He Who Dares Wins Across the Pyrenees to Freedom

He Who Dares Wins Across the Pyrenees to Freedom Diary of Chanan (Hans) Flörsheim 1943/44 Translated from the German version by Dieter Heymann Publisher of the German Version: Hartung-Gorre Verlag Konstanz 2007 Important stations on the escape across the Pyrenees of Chanan Flörsheim in 1943/44. PREFACE During World War Two some 875 persons reached the British Mandate of Palestine as refugees from the Iberian peninsula1. Following the disembarkation in Haifa of a few hundred passengers from the Portuguese ship “Nyassa” on February 1, 1944 it took until October 1944 before certain bureaucratic roadblocks on the part of Great Britain were overcome and another transport of Jewish refugees left Cadiz for Palestine. This time it was the “Guiné” which also sailed under the Portuguese flag. On board was Hans/Chanan Flörsheim born on April 2 1923 in Rotenburg on the Fulda, who had fled with his parents in 1933 from this town to Leipzig. His parents sent the boy in May 1937 to relatives in Amsterdam where they considered him safe from Nazi persecution. Beginning in March 1943 Chanan went into hiding2 in Holland. He used the alias of Hendrik Westerman. He had a falsified identification paper3. Next Chanan lived in France under the guise of a German-impressed Dutch laborer and finally, during a fourth try, he succeeded in reaching life-saving freedom by crossing the Pyrenees to Spain. After the surrender of France to Germany in June 1940 tens of thousands of refugees from Central Europe had tried to reach destinations outside Europe via the Iberian Peninsula. However, following Franco’s victory in the Spanish civil war in 1939, Spanish Consulates only issued a transit visa when a Portuguese entry visa could be furnished. Lion Feuchtwanger, Heinrich Mann, Franz Werfel and their spouses used this opportunity to cross the Eastern Pyrenees on foot in August 1940 to reach the Spanish border town of Portbou. Walter Benjamin succeeded in the same manner to reach Portbou by the end of September of 1940. However, he committed suicide because he feared that he would be forcefully returned to France by the Spanish authorities. The circumstances of his suicide are still unclear even today. In November 1942 Hitler’s army entered the unoccupied southern part of France which had been governed until then by the so-called “Vichy Regime”. The program of the “Final Solution” of the rounding up and forced transport of Jews to the concentration- and extermination camps of Poland had actually already begun in France in the summer of 1942. At that time the Vichy Regime had agreed to cooperate with Germany to carry out the arrest and surrender of all Jews of foreign nationality living in Vichy territory using its police forces in the framework of its own racial programs. Every person who was unable to demonstrate that he/she was a legal resident of a border zone with Spain of 30 km width was always arrested for additional close interrogation. Beginning in February 18, 1943 every town near the French-Spanish border was declared “off limits” for persons without valid identification and control posts were located at every town’s 1 I obtained this number from Patrik von zur Mühlen: Fluchtweg Spanien-Portugal. Die Deutsche Emigration und der Exodus aus Europa 1933-1945 (Route of Escape Spain-Portugal. The German emigration and the Exodus from Europe 1933-1945), Dietz Verlag 1992. The following narrative is largely based on this work. 2 The German verb for this type of hiding “untertauchen” (in Dutch “onderduiken”) literally means “diving under”. It usually refers to the illegal hiding-out of Jews at the homes/farms/offices of non-Jewish helpers. When the Germans discovered this the Jews were sent to Auschwitz or other extermination camps and the helpers were usually sent for nine months to a concentration camp (D.H.). 3 The original text uses the word “Pass” i.e. passport but this almost certainly refers to the Dutch identification paper known as „Persoonsbewijs“ or prsonal identification paper (D.H.). exit road. Nevertheless, these measures could not fully stop the illegal flights to Spain because the control posts were too sporadically manned and because of the difficulty of controlling the forbidding mountainous terrain. It has been reported that some 12,000 Jews escaped via secret pathways of the Pyrenees from November 1942 until August 1944, usually led by a competent alpinist (in French: passeur) even after the Germans had expanded their control to the Spanish border. They had also succeeded to evade the French gendarmerie with their dog teams as well as the German military patrols. This, however, was not the end of their perils owing to sudden changes of the weather, avalanches, serious