Stories from Paris
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The exodus –Elizabeth Blair Hales
On June 11th , a Tuesday morning I awoke early with a feeling of oppression. Opening my window I saw before me a terrible fog, greenish in colour. The sun was hid. The whole aspect uncanny. I hastened along to Sam and said something has gone wrong. With that the bell rang and Madeleine [Sam ‘s secretary] appeared calling out. It is 6 o'clock - the Germans are close to Versailles. I give you 20 minutes to prepare and get out of here.
Daphne Wall. "Flight from France: a Child's Eye View"
From 1932 to 1940 I lived with my parents in Le Vésinet, a peaceful suburb of Paris...
Philip Smith. "Summer 1940. The fateful day"
On 11th June, my father returned from the Paris office at lunch time – he had walked the 7 kilometres, because the railway termini were jammed with people
From Paris to London in June 1940
The five of us left Paris at 5pm in a second hand 24hp Hudson two-seater with ‘dickey’, with a full tank of petrol,
And those who were left behind by Kaye Brookes
Close upon all this a terror and fear seemed to grip the people of Paris, and with it thousands left by auto, bicycle or foot, while at the same time thousands who had no conveyances filled the Railroad Stations attempting to leave southward or westward
That terrible day by Kate Brookes
I should like to go back a few weeks earlier to the invasion of Holland and later Belgium, which brought into France, especially Paris, thousands of refugees. Day and night they poured into the City
Meg, Lillian, and Gabrielle Coakley: "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
With shaking hands, Madame Balbis unlocked the metal door to the walled garden of the house she shared with her husband, daughter and two grandchildren. A French policeman and two German soldiers strode past her into the kitchen where Monsieur Balbis and his daughter Gabrielle stood in their dressing gowns.
Elly Sherman. "War years: from Paris to Troyes"
When the nightly sirens warning us of German planes coming in became too frequent, and our trips to the shelter, at the bottom of a deep metro station, became too scary,...
‘Great Escapes’ by Dinah Child
We had to leave Paris quickly. I well remember climbing into a horse-drawn cart in the dark of the moon, being covered with blankets and told not to say a word, cough or sneeze because we were not to be heard or seen.
Josette Blodgett. "L'Exode"
I was not quite 12 years old when the German army marched under the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysses.
Elly Sherman. "War years: Who gave us the tickets, celebrating our departure, and why it was not so good"
For many years I was under the impression that the tickets were given to us by an order of nuns
Elly Sherman. "War years: Marseilles, and hotel days and nights"
By 1940 Marseilles was part of Vichy France and filled with refugees from many parts of Europe
Elly Sherman. "War years: Marseilles and two miracles"
We were called to the police station and told to report in five days to the French concentration camp in the Pyrénées...
Paris in the war
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