Over There: A Memoir

Weinstein, Lewis

OVER THERE: A MEMOIR A doyen of Die American Jewish community attends a reunion of the liberators of aris-and remembers LEWIS WEINSTEIN On Saturday, August 25, 1984, the City of Paris was to...

...Besides, my fluency had developed through two years of constant use in Algeria, London (with the free French) and Normandy...
...What is it...
...It was clear that to Parisians (|0n, after four years of Nazi occupation, was tantamount to the end .fine *ar y/e were heading toward the rail-i station of Montparnasse, up i enue d'Orleans into Boulevards ^ pail and Montparnasse...
...The captain gave details...
...Only a single bullet of the snipers came close to its mark...
...The Resistance of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior) was making headway in Paris, supported by police, bus driver, even undertaker strikes...
...He tore off the yellow star and put it in my hands, together with an envelope...
...The three of us stood at attention...
...We were escorted to within a few feet of the sanctuary in the cathedral, where an extraordinary mass was celebrated by Archbishop Jean-Marc Lustiger...
...They tell me your French is o.k...
...While I could locate no chaplain, I did find the small paperback prayerbooks published by the Jewish Welfare Board...
...Next, my joy that you can worship God in my church...
...amid the bunkers and barricades of the street battles, French flags were already flying over the Prefecture de Police and the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), near the site of the Bastille...
...We huddled closely...
...There was my jeep, its back loaded with barrack bags and bed rolls, the floor with gasoline-filled jerry cans, cases of rations and a motley array of gear...
...Cohen read the unconditional surrender document in French, then translated into English and German...
...Flags and arms and flowers waving...
...The German rear-echelon troops and French collaborators were not marksmen...
...I spent two additional days in Paris, visited two favorite small museums, the Rodin and the Orangerie...
...Soon the firing stopped and Germans mAmiliciens, with bewildered expressions, unbuttoned shirts and dishevelled hair, hands above their heads, were led into the boulevard and herded off as prisoners...
...At the synagogue I was greeted by Rabbi Rene Sirat, born in North Africa, now Chief Rabbi of France...
...Later I was to become Chief of Liaison of the European Theatre of Operations of the U.S...
...He began to sob, grabbed my hands, kissed them, covered them with tears, finally let go and disappeared in the crowd...
...I replied firmly, "Oui, mon general, je peux mefaire comprendre...
...As we approached Paris, the small clusters of people became multitudes...
...On Thursday, August 23, 1984, Bill telephoned me at my office: "Why don't you answer your mail...
...You're now one of us...
...During the Mourners' Koddish, the weeping turned to crying and wailing...
...And then it was dawn, and with it, our first view of the Chartres Cathedral with its glorious steeples, almost twins, but without its 12th-century stained glass windows (removed for safekeeping...
...Bill, then on the staff of Omar Bradley's 12th Army Group, helped arrange the delivery of food, fuel and medicine for the Paris civilian population, and handled the transportation from Algiers to Paris of the "Provisional Government of France...
...there would have been a slaughter...
...Bradley was alert...
...We were surrounded by hundreds of Parisians...
...Then he began asking questions...
...A man who had been edging forward through the crowd came alongside the jeep...
...It was about midnight, yet the streets were quite alive, and we were stopped about a dozen times by groups, mostly of young people, asking question after question...
...Not me, 1 can do it with two," was his happy rejoinder...
...But, if he insists that you talk French, do so-but you must first present yourself in English...
...De Gaulle's aide ushered me into a large room, probably a ballroom in peacetime, then completely bare except for several chairs and a table loaded with papers...
...You know most of the staff from London...
...The Germans had to surrender...
...And I answered: "Yes, there were French military leaders in addition to de Gaulle and Leclerc...
...With only minutes to spare I sank, exhausted, into my seat for the overseas flight, and promptly fell asleep...
...If I were there, I'd have one arm around a blonde from the Folies-Bergere and the other around a brunette from the Bal Tabarin, with a bottle of cognac in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other...
...I saluted and announced, "Major Weinstein reporting as American liaison officer to General de Gaulle...
...We sang "The Star Spangled Banner...
