Lessons We Can Learn From History: The Jewish Holocaust

 

By Donna Wichelman

Part I of a two-part article on the Jewish Roundup of 10 January 1944 in France. (Originally posted on February 4, 2024 as part of a series on World War Two.)

In October 2023, I had the privilege of interviewing four people from Libourne, 
France, where my Historical World War II Slip-time novel is set. Sadly, two of them have passed away--Monsieur René Avril and Madame Marie-José Delage. You can access their stories at the June 4th Blog and August 4th Blog, 2026 blog posts. But this past May, I had the opportunity to visit with Madame Josette Melinon once again to thank her for sharing her story with me about her family's tragic loses as Jews living in France during the German occupation between June 1940 and August 1944 in Bordeaux.

Donna and Madame Josette Melinon: Donna's Archives, October 2023

This past 10 January 2026 marked the 82nd anniversary of the 10th of January 1944 roundup of Jews in German-occupied France. It’s with that in mind that I continue my series on the German Occupation of France during World War II by turning to a topic that many of us find difficult to acknowledge because it’s so horrific. Yet, we can't ignore that the Holocaust existed and six million Jews were annihilated by war's end. Though many in our present-day world try to sweep it under the carpet or deny it ever happened, the preponderance of the evidence is inescapable.

2024 Commemoration Events of the 80th Anniversary of the 10 January 1944

So, when I entered Madame Josette Melinon's house on 9 October, 2023, I knew her story would be sobering. Indeed, Madame Melinon’s passion for what happened to her relatives during the occupation took hold in 2004 when one of the teachers in the middle school nearby took a class to see an exhibition of the Jewish children deported to a town called Oświęcim near the German/Polish border. We know the place as the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Among the children they saw was a young lady who was from their hometown of Libourne, and they wanted to learn more about her.

The teacher posted an article in the local newspaper asking if anyone knew about the young lady. Madame Melinon read the article and recognized the girl as Myriam Errera, her mother’s cousin. The teacher organized a meeting and invited Madame Melinon and her older sister, giving them the opportunity to read a letter to the group. In the letter, she told of her own arrest along with her parents and sister during the Roundup on 10 January 1944 in the Bordeaux region of occupied France. The telling of that story began a journey that Madame Melinon has continued to this day.

According to Wikipedia, the Roundup of 10 January 1944 was the fourth and final roundup of Jews in the Aquitaine between July 1942 and January 1944. Before the war, more than five thousand Jews had lived in Bordeaux, many of them refugees who had fled Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1940. Maurice Papon, then secretary general of the Gironde and future minister of the Fifth Republic, organized the roundup, detaining 335 men, women, and children. On 12 January 1944, 317 people were taken to Drancy Internment Camp in northern France and later that month sent to Auschwitz.

Newspaper Article About the Roundup of Jews in Paris 1941, Madame Josette Melinon's Archives

Nazi Flag on the Libourne Town Hall During the Occupation, Libourne City Archives

“I was at home with my sister,” Madame Melinon, who was a young girl at the time, said. “After dinner, my father was listening to the English radio at our friends’ house. When the Germans arrived, my mother ran to the garden to tell my father what was happening. I can remember the picture in my memory—the picture of the German boots that went upstairs in our house, which affected me because we weren’t allowed to go upstairs with our shoes on. But they were going up with their boots on.

“When they [the soldiers] arrived on the first floor (second floor in the United States), they followed my mother into her bedroom and said to her, ‘Knickers baby. Knickers, baby.’ And she gave them all of her knickers.

“We had to walk along the road that goes down to the river while it was raining, and there were five or six Germans in front of us. My mother held my hand very tightly. But when we arrived at the prison, I remember straight stairs leading up and walls that were a very dirty pink. The stairs came out onto a room with people I knew—most of them family— and my grandmother sitting on a bench. They all passed me around and kissed me, and I felt stifled without understanding what was happening.”

Prison Where Madame Melinon and Her Family Were Taken, the Association Libournaise Souvenir Myriam Errera

Madame Josette Melinon was one of the eighteen people, including her father and sister, who did not ride with the others to Drancy. If it had not been for quick thinking by her father, her story would have ended that night.

You see, Madame Melinon’s mother’s side of the family was Jewish—her great-grandmother from eastern France was Ashkenazi, and her great-grandfather was Sephardic from Portugal. Her father’s side, however, was Catholic. Her mother and father had initially decided to raise the oldest child (her sister) in the Catholic faith and the second (Josette) in the Jewish faith. But events changed all that.

Three days and two nights passed until her father could find papers proving he was not a Jew. In addition, he found a priest who risked backdating a baptismal certificate for Josette and located baptismal certificates going back seven generations as required by the German SS.

Josette and Her Father 10 January 1944, Madame Melinon's Archives

Josette's Baptismal Certificate, Madame Melinon's Archives

The baptismal certificates were enough to prove that Josette’s father, sister, and Josette were Christians, and the Nazis let them go. But what happened to Josette’s mother and the rest of her relatives, including Myriam Errera, the girl whose picture the middle school students saw? Moreover, how and why did the Association Souvenir Myriam Errera come to exist? And what are the lessons we can learn from history in the 21st century?

Read the rest of Madame Melinon’s story in Part II about this dreadful era in our world’s history.

See also: this French newspaper article.

Donna is an Angel Book Award-winning author of Historical Romance for A Song of Deliverance. Rhythms of the Heart, Book 2 is an interconnected stand-alone set in the same Victoria mining community of Georgetown, Colorado.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before becoming a full-time writer. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. Her romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. 

Donna and her husband of forty-one years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.