Nelson Anne - Codename Suzette: an extraordinary story of resistance and rescue in Nazi Paris

| ALSO BY ANNE NELSON |

Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground

and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler

Murder Under Two Flags: The U.S., Puerto Rico,

and the Cerro Maravilla Cover-Up

Savages: A Play

The Guys: A Play

First published in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin in 2017

First published in the United States in 2017 by Simon & Schuster

Copyright Anne Nelson, 2017

The right of Anne Nelson to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

The extract on pages 113114 is used by permission of ditions Denol from La Petite fille du Vel dHiv by Annette Muller ditions Denol, 1991. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978 1 92526 620 7

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Interior design by Lewelin Polanco

Cover design: Jason Ramirez / Romina Panetta

Cover photo: akg-images / Imagno. Group of children playing in the Tuileries Garden, Paris, c. 1930.

To Suzannes Children:

Pilette and Bazou,

Larissa, Sami, and Jacques.

The children she cared for then,

The children she would care for now.

I end up wondering if I wont simply decide to split the world in two: the world of those who cannot understand (even if they know, even if I tell them) and the world of those who can.

Hlne Berr, Journal, October 17, 1943

The Spaaks

Paul Spaak, writer; married to

Marie Janson Spaak, daughter of Belgian prime minister Paul Janson, sister to Prime Minister Paul-mile Janson, and worlds first female senator

Their Children

Paul-Henri Spaak, prime minister of Belgium; married Marguerite

Charles Spaak, screenwriter of Grand Illusion and numerous other films

Claude Spaak, playwright and art connoisseur; married Suzanne Lorge

Madeleine (Pichenette) Spaak Masson

The Lorges

Louis Lorge, financier; married to

Jeanne Bourson

Their Children

Suzanne (Suzette) Lorge; married Claude Spaak

Alice (Bunny) Lorge; married Milo Happ

Angle (Teddy) Lorge; married Maurice Fontaine

Claude and Suzanne Spaaks Children

Lucie (Pilette)

Paul-Louis (Bazou)

Ruth Peters, Suzanne Spaaks childhood friend and Claude Spaaks mistress

Soviet Agents

Leopold Trepper, Polish Jewish Communist

Georgie de Winter, Treppers young mistress

Hersch (Harry) and Miriam (Mira) Sokol, Jewish refugees turned radio operators

Madame May, Treppers elderly courier

Fernand Pauriol, French Communist who supported Treppers radio operations

The Jewish Underground

Leon Chertok, Jewish refugee doctor and a leader of the childrens rescue efforts

Sophie Schwartz Micnik, Polish trade unionist and womens leader

Charles Lederman, Polish-born French Jewish lawyer

Adam Rayski, Polish-born journalist and militant

douard (Arek) Kowalski, Jewish Communist military leader

Jewish Children Rescued by the Network

Larissa Gruszow

Sami Dassa

Jacques Alexandre

Simone and Armand Boruchowicz

The Doctors and the Ladies

Robert Debr, leading French Jewish pediatrician

Elisabeth de la Panouse, Countess de la Bourdonnaye, Debrs partner, known as Dexia

Fred Milhaud, French Jewish pediatrician working for the UGIF Jewish Council; married to

Denise Milhaud, president of the Entraide Temporaire relief organization

The Berrs (Raymond and Antoinette, their daughters Hlne and Denise; cousin Nicole Schneiderman; and Denises sister-in-law, Nicole Job), activists with Entraide Temporaire

Marguerite Peggy Camplan, MNCR partner

The Protestants

Pastor Paul Vergara, pastor at the Oratoire; married to Marcelle Vergara

Sylvain Vergara, the Vergaras teenage son

Eliane Vergara, the Vergaras oldest daughter, married to

Jacques Bruston, a member of the Gaullist Resistance

Marcelle Guillemot, social worker at La Clairire church soup kitchen

Odette Bchard, a member of the Oratoire who joined Entraide Temporaire

Maurice-William Girardot, church deacon and courier for funds

The Gaullists

Jean Moulin, leader of the Gaullist resistance

Jacques Grou-Radenez, master printer who helped the student movement Dfense de la France

Hugues Limonti, family friend of Marcelle Guillemot and Gaullist agent in Paris

The Neighbors

Colette, considered Frances greatest writer of her time, Palais Royal resident with her Jewish husband, Maurice Goudeket

Jean Cocteau, prodigious French artist and writer, Palais Royal resident with his lover, actor Jean Marais

The Germans

Theodor Dannecker, SS officer who organized deportations in Paris from September 1940 to July 1942

Helmut Knochen, SS officer placed in charge of the Gestapo in France in November 1940

Klaus Barbie, SS officer placed in charge of the Gestapo in Lyon in November 1942

Alois Brunner, SS officer placed in charge of the camp at Drancy in June 1943

Heinz Pannwitz, Gestapo officer in command of the Red Orchestra task force (Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle), charged with tracking down Leopold Trepper and his associates

Rudolf Rathke, Gestapo officer on the task force

The British

Benjamin Cowburn, agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Johnny Barrett, radio operator for the SOE

| 19371940 |

Suzanne and Claude Spaak moved to Paris in 1937, bringing their two children, a surrealist art collection, and a large wicker trunk. They were a golden couple, attractive, affluent, cultured; the move was designed to mend the fault lines. Claude was frustrated in his writing career, and their marriage had faltered. Maybe Paris would help.

Claude had outgrown Brussels, though the city had offered him every advantage. He owed many of them to his wife. Suzette was the oldest child of Louis Lorge, one of Belgiums leading financiers. A self-made man, he spent his life pursuing wealth and social status. He had married into a prominent family and employed German and English governesses for his daughters. He provided his family with a mansion in Brussels, a house in the country, and holidays on the French Riviera.

Louis doted on his firstborn, a petite blonde with long ringlets and a Cupids bow mouth. He decided that she should marry into the aristocracy and sent her to finishing school to study embroidery, piano, and household management. But she chafed at her fathers mercenary values and leaned toward literature and social reform.

Louis Lorge strongly opposed Suzannes choice of husband, but she stood firm. A last-minute complication arose. The couples mothers discovered that there was a third party to the romance, a Canadian classmate of Suzannes named Ruth Peters. The two girls shared everything, including an infatuation with Claude. The mothers sent Ruth home to Toronto, and Louis took measures to protect his daughters fortune. Rather than disbursing her dowry in a lump sum, he would pay it in monthly installments to guarantee her a good living.