Letters from Madeleine Rougier and his son Pierre Rougier 1941-45
The difficulties of life in Nice during the war
and a letter from Peter, to the STO in Germany
Madeleine Rougier was the widow of a brother of Maurice Rougier, Fredy (Ferdinand), who died in summer 40, and had been governor of French Sudan in Bamako. She had two great children, Peter born in 22, and James born in 25. She lived in Nice, where restrictions were terrible, because the region did not produce much food and she was overcrowded with refugees from the occupied zon, and especially many Jews who had sheltered from the Germans. After the occupation of the free zone in November 42, Nice was in the Italian zone and the Italians left there the Jews relatively quiet, at least until September 43, date of the Italian surrender.
Excerpts from Madeleine Rougier's letter (in Nice) to her sister-in-law Suzanne Rougier (in Bourg), 21 Dec 41
"...my dear Suzanne,
I've been very busy doing sweaters to the kids.
And I spend so much time doing these damn tails, you have to spend all morning, sometimes part of the afternoon, you get exhausted and frozen. On Wednesday it was so cold that I shook up all day. It's scary how many people are in trouble, yesterday morning we picked up more than 30, near me. 3 fell one after the other, so at this moment, the number of deaths is very high, young and old have no resistance, in 4 or 5 days, they are taken away and doctors do not understand anything.
I send you the price of cheese + the parcel. I would also have sent you the price of butter but you don't mention it, tell me in your next letter, I will send it to you immediately.
The kids are going to ski, I don't know when it will depend on the places. Jacques is not brilliant at the moment, he has just had a big flu with access to malaria, and this child is almost barefoot, I asked four months ago for a good shoe, I was denied it these days, I can't arrange his only pair, but I will try while he is absent, only misery for everything..
.... What happens to your daughters, do they endure well in the winter? It is true that they are used to the cold after living in Strasbourg.
Goodbye, my dear Suzanne, thank you again and think of us when you have more cheeses, we all kiss you affectionately.
Mad.
Excerpt from Madeleine Rougier's letter (in Nice) to her sister-in-law Suzanne Rougier (in Bourg), February 21, 42
"... excuse me for having been so slow to thank you for sending us so much pleasure, I was sick all week with a big flu caught in line and threatening to go wrong, but it's time to run all morning, sick or not, to try to find something.
I am sending you 90 fr, saying thank you, yes, if the opportunity is still present, you can start again, obviously it's a little expensive, but I don't think that happens often! I think for example it would be more advantageous and faster to mail out, we accept packages up to 3 kil.
I just wanted to ask you if your hostess could tell me who farmers or gardeners would send me regular shipments of vegetables now that the family packages are moving, I saw a person who has been receiving since October every 15 years. a package of vegetables from the Ain.
Here more and more there is nothing, we are entitled to 250 gr of vegetables per person, see what it does when it is spinach or salad! Yesterday morning I was queued from 7h1/4 to 10h minus a quarter for 150 gr of turnips, what to do with it for 3 days!
Pierre was still very unhappy with me this week, .... ... it is exasperated to be always hungry, alas, I can't help it.
As for Jacques, he has just been attached to the radio reports, always as a sound operator and he is delighted because he is travelling in the area with the tour cars..."
Excerpt from Madeleine Rougier's letter (in Nice) to her brother-in-law Maurice Rougier (in Bourg), 27 Dec 42
"My dear Maurice
We were pretty worried about you all since the events of November (Occupancy of the Free Zone)Here we are, and I hope you will stay in Bourg as long as possible, since life is quite easy.
I've got Pierre on vacation for a dozen days... .... I've been very hesitant for several months before I let him go to Coloniale. (?maybe a school for training in the Colonies) But all our friends agree and strongly encouraged him, on the other hand, the teachers are also unanimous in repeating to them to persevere in this path. aI think that the Commission is not going to be able to take a decision on this matter.
I'm sending you Jacques' letter, I'd like him to be busy soon. Unfortunately with these starting stories for Germany, that makes a lot of complications. (We start talking about work in Germany, soon it will be the STO, compulsory labour service)
The supply is still so painful, we have been on the diet for over a month with turnips and topinambours, we were told about poultry and meat parties, we only saw them in the newspapers and the traders laugh at them when they were told. And then I received some parcels from Sudan and Senegal, we must not count there anymore.
(Americans landed in North Africa)
And winter is just beginning!
We heat ourselves both well and badly with wood sawdust, the result is not bad, but sawdust is as rare as any other commodity.
I write from all sides to get my pension paid, I had received the booklet at the end of October and I thought I was finally getting rid of all these steps, but it was necessary to return the booklet to Paris "to regularize the advances for two years", more than 2 months ago that it lasted and I have not touched anything since July, it is a frightening disorder everywhere. Tell Suzanne that she does not know her happiness if she supplies herself easily, this is my daily hooder..."
Excerpt from Pierre Rougier's letter (21 years old, in Chemnitz, at the STO), he was with his brother Jacques, 18 years old, who left with him at the STO) to his uncle and aunt Maurice and Suzanne Rougier (in Bourg), 27 Dec 43
"Mr. Pierre Rougier No. 17
Westarbeiterlager (Western workers' camp) Zweinigen
10 Jacobstrasse
Chemnitz Sachsen (Saxony)
Chemnitz on 27 December 1943
My dear uncle, my dear Aunt
I apologize for sending you my wishes so late for the new year, but our living conditions make it quite difficult to apply the plans made in advance. Finally, my wishes are no less sincere and I add those of the Jacquot who are currently held in bed by a strong bronchitis and unable to hold a feather holder.
