|
Call Me André purchased by the new Jewish Museum in Munich dmh@dianamarahenry.com |
| Other resistors remember André- see right hand column on this site, and "Documentation," below |
| Endorsements |
Diana Mara Henry: editor of André's memoirs Before meeting André, Diana Mara Henry devoted her creative and professional life to documenting socio-political phenomena and causes: politics. the women’s movement, and one-room schools and school teachers have all previously been the subject of her award-winning journalism in the media of photography and writing. She has been the recipient of grants from the NY State Council on the Arts and the NY Foundation for the Arts, and of the Ferguson History Prize at Harvard College. André and Diana worked together for three years before his death in 2001 to create the final version of his memoirs which are now available through this website.
For scholarly endorsements of this project, please seehttp://www.dianamarahenry.com/testimonials.php |
Documentation:
References to André in other histories of WW II
•Joël Le Tac, Le Breton de Montmartre, Franck Reynaud
(Rennes: Editions Ouest-France, 1994)
pages 109, 110, 111, 118 124 et 125
•1943-1945: La Resistance en Enfer, Roger Leroy, Roger Linet, Max Nevers (Paris, Messidor, 1991), pages 88, 154, 159, 204
•Yvonne Le Tac: Une Femme dans le Siècle (de Montmartre à Ravensbrück), Monique Le Tac (Paris: Editions Tirésias, 2000), pages 124-126
•Par les nuits les plus longues, Roger Huguen (Ouest-France), page 39
•Le Camp de Concentration du Struthof / Konzentrationslager Natzweiler: Témoignages. Ed. Jean Simon. (Schirmeck: Essor, 1998), page 78
André and his wife Claire on their way to the US in 1950
Selected Presentations about André and the Natzweiler-Struthof camp by Diana Henry:
Carl Cherry Center for the Arts (exhibit), Carmel, CA, 1990
Alliance Francaise de la Péninsule de Monterey, 1997
Belmont, MA Public Library, 1998
Brandeis University, Romance and Comparative Literature Deparment, 1998
The French Library and Cultural Center, Boston, 2000
Harvard Hillel, Yom Hashoah, 2000
Annual Holocaust Remembrance Program, co-sponsored by the Veterans Council of Greater New Bedford, U.Mass-Dartmouth's Boivin Center for French Studies and Center for Jewish Culture, Ahavath Achim Synagogue, the Inter Church Council of Greater New Bedford, hosted by Tifereth Israel Synagogue, 2001
Boston Neighborhood Network,"It's All About Arts,"
December, 2005
Springfield College, Yom HaShoah lecture, 4/12/2007
Association for Jewish Studies panel: Survivor testimony in writing the history of a neglected concentration camp. December 2009
40TH ANNUAL SCHOLARS’ CONFERENCE ON THE HOLOCAUST AND THE CHURCHES, Philadelphia,March 2010.
André's wife, Claire, at the time of their meeting in London, 1941, when she worked in the RAF.
