Hidden Childhood

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On May 1940, German forced invaded France; by June 14th German troops successfully marched into Paris. The French government did not give into exile but rather signed an armistice agreement that allowed Germans to divide France into two parts: occupied zones and unoccupied zones. The French government was located in Vichy, France; leaders were subordinate to the German’s rule. Between September 1940 and June 1942, the German occupation of France caused the Vichy Government to pass many Anti- Jewish laws: including expanding the category of who is a Jew, forbidding free negotiation of Jewish-owned capital, confiscating radios in Jewish possession, executing and deporting Jewish members of the resistance movement, establishing a curfew, forbidding a change of residence, ordering all Jews to wear a yellow badge ( Star of David) and prohibiting access to public area. The role of the Vichy government during occupation left a lingering feeling of disloyalty of the government for the citizens of France.

Frida Scheps was a Russian-Jewish immigrant living in France. Her father was an Engineer who fled to Palestine to pave the way for Frida and her mother. Frida mentions in her testimony that a young sixteen year old boy, Adolphe tried to help them get their documentation; proven difficult because of increase of demand. Frida and her mother could not escape France prior to German’s occupation. Stuck in France, Ms. Scheps wanted to protect her child’s life by placing her in a Catholic covenant, Chateau de Beaujeu. Persecution of the Jews of France began in 1940, but by 1942, the Germans began rounding up Jews and shipping them to various death camps in Poland. An estimated 300,000 Jews lived in France prior to the invasion, between 19...

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... how her mother wore the same green coat, because it made her look Jewish.(3) However, Frida realization that her mother is gone, restores her memory of her mother. Two years after leaving the covenant, Frida is reunited with her father in Palestine. Frida is still unsure of what had become of her mother during the war.

Works Cited

Bergen, Doris L. War and Genocide. Lanham: (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009).

Grace Products Corporation. Children of the Holocaust. 2011. http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/sfrida.htm (accessed March 20, 2011).

Niewvk, Donald L. The Holocaust. Canada: (Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011).

Weiner, Rebecca. The Virtual Jewish History Tour. 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/France.html#Holocaust (accessed March 20, 2011).

Weinstein, Frida Scheps. A Hidden Childhood. New York: (Hill and Wang, 1985.

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