injuries, or exhaustion. Yielding to Allied pressure Spain declared in 1943 that it would not hand over foreign refugees to their respective governments provided that the Allies would accept responsibility for their continued voyages. Until then there were no foreign support organizations in Franco-Spain, such as for example private American organizations that had been tolerated earlier, not even the International Red Cross. The German defeat at Stalingrad at the beginning of 1943 had brought about a first political turnaround by Franco. This change benefited the refugees that had reached Spain because (private) support organizations were now allowed to serve them. Hans/Chanan Flörsheim belonged to the group cared for by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (abbreviated as “Joint” or JDC). Whereas the illegal refugees that had entered Spain before 1943 were first arrested and then locked up in camps, this fate did not befall Hans/Chanan Flörsheim and his travel companions. Nevertheless half a year passed before they could leave the country on October 26, 1944. Until that date they were not kept in jails or behind fences of internment camps but were accommodated in hotels or similar quarters and were allowed to move about freely. Hence they discovered and used the opportunity to learn new languages and found leisure time to put on paper the trials and tribulations of their past months and years. That is what Hans/Chanan Florsheim achieved by writing the diary for this book. INTRODUCTION I have written these diary notes shortly after my arrival in Spain in May 1944. That explains my accurate rendering of conversations and dates. The handwritten version was copied with a typewriter in the course of the 1950’s by a frequent visitor to our Kibbutz, a Swiss national from Wallisellen named Albert Wetzel. In 1978 I translated the work into Hebrew and had it printed as a book in 2000. A total of 200 copies were produced for family members and friends. In 2004 I entered the German text into a computer memory. The original story began in Holland in 1943 and ended with my arrival in the Spanish village of Leiza in the Province of Navarre. When it was brought to my attention that it might be helpful for the reader to add a short description of my life before 1943 as well as the continuation of my destiny after my arrival in Spain I have added two specific chapters named Prologue and Epilogue.Chanan (Hans) Flörsheim, Kibbutz Yakum. Chanan (Hans) Flörsheim first school year in Rotenburg an der Fulda Hans Walter Flörsheim was born on April 23, 1923 in the home at the Lindenstreet 9 (current address) in Rotenburg an der Fulda. His parents were Julius Flörsheim and Paula Flörsheim nee Katzenstein. In Palestine Hans adopted the name Chanan (B.MC/H.N.). PROLOGUE Germany 1923-1937 Rotenburg 1923-1933 I was born in 1923 in the Hessian town of about 4000 inhabitants named Rotenburg an der Fulda some 50 km south of the city of Kassel4. My parents Paula and 4 Germany at that time was a federal republic of “Länder” (States). Hessen (Hesse) was one of these (D.H.). Julius Flörsheim5 came from solid middle class families deeply embedded in German life. According to some documents the families had lived in Rotenburg at least since the beginning of the 18th century6. My sister Edith was born barely two years later. My father had two brothers, Joseph and Willy. My father and Willy both served in the armed forces during the First World War. Willy was killed in Flanders in 1916. As a child I was mighty proud to read the name of my uncle alongside those of other fallen war heroes of the Jewish community on a commemorative plaque in the synagogue7. After the war Joseph8 lived a few years in South Africa which turned out to have been very helpful for him many years later. Following his return to Rotenburg he led the firm “Brothers Flörsheim” together with my father. The firm had been established in 1906. It specialized in the shipping of textiles and manufactured goods although there was also a store in our house. Usually one employee was every day in the store and my mother, insofar as she had the time, always helped out. My father traveled during most of the week, mostly in the “Land” of Thuringia, to visit customers and to accept their new orders. We, the children, were always joyful when he returned home for the weekend. We always asked him what the total value of the goods had been which he had sold that week. The orders were filled and the goods were packed during the course of the week and I was always pleased when I was able to help with the pushing of the loaded cart to the railroad station. As I have already mentioned, my mother often helped in the store.

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