GÉGÉ ON NOIRMONTIER
Gégé’s family owned a house on the Île de Noirmontier in the Atlantic just off the coast of France near St. Nazaire where the Nazi submarine base was located.
She spent one summer there during the German occupation with her sister. She and her sister would often take a small canoe into the surf and out into the ocean in front of their house. (more…)
HUNGER
Gégé lived with her parents in a fashionable district of Paris and employed a full time cook throughout the German occupation. The cook was a short, thin middle aged lady who was very dependable and did all to provide meals for the family of Gégé, her parents, a brother and two sisters.
She would go to the markets and shops with all the family’s ration cards very early in the morning to be sure that she could get something of whatever was available. The rationed goods often were sold out early in the day and were unavailable even with ration cards.
They trusted this woman completely, but one day, after two years into the occupation, Gégé’s mother found small amounts of food hidden in the back of the oven. The cook had taken tiny portions from each amount she was able to purchase to take to her own family.
Gégé’s mother was incensed and wanted to fire the cook. But Gégé’s father calmed her down. “This is what hunger can do to a person. She is a good woman was providing a little extra for her family. We must forgive her.”
They kept their cook who stayed with them until long after the Germans were gone.
FRENCH POWs RETURN TO PARIS
At the end of WW 2, in June and July of 1945, the French soldiers held by the Germans as prisoners of war for four years were sent to their hometowns in France.
Gégé Smith volunteered to help get them ready to return to their families and civilian life. She was a tiny, nineteen-year-old, and not afraid of anything. Otherwise she would have refused the job she was assigned to.
In Paris, a large building was set up to process them. The men were made to discard all clothing and take a shower. Gégé was given the task of standing just outside the group shower door as the men came through for the next station where they would get new clothing.
As each completely naked soldier went by her, she made them put powder on their head and genitals. She assumed this was to kill any lice remaining in their hair.
She must have seen more naked men than any woman in France. But after two months, she asked to be transferred to a new job. She had seen enough.
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