My parents had lived in France for thirteen happy years, the best of their lives. They’d lost their house, possessions, and more seriously in the long term, my father had lost his job. He’d been working for an American company and the Americans at that stage of the war were still neutral. (Roosevelt’s refusal to help the French when they appealed to him in June 1940 was a contributory factor in their defeat. The Americans didn’t enter the war against Germany until 1942). But there wasn’t much time for adjustment: within a few weeks the Blitz had started, by which time we were living under one of the flight-paths in and out of London. More disruptive fr0m a child’s point of view, I had to change schools several times. None of the friends I tried to make seemed in the least interested in what had happened in France, so I rapidly learned not to speak about what I thought of as my great adventure.
This lack of interest was understandable; Britain expected to be invaded herself at any minute. One or two personal accounts of the Exodus like Werth’s were rushed out in 1940 and Arthur Koestler, who escaped from France to England at this time by a different route, wrote The Scum of the Earth , a nightmarish account of being hunted down for his political beliefs. His book was published in 1941 and has recently been reprinted. Over the years, too, French and British historians have added a body of research and analysis to this darkest period in France‘s history. Hanna Diamond’s Fleeing Hitler: France 1940, published in 2007, contains a wealth of memories from people who took part in the Exodus. When I picked this book up for the first time, I was struck by the photograph on its jacket, which shows a farm cart laden with furniture and mattresses being pulled along a road by a man in shirt sleeves. In the foreground, pushing the cart with all their strength are four children; the oldest, glancing back, is a girl of about ten, the other three like me at that time, eight years old.
Reading older people’s accounts of the events of 1940, I’ve been surprised to see how accurately my own child’s view fits in with theirs. The memories are like vivid snap shots with bigger gaps, obviously, but the essentials are in place. Historical accounts usually portray children as victims, but I am sure many children were like me, and saw themselves as participants. They sensed their powerlessness but that didn’t make them disengaged. The tragic fall of France in 1940 was characterised by mass shared emotions; millions to the left or right in politics, of every age and social class, all shared in an overwhelming sense of loss, fear and an almost surreal disbelief that what was going on around us could actually be happening. Young though we were, we children shared the emotions of that tragic moment in French history. Those who experienced it, whatever their age, cannot, and will not, forget.
You can read Daphne Wall’s account of her escape through France by clicking here.
Dear Mrs. Wall: His memories of his journey on the boat Madura is very interesting and enlightening, I’m Spanish and I live in the city of Badajoz near the Portuguese border and the border in the summer of 1940 came to Portugal a number of people fleeing the Germans, my father told me that in those days, had to make a car trip along the main road from Badajoz to Madrid and at some point between Badajoz and Merida saw a car stopped on the roadside with a flat tire, the my father’s car stopped and the driver by signs told him he repaired the tire, as it was, the driver gave him over 100 pesetas, in those days a small fortune, the car’s occupants damaged were a couple with a young daughter, my father remembered they had all rumpled clothes, face much cansancioy the car carrying the suitcases full rear seat and the roof. The three were traveling in the front seat. They parted by signs and continued to Badajoz and Portugal. My father recalled that the car was a Citroen Traction Avant. What would this couple and their daughter? Only God knows what.
Regarding the Madura I had to make certain inquiries due to a very strong suspicion that the Spanish journalist Manuel Chaves Nogales, is transshipped from the destroyer HMS Berkeley in the company of Genevieve Tabouis, Pertinax and Emile Buré and wife.
haves Nogales arrives in London, working for the Allied cause, died in London in May 1944.
Also another very important journalist Emery Reves, literary agent Winston Churchill says in the book, “Winston Churchill and Emery Reves Correspondance 1937-1964″ the following: When I fled from Paris in June 1940 “I wrote take (the author book) my office and all my possesions Were taken away by the Gestapo, and when to I boarded a British destroyer in Bordeaux I was not allowed to take me more than a toothhbrush and pajamas. Reves did manage to carry the Thyssen manuscript with Him on board ship. The destroyer sailed down the Gironde, Where He was Transferred by ship to England That Took him.
Kindest regards from Badajoz.
Dear Daphne
I’ve just finished reading your book, which I found fascinating, partly because it has resonance with my own family history. My mother, Rosemary nee Savill, who was born in Biarritz in 1931 to an English father and a French mother, escaped from Bordeaux with her family in 1940. In fact, I suspect that she may have been on the Madura because certain details about the overloading of the ship and being pursued by the Germans en route accord with her memories of the journey, though she can’t quite remember the ship’s name. I would love to find a passenger list. Apparently my grandfather, Henry Savill, was one of those responsible for rounding up British citizens for evacuation in Bordeaux. My grandparents, like your parents, lost everything when they left France, and had to build a new life in England from scratch.
