancy they released my brother
just one week before being deported to Auschwitz.
He had lost half his body weight and
weak from hunger.
On February 6, 1941, a German soldier called me
after the morning count while I was in the cell.
He told me to follow him and bring my spoon
blanket and number made out of iron.
My number was 3233.
I entered an office with an high ranking officer
sitting there with a long list.
He said: "Lazare Rousso"
I said: "Yes." He said: "Sign here."
He stamped it and handed the paper to me
He said "You are free"
"Do you have any money, he asked.
I said I didn't have much.
He handed me a third class ticket to Paris.
The Consulate knew of the raids on the Jews and
had researched the dates.
They knew Jews had been detained and
one Turkish Jew was among them.
It was me.
This Turkish Jew had to be set free.
In occupied Europe
no country could defend its citizens.
Unfortunately this was also the case for France.
Turkey was the only country that stood up
while Jews were taken to camps to be killed.
At every turn, it bravely and
forcefully tried to protect its citizens.
I had the pleasure to meet Necdet Kent who had been
Turkish Consul in Marsille
during the war and did much to save
Turkish Jews from arrest and deportation.
He told me about an incident of
Jews who had been arrested
and forced to get on a train
for deportation to the death camps.
Kent boarded that train with them
and told the Germans:
"I'm going to the camp with them.
If you won't release them
you will have a problem with Turkey."
The Germans finally release these Turkish Jews.
One such diplomat was Necdet Kent
who was the Consul in Marseille.
about to be sent to death camps.
Kent boarded the train with them because
they were Turkish citizens.
The Nazis would not accept Kents explanation because
for them, Turk or not, a Jew was a Jew
and all Jews had to he deported.
At this point Necdet Kent and
his deputy boarded the train and said:
"Then we will accompany them all the way."
To avoid a diplomatic scandal
the Germans were forced to stop
the train at the next station.
They were forced to release the two diplomats and
the Turkish Jews with them.
Kent's action saved the lives of 81 Turkish Jews.
One day, when we were living in Marseille
I was playing in the garden of
the Turkish Consulate and
noticed a woman standing at
the front door with her children
who appeared very frightened.
My mother went to speak to her
and then let them enter the consulate.
A few minutes later the German secret police came
and knocked on the door.
One of them spoke to my mother
for five to ten minutes and left.
My mother then went up to my father's office
who was the Turkish Consul in Marseille at the time
and told him the woman's husband
had just then murdered
by the Gestapo in his home and
that she had come to the Consulate looking for help.
My mother said she could not turn the woman
and her children away and
my father then started to prepare
a Turkish passport for them.
They stayed for about a month
and then one day they left.
They then had Turkish nationality papers because
they could not have left the building without them.
On the day, a bus came to Drancy to pick us up.
We didn't know if we were going
to be sent to Auschwitz or another camp.
When the bus took us to the Hotel Lutetia in Paris
we knew we were going to be free
and sent back to Turkey.
I thank my sister who visited the Turkish Consulate
whose efforts got us and many other freed.
We had two nationalities.
Our photos were added to
our parent's Turkish passports and
we became three Turkish children.
We became Turkish through our family and
we traveled as Turkish citizens.
The Turkish Consulate knew my mother since 1933
when she married my father.
Hearing that Turks from
her family could return to Turkey
she went to the consulate to register.
But since I was born in France
and had only French nationality
The Consulate would not register me.
My mother had to visit
The Turkish Consulate many times
to get them to recognized as Turkish so that
I could travel with them back to Turkey
on the train that left in March 1943.
One day my sister told me that
The Turkey Consul told her that if we do not return
to the country of our birth that we would be left
like the French, to the mercy of the Nazis.
A year later I was summoned by
the Turkish Chancellery and told me:
"You have to return to Turkey to do your military service."
I would have had to leave my family behind in France.
But if I could get released, they would not be in danger.
I owed my life to Turkey and
without thinking I said "Yes, Sir!".
Cevdet Dlger was the Turkish Consul in Paris.
Namik Kemal Yolga was his deputy.
We believe they saved between
their photos to passports of Muslim Turkish students.
It was illegal, but legal...
The Jews in France were held
in a prison at Drancy outside of Paris.
and many of our Turkish Jews
were also imprisoned there.
Someone called my father
one day and said that many
of the Turkish Jews were about
to be deported to Germany.
My father went to the
German Military Headquarters and
found out the names of Turkish Jews being held and
then drove out to Drancy in his car
with blank passports and
issue them to the Turks who
were being held there just hours
before they were to be deported to Auschwitz
Another example is Behi Erkin
Ambassador to Vichy between 1940-1943.
His interventions saved the lives of many registered
and unregistered Turkish Jews.