You must have known in what situation we find ourselves by mother, she has nothing to rejoice about. It is camp life, drowned among the workers, mixed with Belgians, Czechs and Polish, with a unique meal per day, mats for sleeping, limited heating and finally a perpetual work. I work with Jacquot in a factory of bolts, screws, threads etc. For the army we do 12 hours a day of work, with just a few bread spreads to put us in the stomach at noon, because the camp using it all saying our tickets for the evening soup (a bowl of soup) we are not entitled to the midday soup that is distributed to the German workers and with this we are paid so that we have just enough to live, and I often find myself without a penny two days before the pay. In short we lead a life less than pleasant to which we have been used at the beginning. As for complaints, it is better not to do so because they are not only not successful but they may lead to trouble.
Finally, it will be six months since we have been living this life, struggling as much as we can to have improvements and habit now makes us more bearable all our daily suffering. So without our condition improving, we have more guts.
I made some good comrades among the rarity students who make their STO here, and although scattered in different camps we meet Saturday afternoon and Sunday. The opera cinema and cafes offer us some distractions, and finally as I have a lot of comrades in various corners of Saxony, we visit each other, although now the police give hardly any permission to circulate.
What I find deplorable is the state of mind of French workers working in Germany, it is the reign of complete selfishness, a total lack of understanding of things, whereas on the contrary among prisoners there is a magnificent movement of solidarity. Besides, after having endured the worst things at first, they are now for the most part in good condition, but there is no illusion about the current state of France.
For a month I've been doing every other week night work. By day we do from 6:30am to 6:30pm and night work from 5pm to 5am. We changed sides 2 months ago, the one we were in need of being converted into a hospital, and while before we were 20 minutes away from the factory, we are now 35 minutes away from trams and we have to change twice, and as we leave with the night and come back again it's not pleasant at all. With this it is cold and snowy, although so far we have only had -12° but it seems that in January February the temperature varies between -20° and -35° which promises us pleasant days.
Here's a brief overview of our life here and there's something to put in a volume, but I don't want to bother you any more. Besides, there are some good times. And then there's almost half of our stay here and that gives us courage. (they were released by the Russians only in May 45) It will also have done us good, and will have contributed well to our training and ... to teaching us German.
I wish you all the best by kissing you both very affectionately and my two little cousins.
Rugier Pierre"
Excerpt from Madeleine Rougier's letter (in Nice) to her brother-in-law Maurice Rougier (in Bourg), January 2, 1944
"...I also regretted that I could not
go to Cannes for the funeral of poor Francis
(Francis Scola, Maurice's brother-in-law and Madeleine)
I had a big flu with otitis... ..... I just spent a bad week with two days of high fever, first thought I was intoxicated by that infectious rapeseed oil that we were given but I don't think it would have made me so sick....
... the children are fine, they complain mostly of the cold, and a little of the supplies that has diminished well since the loss of Ukraine. I send all the parcels I can, but they are not as large as I would like. Here the supply is a little less bad, it has gone more than 120,000 people according to the food services, there are more potatoes, and I have two cousins who send me packages quite regularly, it helps me well for the children. The trouble is that the communication seers are often cut off. We are today at our third alert.
Fanny and Clkaude always look alike? I certainly wouldn't recognize them if I saw them....
Excerpt from the letters of Madeleine Rougier (in Nice) to Fanny and Claude (in Bourg), January 9, 1944
"...Pierre wrote to me that they had organized parties at their camp and at the French homes, as well as a Christmas Eve consisting of the packages they had received, they were also given an extra amount of white bread, brioches and apples, and they had 2 days of rest."
Excerpt from Madeleine Rougier's letter (in Nice) to Suzanne Rougier (in Bourg), May 10, 1945 (peace has been effective since May 8, 45)
"No, I don't know anything about the children and the little that I learned about what had happened in the area didn't reassure me. I already knew by my sister and my brother-in-law that Chemnitz had been almost completely destroyed by the bombings on February 15, and that prisoners and workers had been evacuated. This week after many searches I was able to see a prisoner who was 40 km from Ch., he confirmed to me the evacuation of the city but the unfortunate had to flee on foot under the bombs and we don't know in which direction they headed, nor what they became.
When I think this winter, not one night since these massive bombings started, I didn't lie down without thinking that at the same time, these children might have been wandering on the roads in the night and the cold... Of all those who left at the same time and were all in Chemnitz or the surrounding area we have no news, it is true that this region was the last liberated and if they had gone on foot they probably had not gotten away from it. I know that there are so many people who will return slowly, and naturally those who are near the borders will come back faster but if I only had one word to say that they are alive. That days and nights will pass slowly when you are so worried.
....The problem of reconstruction is posed on all sides, here many houses have been damaged, St-Laurent du Var has been roughly razed by the bombings, and almost all the hotels are requisitioned by the Americans so that most of the time we must send the travellers to the barracks.
This year we have green vegetables without a tail but at what price! 30 fr peas, 15 fr salads, as for meat soon 2 months ago we do not have one and for rations of the RG (General refuelling)
We touch them (when we touch them) with 5 or 6 weeks late, in short it's not brilliant and we feel really tired, yet the children will surely need to get back up when they are there and how to do it with such a supply..."
PS. Pierre and Jacques finally found their family in France, healthy and except after these 2 years of forced stay in Saxony.