...I lunched and dined in a few favorite restaurants, had reunions with old friends and re-found a long-lost cousin who had, almost miraculously, escaped deportation from Drancy the very day before Liberation...
...On top of the heap sat my PFC jack-of-all-trades, small Charlie Leigh, 28, from North Carolina, experienced, enthusiastic and daring...
...a few seats away was the new Prime Minister of France, Laurent Fabius, aged 38, first Prime Minister born after World War II, whose parents had converted from Judaism, but whose wife is reported to be devoutly Jewish...
...The Resistance, the FFI, did a very good job...
...The "solemn" Friday service, sparsely attended-most of those present were either elderly or rather young-was dedicated to the memory of those who had been murdered by the Nazis and those who died in the fight for freedom against Hitler's barbarism...
...I sat in the midst of a very vocal group, obviously Gaullist and anti-Socialist...
...I had not heard a single specific reference to the United States...
...The archbishop described "the spiritual drama played out by the French...
...At the open church door I led the service for the capacity crowd of thirty or forty inside and the two or three hundred who had to stand outside...
...And we rushed food, medicines and fuel into Paris...
...Bells of the cathedral and other churches began ringing at half past nine in the morning, as they had 40 years earlier on the day after Liberation...
...General Walter Bedell Smith was General Eisenhower's Chief of Staff for ETOUSA...
...I responded that General Brad ley had set the limit at 48 hours...
...I was relieved and delighted when he clasped my hand, then put his arm on my shoulder, from up high to down below, and said, "Vraiment, le jourde gloire est arrive...
...We were lucky...
...Get yourself a jeep and driver, take along another enlisted man and find 'Big Charlie...
...We continued to the Montparnasse railroad station...
...He added: "Lucky you to be going to gay Paree...
...it grazed our spare tire...
...he understood what the entry of the French Division would do to morale and pride after the years of subjugation and humiliation...
...Bench infantrymen vaulted from half-trucks and crept into the buildings...
...The minister spoke out: "With the outbursts of a few of you (there were many) we will not have the unity that brought us victory 40 years ago...
...There he stood in front of a small table in the railroad waiting room...
...and booed...
...The sidewalk...
...Von Cholitz huddled with a few German officers, and then signed the Paper with a deep flourish and a snappy salute...
...Now for the real news...
...I described our plans for the supply of food and med cine and, later, fuel for the civilian population in Paris...
...They began singing the "Marseillaise...
...I made a few urgent calls, and dictated a long list of messages...
...De Gaulle gave a thunderous response, the English translation of which only remotely suggests the explosive French original: "With me, you will talk only in French, always in French, exclusively in French, solely in French and in nothing but French...
...The closing line was, "The dollar bill has no smell, but the Jew has...
...In front of him, behind the table, sat Generals de Gaulle, Leclerc, Leonard Gerow of the American V Corps, and Colonel Rol, Paris Chief of HieFFI...
...at the Porte d'Orleans, we found a densely packed, swarming, cheering crowd...
...My mind turned back to the Liberation service conducted by American chaplain Judah Nadich between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in 1944...
...Army (ETOUSA), where I administered the personnel system of thousands of American and foreign liaison officers and handled assignments that varied from significant to trivial, from carrying out meaningful diplomatic missions to being a glorified errand boy...
...Alongside the road, children were waving tiny American and French flags, yelling, "A bas les Bodies," "Vivent les Americains," and, with hands out: "Chewn gum...
...I yelled to the group that German snipers and French miliciens were still around and that they ought to get home before it was too late...
...France is a great nation...
...On the first Thursday after I landed, I had come upon a small church in Yvetot Bocage...
...And then he made the V sign...
...they left us reluctantly...
...toddlers perched on their parents' shoulders...
...slides and movies of 1944 street fighting by civilians and the Resistance forces, French soldiers and tanks, Germans surrendering, and, finally, the faces of Leclerc and de Gaulle growing in size until they were the height of the building, with the announcer exclaiming: "The citizens of Paris rose in unity and defeated the Nazi marauders...
...Bradley has Ike's o.k...
...A woman handed Charlie Leigh an infant, which he kissed on both cheeks...
...Et alors...
...My summer jacket was still a good fit...
...My answer was: "I shall report your request to General Bradley...