Caroline Bugler
Dear Caroline, Than you for posting your response to my book – I am glad you enjoyed it. Yes, I’m sure you are right your grandparents and mother are likely to have been on board the S.S.Madura as it was the main ship to carry refugees out of the port There are people who have researched and I believe are still searching for the passenger list of the Madura but so far have not located it. I did a short broadcast in the BBC World Service Witness series on Friday, I don’;t know if you heard it. You can access it on BBC World Service Witness The World I Lost, it is quite dramatic – 10 minutes..Do email me if you have a moment.
daphnewall@talktalk.net
All best wishes, Daphne
Dear Daphne. thank you for your comments of August 17, 2014, that I’ve only just read. Have you published your book in hard copy version yet? Do you have any thoughts on where the passenger lists of the refugee boats might be archived? Could you kindly tell me more about your friends the Mackies who you say also escaped on a coal boat? Do they recall the name of the boat and exactly where it sailed from, and on what date? I estimate we left Blaye circa 16th June. If they were members of the British community in Bordeaux they would have known members of my extended family: Blackie, Clark, Shaw, Gentry, etc. I’d love to see the picture. Since first contacting you I’ve been in contact (indirectly) with an old lady who was living in Blaye at the time and she has no recollection of coal boats or British refugees in 1940. Amazingly, however, there’s a fictional account that must be based on fact: ‘Diana’ a novel by R F Delderfield (1912-1972) published in 1960. Hope to hear from you. Kind regards, Philip EMERSON. King’s House, 8 Church Street, Cuckfield, West Sussex, RH17 5JZ.
We also travelled through France in 1940 – would love to contact Daphne Wall – and to buy her book. Francesca Wall
19 June 2014
I was born into an Anglo-French family associated with France since 1833. Ten members of my extended family sailed on the SS Madura from Le Verdon on 18 June 1940, three on the SS Egret from Bordeaux, and about ten – including myself aged five – on a coal boat that sailed from the little port of Blaye on the right bank of the Gironde. One person sailed on HMS Beagle after volunteering to stay behind to assist with secret work. Three others sailed from Bayonne to Plymouth on the SS Koningen Emma.
So far I have found thirteen accounts written by people who were on the Madura, including your own. I am especially interested by your statement “The passenger list was an extraordinary mix of distinguished names like Baron Rothschild and Marie Curie’s daughter Eve, as well as just about every representative of the British Press that had been working in France.” Could you kindly tell me where one can consult the passenger list of the Madura. I am also interested in the passenger list of HMS Venomous which sailed from Calais to Folkestone on May 19th or 20th, with many British refugees.
Dear Philip, I am sorry to be so long replying to your comment about my memories of being on the SS Madura in June 1940. I have now brought out an e-book of extended memories of my childhood from 1935 to 1945 where June 1940 is central to the narrative.l It can be downloaded on e-readers and tablets by Googling The World I Lost Daphne Wall.You will see that I was keen to keep close to my memories and therefore only cross-checked facts after writing rather than pre-researched before writing. Alomost without exception, I found that my memory was accurate. The “mix” of people on the ship is part memory, part friend’s recollection and part what journalists like Alexander Werth wrote. I have not seen the official passenger list and do not know if it can be consulted; only shortage of time has so far prevented me from doing this research. Your information about your family is fascinating. I think the coal boat you were on must be the one that took my friends the Mackies on board – I have a wonderful photograph of them on that boat and hope to publish it in the hard-back version of my book. I would very much like to hear from you, and again, many apologies for my apparent slowness in replying. With best regards, Daphne Wall.
I have been collecting accounts of the voyage of the Madura for a book of my own, a biography of Thomas Bernard Kelly (1870-1949) who was the ship’s surgeon. He was born in Galway and served for 30 years in the Indian Medical Service. During this time he was part of the Younghusband Mission to Tibet (commended for bravery and appeared on the front cover of the London Illustrated News), battled bigotry and violence tackling the bubonic plague in Persia, won the DSO and mentioned in dispatches three times in WW1 in Mespotamia and served in the 3rd Afghan War. He was an occasional ship’s surgeon in the 1920s and 30s and voluntered for active service at the outbreak of WW2 but was turned down on grounds of age (69). He pulled some strings, shaved a few years off his age and turns up on the Madura. He subsequently served on Atlantic convoys and troopships to North Africa before his real age was discovered towards the end of 1944.
I am obviously interested in any specific recollections about him.
David Worsfold
Dear David, I refer to the comment you posted in April on my entry in the Fleeing Hitler web-site in which you say that the subject of your biography, Thomas Bernard Kelly, was the ship’s surgeon on SS Madura in June 1940 when she was used to take British and other refugees to safety in Britain.What am amazing man he sounds – I was very interested to read about him. My memoir The World I Lost can now be downloaded onto e-readers and tablets by Googling the title and my name.Daphne Wall. It includes an account of our days at sea on SS Madura but does not I’m afraid refer to the Ship’s surgeon as I was a strong child and did not need his services!. I am sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your comment but do tell me when your book is published. All best wishes, Daphne Wall