For more information about Konzentrationslager Natzweiler-Struthof, see:
http://www.dianamarahenry.com/natzweiler-struthof/
Photos of the Natzweiler-Struthof camp, by Diana Mara Henry
and drawings from memory of camp scenes by survivor Henri Gayot
And photographs from the documentation used for the Nuremburg trials'
"Medical Case"
Natzweiler Has been a French National Monument since 1968
Aerial reconnaissance photo of Konzentrationslager Natzweiler (K.L.Na) by the RAF, July, 1944
| The Man and the Book |
The Memoirs of André Scheinmann: A Hero’s Journey Before becoming André, Joseph Scheinmann was a teenager when his family sought refuge from Germany in France in 1933. He had been a leader of Jewish youth in Germany before leaving: he organized sports camps and tutoring for his peers when they were excluded from school activities, and militated against their having to participate in Hitler rallies. André was a soldier for France, for the three weeks France fought Hitler; when he enlisted, in 1939, the French army assigned him a dead man’s name and identity, that of André Peulevey. He escaped from prisoner of war camp and went to work for the railroad, immediately sniffing out Turban, his boss, for a British spy and joining his network as second-in-command. Taking cover for his flawless German by enrolling as a graduate student at the University of Rennes and as would-be professor of German, he served as an interpreter for the Nazis and obligingly translated for the SS in Brittany when they toured their military bases, ports, fuel depots, and submarine facilities. Thanks to him, the British knew what to expect of bombing raids originating at the Rennes airport, off-limits to the French, but where André had placed a Polish cook who reported to him. He got a shave every morning at the barber shop where the Nazi pilots unwound and talked about their missions; he demanded and received strategic reports by placing phone calls to Germany through the telephone system set up by the Nazis at their railroad headquarters. His reports were radioed and couriered to London for months, allowing the British to bomb and destroy the facilities he'd identified with great accuracy. In December 1941, he was brought to London, overnight across the English channel, for additional training. While he was there, his network was infiltrated: as soon as he went back to work he was caught. Days of and nights of torture, months of prison, the most vicious of the concentration camps, Natzweiler-Struthof: a dreary and dismal fate, illuminated by his bravado, courage and pride. At Gestapo headquarters in Paris, he insisted on coffee, toast and jam, a typewriter and quiet if he was to type his report on conditions in London. He passed messages in and out of jail in slices of omelet. He grew healthy on a starvation diet while in solitary confinement, because other prisoners sent him food down the air vents. He never talked - except to say hehad gone to London to look up an old girlfriend. At Natzweiler, he became a Kapo, and organized a shadow dance of work to protect the dying prisoners under his command and the SS guards who craved sleep, protection and loyalty as much as their charges. André reports with enduring pride that when he was put into the “weberei" (the weaving workshop) "production immediately dropped by 30%.” When the most feared “Rottenführer” (SS corporal) at Natzweiler asked him if his teammates always worked so hard he said:“Of course not, only when you are here!” And this Ehrmanntraut, master of the dogs, this sadist extraordinaire, addressed him with formality and respect. Dachau seemed easy by comparison, and that was where he was liberated by the Americans on April 19, 1945. He ran to embrace a soldier - her helmet fell off, her blond hair fell to her shoulders, and he found himself hugging a famous female photographer, Lee Miller. That was the last of the good memories -- he soon found out his parents had given up hope when he was taken, let themselves be captured, and died in Auschwitz. But André met Claire at the US embassy in Paris. She had had a brilliant career in radio operations for the RAF during the war. They married, resettled in the US, and their son and grandchildren live near him in Boston. Here now is his story: CALL ME ANDRE. |
For more photographs and a slide show of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, weblog and other survivor memoirs:
dianamarahenry.com/natzweiler-struthof/
This website and its contents are
Copyright © 2005 Diana Mara Henry
Call Me André: Freedom Fighter and Spy
In this memoir of his scandalously daring exploits as a spy for the British from the director’s office of the French National Railroads for Brittany, André Peulevey, the name by which the Jewish German ex-pat Joseph Scheinmann was known, details others’ and his own sacrifice and heroism -- documented in eye-witness accounts --- that saved many lives and inflicted savage damage on the Nazis and their collaborators. Then punished under the “Nacht und Nebel” (Night and Fog) decree, André and his comrades continued to fight from inside Gestapo prisons in Paris and at Natzweiler-Struthof, the only Nazi Konzentrationslager on French soil, dedicated to the punishment, exploitation and elimination of political prisoners from two dozen European countries, and the gassing of Gypsies and Jews.
Chapter Outline
Introduction by Diana Mara Henry: How did André, freedom fighter and spy, a Jew who wasn’t known to be one, manipulate the Nazis and survive a camp designed “exclusively for non-Jews?”
My Story Begins: A time of foreboding as relentless change polarizes German youth in the 1930’s and propels André from leadership to exile.
A New Homeland: Life in France looks good: business, tennis and romance flourish.
