The Betrayal of Our French Fathers

France in WWII Abeyance of Romance Occupation Resistance Holocaust As a recipent of France's "Medal of Honor" award, my brother Camille was one of three survivors of his unit. As a French Jew, he lived in France during the World War II occupation by the Nazis. Because he expierenced the humiliation, Camille felt compelled to escape to fight the Nazi scourge. Thus, his harrowing near-death experience crossing the Pyrennes Mountains. Upon emerging in Spain, he was detained and imprisonered and eventually connected with the French military in Morocco, North Africa. His regiment spearheaded the U.S. Fifth Army's liberation of northern Italy and then France itself. He was twice wounded. In Paris, he reconnected with Annette, who had also experienced a harrowing escape. She had participated in the "French Resistance". After the war, Camille finished his engineering degree and he and Annette married. They came the United States and eventually settled in Tarzana, California. Leonard Speisman