View from Thairy, looking north, 2008. (The town of Norcier is on the left; Switzerland is in the background.) © Nancy Lefenfeld.
In Nazi Hands
Mila’s Arrest
In October, 1943, the border area located directly northeast of the town of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois became a favored crossing point of the MJS team. The team would pass groups of children from Norcier, France, across the border, into the municipality of Soral, Switzerland (part of the canton of Geneva).
Why did this area become a favored crossing point? We really don’t know. When I visited Norcier, years ago, I found it interesting that many of the dwellings were built as compounds. The compound consists of a residence with adjacent or adjoining agricultural structures (used for storage of equipment, animals, bales of hay, etc.) Typically, the compound is surrounded by a high stone wall. In many cases, tall trees or bushes inside the wall further obscure any view of the interior. The village struck me as a place where one could readily hide a group awaiting a nighttime border crossing. I wondered if a resident or residents had, at one time or another, helped the MJS team achieve their mission.
Late in the evening of October 21, 1943, Mila was attempting to pass a group of seven people across the border. A second member of the MJS team – a young man named Roland Epstein, who had joined the team in September – was accompanying the group as well. The composition of the group was atypical: in lieu of unaccompanied children, it was comprised of an older couple, two mothers with young children, and a grandmother of one of the young children. While crouched in the grass, they suddenly found themselves ambushed and fired upon by German soldiers. The grandmother was killed.
Photo: Typical Walled Compound in Norcier, 2008. © Nancy Lefenfeld.
Mila was carrying false papers that identified her as a young Catholic student. For three weeks, She was held in a makeshift German prison, referred to as the “Pax Prison,” in the town of Annemasse. She was interrogated during that time. Subsequently, she was transferred to the notorious Fort Montluc prison in Lyon. Fort Montluc was administered by Nikolaus (“Klaus”) Barbie, the brutal head of the Gestapo in the region who became known as the “Butcher of Lyon.” Thousands were confined to the prison during the final eighteen months of the Occupation. Many prisoners died as a result of torture or execution, and most others were deported to Nazi concentrations camps.
Thirteen Months in Ravensbrück
On the night of January 30, 1944, Mila was among a group of 957 women prisoners sent by train from the Royallieu-Compiègne internment and deportation camp in France towards an unknown destination. The women prisoners were, for the most, members of networks engaged in resistance activities and others accused of having carried out acts of resistance or of having, in some way, helped resisters.
In the early morning hours of February 3, the train arrived at the small station of Fürstenberg/Havel, 90 minutes north of Berlin. The women were led, on foot, around the perimeter of a lake, to a camp whose name they did not know until they saw it written on a signpost in Gothic letters: Rävensbruck.
Rävensbruck was the largest camp that the Nazis built specifically for the purpose of incarcerating women. When the camp was placed into operation, in 1939, it was designed to hold 3,000 prisoners. Survivor testimony and historical analyses indicate that, in the early years (1939 – 41), conditions in the camp were, generally speaking, survivable. Although subjected to harsh treatment and difficult physical labor, the prisoners received regular rations, adequate clothing, and rudimentary medical care.
By the time Mila and her compatriots arrived, in February 1944, the situation had changed dramatically. Although the camp had been expanded, the prison population of approximately 18,000 well exceeded the camp’s capacity. Overcrowding and shortages of food, adequate clothing, and medical clothing had caused the death rate to climb.
Throughout 1944, conditions in the camp grew even more dire. The prison population more than doubled. Overcrowding and the absence of clean clothing and facilities for adequate hygiene led to epidemics of typhus and dysentery. At times, prisoners went without food, and medical care was essentially nonexistent. Executions of prisoners – mainly by shooting – had been carried out in the camp prior to 1944. In 1944, however, camp administrators experimented with, and employed various means of killing prisoners whom they deemed unfit for work (the sick, weak, or elderly).
Until East and West Germany were reunited, in 1990, the site of the former Ravensbrück concentration camp was located in East Germany. It was the Red Army that had liberated the camp in April 1945. After the war, the army used most of the former camp site as a military post. The post operated for nearly fifty years and was finally dismantled in 1994. Consequently, prior to 1995, few people had a chance to visit the Ravensbrück site.
Photo: Small structure preserved in Mahn- und Gedenkstatte Ravensbrück. © Nancy Lefenfeld, 2001.
Photo: Small structure preserved in Mahn- und Gedenkstatte Ravensbrück. Photo © Nancy Lefenfeld, 2001.
Photo: Small structure preserved in Mahn- und Gedenkstatte Ravensbrück. © Nancy Lefenfeld, 2001.
None of the wooden barracks that housed the prisoners during the war still exist; all were demolished years ago. The large, open area bordered by trees shown in this panoramic photo is a key feature of the memorial: it marks the area – one might say the hallowed ground – on which the former prisoner barracks were located.
Photo: Location of prisoner barracks that no longer exist. Mahn- und Gedenkstatte Ravensbrück. © Nancy Lefenfeld, 2001.
Ravensbrück is situated on the east side of a large lake called the Schwedtsee. At the edge of the lake, a massive bronze sculpture stands atop a granite pedestal that rises approximately twenty feet in the air. The work, created by German artist Will Lammert, is called “Tragende” (“Woman Carrying”). It depicts a tall, gaunt woman carrying the body of another in her arms. The carrier holds her head erect, casting her gaze forever outward, across the surface of the lake. The lake holds the ashes of tens of thousands of women who died in the camp and whose bodies were burned in the camp’s crematorium ovens.