War Approaches: As Germany clandestinely re-arms, André and his father volunteer to fight for France
Fighting for France: André seeks out other soldiers who want to fight, only to be asked by townspeople to stop. By wiles and forgery, he avoids being taken to Germany as a prisoner of war.
Spy for the British: Hired as a German translator at French National Railroad (SNCF) headquarters, André discovers his boss is organizing a sabotage, intelligence, and escape network. André monitors German strategies and losses in the bombing of Britain, German troop and materiel shipments, u-boat bases, submarines caches and the port of Brest, reporting it all to the British through the Johnny and Overcloud networks.
By Night to London: While André is spirited across the channel in kayak by moonlight, for training and outfitting, his network is broken and their radio operator reveals his bosses’ identity under torture.
Prisoner of the Gestapo: By bravado decision, André deliberately falls “into the mousetrap.” He has his torturers disciplined and fools his Gestapo interrogators into giving him a cushy writing assigment before his eventual “trial,” death sentence, and 18 months (including 11 in solitary) in prison, where the resistance continues.
“NN” at Natzweiler: “Nacht Und Nebel” is decreed to make political prisoners disappear into “Night and Fog” like a character in Hitler’s favorite Wagner opera (Das Rhinegold), and Natzweiler-Struthof in Alsace is the camp that the "NN" are taken to for the ultimate punishment. André interprets the language and reality of their taskmasters’ terror and mayhem, organizes his fellow Frenchmen during their terrible ordeal, making sure they understand German orders, negotiating with the ruling class of Communist prisoners, imposing discipline and glavanizing morale.
Four Episodes: André leaves the hospital barracks just ahead of the “work detail ascending to heaven,” is assigned to the weaving shop, where he reorganizes the workers and reduces production by 30%, produces a play, and becomes a KAPO (prisoner boss.) “Do they work like this when I am not around?” asks the murderous Rottenführer Ehrmanntraut. “Of course not!” André snaps back. They took seven months and never finished the curve in the road.
Dachau, Allach, Dachau: Natzweiler-Struthof is evacuated ahead of the Allied invasion (the first concentration camp to be discovered). André is sent to Dachau, its slave labor camp of Allach --- where he produces another surreptitious theatrical , this one on the theme of “France and its Provinces in Song” ---and back to Dachau, where he pulls a still live man from a pile of bodies being carted off to cremation and is himself cured of typhus.
Freedom and Loss: Liberation from Dachau is followed by death caused by overeating for many; but André and his friends hitch a ride with American GI’s back toward Paris where he settles up with the British underground and French army paymasters, and is tragically aware that his parents will not return from Auschwitz. His romance with Claire, a translator he met in England, is miraculously reignited and the happiest years of life still lie ahead.
The Concentration Camp Universe: “Why could so many people be kept under control by so few?” “How could one survive a camp?” André faces the hard questions and shares his observations about how the prisoners were played against each other; which classes of prisoner rose to the top; why status in the outside world was not a benefit in the camps; why terror works; what character traits, past history, and goals helped prisoners to survive and how he himself was able to resist a loss of dignity and not abuse his fellow prisoners.
Conclusion; “What happened to us happened in an ordinary time...the guards, the members of the Gestapo and the SS were composed of normal people like us all...teachers, postmen, workers, doctors could be turned into torturers and murderers. The Nazis could only accomplish what they did, first in Germany and later in all the occupied territories, thanks to a lot of complicity in high-ranking places and also thanks to the indifference, lack of courage, ignorance and will not to believe what seemed to be the incredible acts of the Germans.”
Appendices:
•Glossary of French and German terms
•Family album photos and photos of André in several British-created disguises
•Detailed cv of André’s French military service, resistance and spy work, arrest and deportation, and French government decorations
•References to André by name in a half dozen other eye-witness and historical accounts of the resistance and the camps
•Photos of Natzweiler-Struthof from WWII and today. A French National monument inaugurated by General de Gaulle in 1968, the camp was the set for the film The Young Lions, starring Marlon Brando, Dean Martin, and Montgomery Clift
•Eye-witness survivor’s drawings of torture and execution of the NN at Natzweiler
•Nuremburg Trial documents on the gassing of Jews at Natzweiler
•French government-issued tourist brochure for Natzweiler-Struthof
•Highlights of little known historical documents of importance to researchers as well as the general public:
•The “Nacht und Nebel” (Night and Fog) Decree
•The order of October, 1942, transferring Jews from all concentration camps to Auschwitz or Lublin (Treblinka).