Three months before the liberation
my father went to to the Turkish Consulate.
The Turkish Consul told him:
"If you want, you can go on the train back to Turkey."
The Consul or Ambassador
who was my fathers friend told him:
"Issac, we are preparing to declare war on Germany.
If you don't take the train back to Turkey
that's leaving in February 1944
we will not be able to protect you any longer."
My father came home and said:
"Children, we'll all die one day.
If we must die, let's all die together on this journey.
Let's board this train."
The Turkish Consulate sent a message
to mother saying that
Turkey will soon declare war against Germany.
They also said that after the declaration
they would not be able to protect us anymore
but they were organizing a train to Turkey
for Turkish Citizens in France.
So we went to Istanbul by train from Paris.
Near the end of 1943
The Turkish Consul told us
if we didn't return to Turkey
he could no longer protect us
so we decided to leave France.
The decision to go was not easy
but it was the only solution.
The journey took place in February 1944
in the middle of winter.
The embassy sent us a letter
and that's how we found out.
We didn't have a telephone at that time.
The news traveled by word
of mouth among the Turks.
Those who were recognized as
Turk were asked to report to the Consulate.
The consul gave my relatives a ticket and told them
they must pack up and go within two days.
She didn't want to leave immediately.
It was hard to leave everything behind.
It was difficult for my parents
but at the time it was not so hard for me.
Now I understand how they felt then.
In January February 1944, how did my family
decide to board a train full of Jews and
travel across Nazi Europe?
Despite their Turkish passports and being
protected by Turkey, how did they find
the courage to make such a choice?
My brother went to the consulate
to thank them.
The Consulate told him. "It's our duty."
After many visits to the Turkish Consulate
on the Blvd. Haussmann
we left with our Turkish documents
one morning in March 1944 from the Gare de l'Est.
It was very somber and
I rememher well the steam of the locomotive
there were few people in the station
but German soldiers everywhere.
We got on a normal passenger train with compartments
but there was only one rail car for us.
My father put me on the train and kissed my mother
and me goodbye.
I remember the humid kiss
and his mustache on my face.
He got off the train and
it was the last time I ever saw him.
I arrived at the station.
The train was a Mitropa, a luxury German train
with one Turkish rail car attached that had
a crescent and noon sign on the side.
We boarded at the Gare de l'Est.
I remember it very well.
But were our suitcases with us or go separately
This, I can't remember..
The train looked like a normal train with wagons. .
We were about 40 to 60 people on this train car
We stayed in France until Fehruary 1944
because that's when
the train for Istanbul was arranged
by Turkish government.
The journey took ten days.
The reason was that very 300-500 km.
the train had to link to another locomotive and
they weren't available.
The wagons were left at the depot
for two or three days
until a locomotive arrived.
We children were incredibly bored.
It was very cold and I was very scared.
Our train, which had several wagons
crossed the Balkans
was stopped at Sofia station, which was in flames.
We were stuck there.
I remember that I felt very cold in the train.
It was Fehruary as we crossed the Balkans.
There was ice on the windows
we couldn't see outside.
When the alarm sounded, we would he stopped.
There were several Children my age.
Sometimes we had fun.
I was seven and half years old.
So, for me it isn't a sad memory
for most of us it was an adventure.
I remember being escorted to the station
We boarded the train and sat for six days.
Some of us would get up so others could sleep.
We stopped at train stations to buy food and water.
I was very worried during this entire journey.
The atmosphere was tense.
At every train station there were German soldiers
who gave us conflicting orders to stop the train
or go into a depot.
We waited hours not knowing what might happen.
We feared the train could be diverted
to a concentration camp.
Nothing was impossible.
One day in in Hungary the train stopped.
We got off and took a few steps.
Next to me was a young woman carrying a baby.
All of a sudden train started moving.
But what if I had been left in Hungary
During war time a baby in my arms?
The Consulate official was with us
he counted and checked us.
Since we were on the passenger list there was
no problem but he kept track of us.
One parent told a German officer that
were a group of Turkish Jews.
Soon after, we heard orders in German
yelling Out! Out! and
we ended up standing in
a snowy field all night under guard
We were all very frightened.
Mr. Gahaille, our guide who jokingly
called our Fuhrer
finally explained to them in German and
we were able to continue our journey.
Every night at each stop the Germans came
with dogs and asked for our leader.
My father clicked his heels, gave a military salute and
introduced himself in German.
He showed the list of Jews.
My mother said:
"Say goodbye to your father.
It may he the last time you see him."
It happened every night.
As we were Jews returning to Turkey
this confused the Germans authorities.
Some of them wanted us to go back.
It was worrying
but it was settled and we were able to continue.
The trip was very uncomfortable.
We did not have heating
because we were in a military train
without water.