...The "bill" opened-and there in the middle was a yellow star of David and within it the French words: "This dollar is worth nothing unless signed 'Mor-genthau,' the Jewish Minister of Finance, related to international Jewish financiers...
...O'Brien took a deep swerve to the right, whipped the jeep onto the broad sidewalk, and stopped dead right behind a large tree...
...I called upon Father Maillot...
...I sang, too...
...And little wonder, for I clearly recalled that from the front of the Hotel de Ville, at the very spot of the gala just concluded, de Gaulle had 40 years earlier pronounced these words: "Paris outraged, Paris martyrized, but Paris freed by itself, freed by its own peo-pie with the aid of the armies of France...
...His eyes were sunken deep...
...The soldiers cheered...
...Next to me sat General Leclerc's widow and daughter...
...You heard it...
...He had created an image of liberation that, part myth, part reality, became an essential element of the French consciousness...
...The same synagogue had then been filled practically to the rafters', all the seats taken and the aisles crowded...
...America had other outstanding allies who made significant contributions toward victory...
...And last, my blessings and my hopes for a speedy victory...
...No, no," interrupted Bill, "the invitation from Mayor Chirac of Paris...
...I added: "General Eisenhower sends you his wannest greetings and rejoic, with you in this magnificent day which will forever live in the historj of France...
...My remarks were punctuated by the distant crack of bullets and roar of artillery...
...The opposition rose and there was more booing and shouting...
...Our arsenal consisted of O'Brien's carbine, Leigh's submachine gun, my Colt 45 pistol and plenty of ammunition...
...It was a neat printing job...
...I replied to your last letter...
...De Gaulle is at Rambouillet" (the summer presidential "White House" about 20 miles west of Paris...
...Don't get into any talk about 'de facto' and 'de jure' recognition, and avoid politics and diplomacy like the plague...
...balconies jammed...
...I reported that I had given his aide a map showing Ameri can petrol depots...
...A girl rushed forward with a large American flag...
...The village cure, Father Maillot, gave me permission to conduct a Jewish service there the next evening, with blankets covering the Christian religious symbols...
...We had to save mankind, to save all men, including our enemies, from this suicidal fascination and the shackles of collective murder...
...I had been sandek, godfather, at his son's circumcision in 1945...
...You're not the State Department...
...They jjrrie from °Pen windows on the top Doors of the buildings on our left, •rhe bullets bounced off the de Gaulle and Koenig cars...
...In our open jeep, „e were sitting ducks...
...nearby were several leaders of the Resistance with whom I had dealt actively in 1944, including Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Colonel Rol...
...Later, the three of us sought sleep on the floor of the back room of a cafe...
...Leigh and O'Brien remained outside Leclerc's "headquarters...
...When the Minister of National Defense referred in his speech to President Mitterand (who had not been at any of the ceremonies), many of those around me yelled, "Pas de Politique...
...he responded and I translated: "First, my deep gratitude to you for our liberation...
...General Leclerc expects the acte de redditi^ at about three...
...And we prevented Communism from taking over Paris...
...And I also thought back to my first service in Normandy early in the summer of 1944...
...The front was a copy of a typical Federal Reserve Note with the picture of George Washington, and the back was green with the American seal...
...After the surrender, a brief chat with the French generals and General Gerow, and a "request" from de Gaulle that I be at the Ministry of National Defense at nine that evening, I pushed into the swarming crowds who made way for me to reach my jeep...
...Here we are once again on our feet as vie-tors...
...The 4th Division cleared half the circumference around Paris...
...The three of us jumped out, and began firing away at the snipers...
...It was a critical element in the rebuilding that was required after the Occupation...
...I noticed on his | jacketayellow, six-pointed star of David, with the word "Juif in black letters simulating Hebrew script, the yellow identification badge that the Nazis had resurrected from the Middle Ages...
...We were soon at the General Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris...
...The archbishop, born a Jew, was saved from the Nazis and converted at age 14...
...A narrow lane between the masses was just wide enough for our vehicles to squeeze through...
...ladders holding more than their load...
...Standing were several newspaper correspondents, a photographer, French and American officers and a corporal named Cohen who came with Gerow...
...Get that extended," he pronounced...
...When I awoke, the sun was rising...