In the early months of imprisonment in Ravensbrück, Mila was able to correspond with family members. She received a few letters, postcards, and packages; and she was able to send them at least two short letters. Prisoner communication – incoming as well as outgoing – was subjected to scrutiny and censorship by camp officials. Thus, all who corresponded had to maintain an upbeat tone and restrict their comments to the most anodyne subjects.
We would know very little about what Mila experienced during the thirteen months she spent in Ravensbrück were it not for the fact that she forged strong friendships with other prisoners. Not all of Mila’s closest friends survived the war. However, several who did survive felt compelled to speak and write about Mila, in order to testify to her courage, fortitude, and inclination to help others. Their heartfelt words of admiration and love can be found in a number of public and private documents, including memoirs, bulletins and magazine articles, transcriptions of public speeches, and personal letters.
Photo: Sculpture entitled “Tragende,” created by Will Lammert, late 1950s. Mahn- und Gedenkstatte Ravensbrück. Photo © Nancy Lefenfeld, 2001.
Photo: Eastern shore of Schwedtsee Lake. Mahn- und Gedenkstatte Ravensbrück. © Nancy Lefenfeld, 2001.
The Final Days – March 1945
On March 2, a large group of Ravensbrück prisoners were sent, by train, to an unknown destination. Many of those assigned to the transport were French women classified as “NN” prisoners, signifying “Nacht und Nebel” (Night and Fog). The Nazi regime assigned that designation to those whom they deemed to have committed offenses that endangered German security or its state of readiness. The NN prisoner was not only sentenced to execution at some unspecified date but was destined to disappear without a trace, into the night and fog.
Four of Mila’s closest friends were designated NN and were included in the transport. Mila and two others who were not NN slipped into the group. The seven thought of themselves as a family and did not want to be separated.
Tightly packed into cattle cars, the women traveled in darkness for five days, struggling to survive the cold, without food and with little water. They finally reached the camp of Mauthausen, in Austria, a fortress-like complex that housed a large, brutal enterprise centered around a quarry.
Not long after their arrival, on March 20, Mila and the other six members of the “family” were sent by train to the nearby town of Amstetten, to clear rubble from the tracks of a marshalling yard. The yard had been damaged by bombs dropped by Allied forces. That afternoon, American planes bombed the area once again. Mila and four other “family” members were among 36 women prisoners of Mauthausen who were killed during the attack.
The marshaling years at Amstetten were not a target of great strategic importance to the Allies. The deaths of Mila and her fellow prisoners seemed to me to be completely senseless, and I felt compelled to understand, as best I could, how such a tragedy could have happened. This led me to obtain and study a number of mission reports prepared by the various bomb groups that had carried out the raid, which are preserved in the United States Air Force Historical Agency.
Painting by Daniella Wexler Racine.
MILA'S LEGACY
Nelly Gorce was a close friend of Mila’s in Montluc and Ravensbrück. In her extraordinary memoir, Journal de Ravensbrück, she speaks of Mila often, referring to her as “Miane.” On July 3, 1945, after Ravensbrück had been liberated and Nelly had been returned to France, she wrote a lengthy, heartfelt letter to Emanuel (Mola) Racine in which she struggled to express how important Mila been to her and others and to convey her feelings of grief and sympathy to the Racine family. Here are a few excerpts from the letter:
I will not tell you how great my pain had been on learning of her tragic fate. She was killed with another of our close friends, Hélène Mion, whom I mourn as well. Over 18 months, we never left each, exchanging all of our thoughts, our fears, our hopes. We were separated in mid-February, at which time I entered the infirmary having typhus. It was that which saved my life. The first week of my illness, Mila and Hélène sat on my bed in order to distract me a little…
Je ne vous pas dirai pas quelle a été ma douleur en apprenant son sort tragique. Elle est morte avec une autre de nos amies intime, Hélène Mion, que je pleur également. Pendant 18 mois nous ne nous étions pas quittes échangeant toute nos pensées, nos criantes, nos espoirs. Nous avons été séparés à la mi-février, date a laquelle je suis entrée à l’infirmière ayant le typhus. C’est cela qui m’a sauvé la vie. La première semaine de ma maladie, Mila et Hélène venaient sur mon lit pour me distraire un peu…»
Mila organized for the young women 'scout camps' where we would sing and divert ourselves as best as we could as well as a choral group that showed off her immense talent. For Christmas, it was authorized to go and sing among the sick. Needless to tell you of the emotion of these poor women and the reverence they held for your sister. Mila was, moreover, unanimously loved and valued. We recognized in her a great moral worth and an active intelligence that permitted her never to abandon herself but to foster serious conversations, on the most varied subjects, where everyone contributed the most of oneself.
Mila organisa parmi les jeunes des 'camps scouts' où nous chantions et nous distrayons de notre mieux et une chorale qui vous révolu son grand talent. Pour Noël elle fut autorisée à aller chanter parmi les malades. Inutile de vous dire l’émotion de ces pauvres femmes et le culte qu’elles vouaient à votre sœur. Mila était d’ailleurs unanimement aimée et estimée. Nous lui connaissions une grande valeur morale et son intelligence active lui a permis de ne jamais de laisser aller, mais multiplier les causeries sérieuse sur les sujets les plus variés où chacune donnait le plus n’elle-même.