The toilets were overflowing and
we did not know how to service them.
We stopped frequently
so we could get off the train and
collect snow in metal cans for water.
people would talk and help each other.
Many people sat in the corridor.
We were stopped, maybe it was in Sofia.
It was a Balkan country, but I don't know which one.
We saw flames in the distance.
Many people were on the tracks
we saw German soldiers.
The person who was our guide
talked to German officials about
what we were doing and if we were Jewish.
Confusion arose I guess because
no one wore the yellow star.
But we all had written authorizations
and Turkish passports.
After waiting a night and a day
our train got moving again.
We waited two or three days
in the wagon and were bored.
I think there were two other children and me.
Once we were very bored and
one of us saw the alarm handle.
If we pulled the handle, what could happen?
The wagon uncoupled.
We were all asking each other who wanted to pull it
"Fine. I will do it." I said.
Nothing happened as the wagons weren't connected.
But the next day when we connected to another train
with electricity, the alarm rang.
The soldiers panicked.
Armed soldiers, a German station, a Jewish wagon
and alarm sounds in the Jewish wagon.
I think it was at Munich.
When young Albert Carel
pulled the alarm,
the sound hurt our ears and
enraged all the passengers of the train.
The Germans stormed into the wagon
to find what had happened.
Everyone got very scared in the train.
This journey normally takes three or four days
but for us it lasted ten days
because we were stopped at Stuttgart for
two or three days by bombing.
Around Sofia we were bombed.
It was very scary.
The roof of the train car was hit hy explosions.
All of my parents goods where in the baggage car
at the end of the train
which was completely destroyed.
Everybody was very frightened.
They had advised not to
bring heavy luggage into our compartment because
at the Bulgarian border the tracks
had been blown up and
we would have to walk at least 4 or 5 kilometers.
when we arrived in Sofia
the tracks had cut by the bombing.
We were stopped and couldn't go any further
While our train traveled in Bulgaria
local women wearing headscarves
would bring us bread and things to eat.
I was eight years old and I loved singing.
At family gatherings
my father felt nostalgic about the Bosphorus.
He tearfully sang Turkish songs.
One song stuck in my mind and I sang it on the train.
My mother went crazy.
In Turkish, she said: "How can you sing?"
But I still sang this little song.
It was a song I'd heard repeatedly.
I sang it because I loved singing very much.
"On top of my tent a drop splashed."
"Allah hasn't taken my soul."
It was something that I will always remember
the agony and horror of the cold and fog.
Everything was gray and foggy.
Something I will never forget.
It was a present that fell from the sky.
It was wonderful.
We found ourselves in Turkey completely free and
it was a joy to be there.
We arrived in this wonderful city of Istanbul and
it was an amazing discovery, a moment of liberation.
Turkish diplomacy saved my life.
If the Turkish Consulate had not made an agreement
with the Nazis and delivered passports to us
we would never have been able to travel to Turkey
and would have been arrested and deported.
I owe my life to them, that is undeniable
That is undeniable
Later we learned that eight trains left from Paris.
Two each in February, March, April and May.
The last one left in May.
We left on the last one or the one before last.
And one day we arrived in Istanbul,
fear was no longer there.
I left France as a fearful little girl.
I came to a warm country
that was enlightened in every sense of the word.
I spent an unforgettable two years there.
We no longer feared.
Life became again as it had been before
Normal.
Life for everyone.
No body ask you if you were Jewish, Catholic
Protestant or Muslim.
You were free.
I am forever grateful.
were reborn restarded our lives that day.
I can never forget the debt I owe to Turkey.
It is my second homeland.
I am Turkish and French . .
not French and Turkish.
Because I was reborn on the 24 April 1944.
If I had heen French, I wouldn't be live today.
Being Turkish saved my life.
I am quite certain of that.
I'm grateful because if my family hadn't then under
Turkey's protection and boarded that train
we could have been taken in one of the last raids.
We would not be alive now.
My father would tell us:
"Don't forget throughout your life that
the Turks saved our lives."
If my mother and the Turkish Consulate hadn't
intervened forcefully with the Germans
I would be dead now
and not talking to you about these events.
For me, being alive is a miracle.
When you look at the suffering
I could have died like all the others.
Thank you because my testimony
will tell posterity what happened.
It will show people really lived through these events,
it wasn't just imagined.
Everyone should know we owe being
here today to the Turkish government.
We have a duty to tell
this to our children, to all people.
They must know we are here today because
The Turkish government saved
the lives of Turkish Jews.
I explain what happened to me.
How these trains that left Paris
crossed Europe in flames and
brought us to this heaven of peace in Istanbul.
Few people know this, no one understands this.
I don't think that I can say anything more about this.
Thank you very much.