...You represent General Eisenhower and the American Army...
...Then came my outline of the arrangements that had been made for de Gaulle's entry into Paris...
...I have never been so moved by a religious service before or since that momentous day...
...the general asked...
...But I can't say that they alone liberated Paris...
...for Leclerc's Second French Armored Division to enter Paris, with the heavier elements marching through the Porte D'Orleans...
...So we dumped the colonel and picked you, Major...
...He told me he had sent you the same invitation he sent me, to be in Paris for Liberation Day, and, when he didn't hear from you, he assumed you were dead...
...Listen carefully...
...Stephenson of North Carolina, and me to join in the festivities...
...Like a bolt came the question: "Est-ce que vous ne parlezpas francais...
...He made more "requests...
...OVER THERE: A MEMOIR A doyen of Die American Jewish community attends a reunion of the liberators of aris-and remembers LEWIS WEINSTEIN On Saturday, August 25, 1984, the City of Paris was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its liberation from four years of Nazi occupation...
...The rest was a vicious anti-Semitic diatribe against the United States and the "Jewish War...
...The responses were warm, even affectionate...
...After some additional instructions,'Smith commanded: "Get going...
...I was taken aback...
...And soon the memories of what had happened 40 years agobegan flooding back...
...I answered...
...Early on Saturday, August 25, 1984, the 40th anniversary day, ceremonies began at "Les Invalides...
...Because both of us had played a role in the events of that unforgettable 1944 day, the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, invited my friend and colleague, Colonel William A.F...
...uniform into my bag...
...they did more than just help...
...He turned his back to me, then wheeled around, and walked toward me...
...We didn't want another fiasco like Admiral Darlan in North Africa...
...Rabbi Nadich spoke in excellent Yiddish and good French in a stirring address that articulated freedom from slavery, victory from defeat and release from fear and terror...
...he is reported to be a close friend of Pope John Paul II and President Mitterand...
...Walking back to our hotel, Bill and I were aware that only once during the evening's events had there been a reference to the Allied Forces...
...Several Leclerc tanks entered the fray and raked the windows from which the enemy had fired, back and forth...
...Let me read you from the War Department cable: 'The liaison officer should have a rank not higher than colonel, must present himself to de Gaulle in English . . ."'1 cleared my throat...
...In 40 years I had shrunk more than two inches...
...I never got it...
...beside me in front was the driver, Steve O'Brien, 20, from Seattle, six feet, red haired and freckled, silent...
...There was no time to try it on...
...His command postj8 at the Gare de Montparnasse...
...In half an hour, I was ready...
...voices singing and yelling...
...At Rambouillet, in the courtyard of the chateau, O'Brien parked our muddied jeep between Eisenhower's and Bedell Smith's sparkling sedans, loaned to Generals de Gaulle and Pierre Koenig...
...And so, circuitously in order to avoid the areas of combat, we set off for Le Mans...
...I yelled and pointed...
...The French people defeated the enemy...
...Vive Leclerc, Vive de Gaulle...
...But politics soon disappeared...
...I disabused him of the notion...
...I replied, "Certainement...
...At the base of a roadside crucifix were overturned German Tiger tanks, ammunition boxes and empty shells, children playing hide-and-seek around them...
...The people hung on...
...At home, I threw my "summer dress" Lewis Weinstein is an attorney in Boston .He has served as president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and in many other leadership positions both in Boston and nationally...
...Yes, sir," I replied...
...On the other side of me sat the French Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of National Defense and Mayor Chirac...
...On August 24, 1944, in his trailer in Normandy, Smith punched out his words to me: "We had picked a colonel, a re-tread from World War I, as the Old Man's liaison officer to de Gaulle...
...The Leclerc Division must remain in Paris...
...In the envelope I found an American dollar bill...
...And I remembered Winston Churchill's epithet: "The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine...
...And when he began making requests-which began to sound more and more like orders-my answers were, "Comme vous le desirez" or "Selon vos ordres" or "A vos desires" or vari ations...
...After a day filled with receptions, citations, parades, we went to the Hotel de Ville for the gala-and still more receptions, speeches, music and spectacles...
...Then came a superb Sound and Light presentation against the white facade of the City Hall with the volume of sound ranging from whispers to thunder...