•List of the 70 slave-labor dependencies of Natzweiler
•Ground-breaking bibliography of books and source documents about Natzweiler
This page and its contents Copyright ©2005 Diana Mara Henry
Reproduction and excerpts by permission from:
| Who is André? | ||
Biography: Joseph Scheinmann French Government Decorations:
Resistance activity / Intelligence for the British and Free French:
Joel Le Tac on André Scheinmann, AKA André Peulevey Pages 109-111: The third “DZ” (dropping zone) was named FER 1, simply because government railroad (“Chemin de fer”) agents were responsible for it. “They were made available to me by André Peulevay (sic), my only contact from this network, who was put in place by the Intelligence Service. It was a very effective network centered in Rennes which provided invaluable information on train movements “This intense activity of course caught the attention of the British... “At that time, toward the end of 1941, I had inumerable contacts...I understood that the figures allowed de Gaulle to assert himself with the English, who seemed to doubt the legitimacy of his claims...The orders given to me by those who were cozily ensconced in London--recruit, recruit and recruit some more-- seemed to go against the interest of Mission Overcloud.” ....As a precaution, he set a policy of meeting only the heads of the organizations working with him. That’s how he got to know the “boss” of the railroads at Rennes, André Peulevay, the man in charge of FER 1. “At first, he had everything it could take to alarm me: he was the interpreter for the Germans of the Reichsbahn and those in charge of railroad traffic in Rennes railroad station. He was a German Jew, blond with blue eyes, and he speaks French with a melodious voice. He was known to the world as Peulevay, but his name really was Schweiderman (sic.) He was a strange young man who surprised me by the carefree way he threw himself into the world of intelligence. After having met him in a bistrot in Rennes, I invited him to come see me in Paris, Rue Gît-le-Coeur.” Joël le Tac was nursing uneasiness about André Peulevay. He wasn’t quite able to get a handle on him, and wanted to find some relief for his anxiety. After meeting him at his home, Joel Le tac put one of his former buddies from Mission Josephine B., chief-corporal Cabard who had just come back from the free zone, to shadow him. Cabard follows through and dogs André Peulevay to the Gare Montparnassse, where he took the train for Rennes. “I certainly was reassured. There was nothing that could create any suspicion whatsoever about Peulevay.” Furthermore, André Peulevay outdid himself. He asked Joel le Tac if it wouldn’t be possible to have his radio operator send a mass of information collected by his railroad network....”I agreed to put Joe X’s radio at the disposal of the railroad group. I myself put the messages from Rennes into code. “ Page 118: During the first days of January, 1942, the villa at St. Pabu became a nest of spies. One after another, resistance operatives found their way to the Le Tac home. The two brothers are there, of course, as well as Jean Forman, Henri Labit, André Peulevay ( head of the railroad network in Rennes) Robert Simon (head of the Valmy network in Paris), Chenal, an Air Force officer.... Page 124: On the first of February, Joel and Yves Le Tac board the MGB submarine chasing vessel. André Peulevay, the head of the railroad network in Rennes, the Intelligence Service network which Joel was collaborating with, accompanied them in the crossing that returned them to the coast of Brittany. He’s got a brand new radio. Each has a great deal to do in the weeks to come. André Peulevay of course heads straight back to Rennes...." ____________________________________________ The commemorative volume of the survivors’ group for the Action network describes what they call “ The last Overcloud operation”:
.....Not knowing it, Overcloud was living its last hours...it had been betrayed....André Peulevay was the first to fall, on the 2nd of February, into the mousetrap.”
|
||
