My Family History

My mother, Eileen, travelled to France to stay with her Uncle Dick in St. Claude in the Jura from August 1939 until April 1940. She became (eventually lifelong) friends with another young woman, Simone Benoit Gonin – later to be Simone Epchtein, after she married Georges, a member of the resistance – while giving English lessons in the town. This letter, written on 30 November 1944 in Lélex, a small village close to the Swiss border, is Simone’s first letter sent to Eileen after the liberation of St. Claude, explaining what had happened to her during wartime in the Jura.  (The original has been deposited with the Imperial War Museum in London) This photo isn’t great, but it’s got a bit of me in it – apart from the smile which is totally ‘as instructed’ Cette photo n’est pas belle mais c’est un peu moi quand même, sauf le sourire qui est tout à fait de ‘commande’ Lélex le 30 Novembre Vive la R.A.F Bonjour, mille bonjours chère Eileen Je viens ...

Arthur ‘Dick’ Swift, my Mum (Eileen)’s uncle, had left London for France in the early 1920s to become manager of an Imperial Tobacco Company tobacco pipe factory in St. Claude in the Jura, close to the Swiss border. His French wife, Ginette, wrote most of the letter below to Eileen on 17 June 1940, just as the Germans were approaching the town. Even as the ‘phoney-war’ at the end of 1939 was starting, Eileen, my mother, had been determined to continue with her plan to travel to St. Claude to improve her French. Her family were apparently still hopeful that war was going to be avoided and let her travel. Her passport shows that she arrived in France, travelling via Calais, on 21 August 1939. In February 1940, she was given a French identity card valid until August 1942 (!). Her passport stamps also show that Eileen only left Calais to return to England on 2nd April 1940. Below is a transcription and translation of the last letter that Dick's wife, Ginette, was able ...