...t My reminiscences of the past were cut short as Bill awoke...
...The man blurted out in French: "I'm the last of my family...
...Bill read me the invitation, and added: You've got to be on tonight's flight...
...I joined representatives of the Jewish community, the municipal and national governments, the Catholic hierarchy and Moslems as well, most in their vestments, following Rabbi Sirat and other rabbis and walking between two rows of flags-of the United States, France and numerous French military units...
...Bill and I slept late the next morning...
...Yes, the Americans helped...
...The rest went to Drancy [the deportation center near Paris...
...He turned out to be a buddy of Petain, a friend of Laval and the rest of that ilk...
...Suddenly j^heard the crack of bullets...
...You'll join our column into Paris...
...His command post will be the Montparnasse Railroad Station...
...Quoting from the "Marseillaise," I added to General d Gaulle, "The day of glory has arrived...
...his mother died in a death camp...
...I swallowed and answered: "A vos ordres, mon general...
...Well," continued Bill, "when I didn't hear from you, I telephoned him...
...He was about 40, bald, slight, almost emaciated...
...There, at the gate, was a Sherman tank with the cross of Lorraine, de Gaulle's insignia...
...The rabbis and the flag bearers mounted the bimah and we faced them...
...The crowd roared its approval...
...Rabbi Sirat's sermon was brief, erudite, articulate and moving, emphasizing the tragedy to Jews of the occupation and the meaning of survival...
...I described the radio and transportation facilities that had been provided for the General and his entourage-85 vehicles and two radio stations, one manned by French and the other by French-speaking Americans...
...I never checked, but I strongly suspect that if I had tried my uniform trousers on just before I left Paris, they'd no longer have been too short...
...De Gaulle managed very well with English in London...
...On the Day of Liberation, I accompanied General de Gaulle into Paris as Eisenhower's liaison officer...
...His words were staccato...
...He flew to London...
...The Seine, north and south of Paris, had been cut by American troops...
...Majestic, cold and overbearing, he watched as I approached...
...Probably the greatest were Koenig, DeLattre de Tassigny and Juin...
...I gav numerous details...
...Then he discussed the need to eliminate the possible Communist threat to Paris with so many cells in FFI...
...He stared at me, then asked, "Vous etes Israelite, n'est-ce-pas...
...I didn't want false modesty to deprive me of a juicy assignment...
...The captain pointed out, on a detailed map of Paris, the buildings the FFI had taken...
...I had recommended this in Normandy...
...the General looked up...
...When I led the men in the Mourners' Kaddish, all of the soldiers rose and joined me, some sobbing and weeping...
...Behind the table, at the far end of the room, stood General Charles de Gaulle...
...When we arrived at the Hotel de Ville, Mayor Chirac's secretary suggested that I get back to the hotel, change into my uniform and hurry to the Grand Synagogue on Rue de la Victoire...
...That would take four arms," I pointed out...
...bright dresses, high coiffures, short skirts...
...Friday, August 24, 1984...
...We slowed down to a crawl...
...1 entered in time to witness the surrender of Paris by General Von Cholitz...
...General De Guillebon (who had been deputy to Leclerc in 1944) drove Bill and me to the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris...
...faces joyous...
...After the service, the archbishop, the mayor and the prime minister were warm in their welcomes...
...And de Gaulle's moral leadership, courage and stamina kept French hopes high and the spirit of liberty alive...
...The 104th and other American units cleared the rest...
...At breakfast on Friday, August 25, 1944, with a G-2 captain, we learned that two American Divisions, the 4th and 104th Infantry, had cut the Seine north and south of Paris and encircled the city and that the Overlord Plan-to bypass Paris and head directly toward the Rhine-had been changed...
...I solved the problem by doubly tucking my trousers at the waist under the jacket...
...I gave a summary of the latest intelligence: "The reports on the German surrender by Von Cholitz are premature...
...I was delighted...
...Et alors...
...Then I saw it was not real currency but counterfeit...
...But the trousers were too long...
...I managed a short talk with (retired) Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, the General's son...

Vol. 10 • March 1985 • No. 3


 
Developed by
Kanda Sofware
  Kanda Software, Inc.