Gilbert Blum was born in 1931 in the town of Sarne in France and today he lives with his family in the German Colony of Jerusalem. His story is one of initiative, daring and worldliness, interwoven with kindness and the love of man. These good qualities enabled Gilbert and his family to survive their difficult journey during the Holocaust.

The earth shakes with the impending war

Gilbert Blum was born in 1931 in the town of Sarne in the province of Alsace, France, the oldest son of Margarite and Alfred. His father was the head of the Jewish community in the little town, and served as the beadle of the local synagogue. He worked hard to involve the Jews in the life of the town, and he himself volunteered in the local fire brigade.

With the advance of Nazi Germany and its conquest of wide areas of Europe, the young Gilbert felt that the circumstances of his life were changing. Anti-Semitism was rife, shouts of “dirty Jew” were aimed at him from time to time, and there was a feeling of impending war in the air: men were mobilized; many soldiers were seen on the streets, in Gilbert’s school they practiced hiding under the desks during a bombardment, and the economic situation became very severe.

In June 1940, when the Germans occupied northern France and there was a constant background of terrifying bombings, the family decided to leave the little town where they lived and settled in Limoges in southern France. Limoges was under the jusrisdiction of the “Free French”, but the tremendous shortage of food had reached there too. Each family had to make do with food coupons, which was inadequate for even the most basic sustenance.

In November 1942 the situation worsened: Germany captured the area of the “Free French” and the French Army was defeated. The Jews were forbidden to work or trade, and Gilbert’s father was unable to provide for his family. The word “Jude” was printed on the identity documents of the Jews, and they were persecuted everywhere. At first they were hunted only in the streets, but later the Germans reached the homes too.

Generally the police would come to the homes of the Jews whose Christian neighbors had betrayed them. One day the Jewish neighbors of the Blum family were caught, and it became clear that in a short while they too would be caught. The family quickly organized itself and moved to a small and neglected apartment behind a large building.

Hiding in a distant farm

One day, when the mother and her children were in the damp apartment, they heard loud knocking at the door. The mother told her son not to open the door, but the knocks became harder, accompanied by rough shouts:”Police, open the door!” , which took her breath away. With a trembling heart she went to the door. Three French policemen stood in the doorway. “We are looking for Mr. Blum”, one of the policemen shouted, but the father was not at home.

The policemen pushed the family into a corner as though they were trying to knock down a fortified wall, went into all the rooms, opened closet doors and drawers, displacing, moving, smashing and destroying. After several minutes, when they realized that the father was not there, one of the policemen turned to the mother and said:”Show me your identity card and your food coupons”. After she gave him what the demanded, he studied the documents again and again, and then he gave them to another policeman who stuck them into a pocket in his shirt. The mother tried to resist, but the policeman pushed her violently and said:”Mrs. Blum, the documents stay with us. When Mr. Blum returns tell him that the police came to visit him, and when he comes to the police station he can get the documents back”.

When the policemen left the apartment, the mother quickly began to pack up the family’s possessions. When the father came home, they were all ready to leave for the farm of the Habermas family. This was where the mother used to buy food on the black market, and this is where the family wished to hide. The mother had already agreed with the owner of the farm that, if it became necessary the family could hide on the farm. Now, when it was clear that the father’s name was on the list of wanted Jews, and the mother’s documents had been taken away, the danger was real and they had no alternative but to go into hiding.

Several days passed and the father planned to leave. He told Gilbert:”Tomorrow I will leave here for another hiding place. I am registered by the French and German authorities as a Jew who was not caught, and it is certain that they will look everywhere for me. If they should catch me, I want them to catch only me”. Alfred told his son that Mr. Habermas had found a hiding place for him in the attic of a small factory in the middle of the forest, and that he would move there late at night, hidden under logs of wood, to the niche where he would hide.

One morning another difficult moment arrived, a few days after parting from his father. Gilbert’s mother whispered to him that they had to part. “Are you leaving me too? Gilbert asked”. “Not me….you!” While his mother’s words reverberated in his mind, the boy felt that his world had crashed around him. He could not leave his mother. What would happen to him? What would happen to his broken family? The one anchor of his life!

His mother turned to him and in a serious voice explained to him that within two days he would join a group of Jewish children who would cross the border to Switzerland together. “Why Switzerland?” thought Gilbert. “I don’t know anyone there. Why can’t I hide here? I am prepared to live even beside the rubbish”.

The border to freedom

Before Gilbert’s mother spoke to him about illegally crossing the border into Switzerland, she had contacted the O.S.E. organization and asked that they include him in the group of children, aiming to cross the border into neutral Switzerland. At daybreak Gilbert left for the train station in the city of Lyons. When he reached his destination, a representative of the Jewish organization gave him a false identity card – the new identity which he would have to adopt.

In the evening the children came to a lighted windowless hall. They were arranged into groups, and received instructions about the long jouney to freedom which awaited them:”Do not walk alone! Whoever walks by himself is liable to lose his way and get caught and thus endanger the entire group. Walk only behind the one in front of you and do not wander from the path! Whoever deviates from the road is liable to fall down the slope. Do not be afraid of the barking dogs! There are many soldiers with watch dogs near the border, but if you remain quiet, the dogs will only bark and no harm will come to you”.

At last the group started out. The closer the children came to the border, the louder the barking became, until the noise was very near and very threatening. At times the little children froze in their tracks out of fear, but they managed to overcome it knowing that giving in to their fear could cost them their lives. After they became accustomed to walking the difficult path, one of the babies in the group began to cry. Again the fear grew, and one of the older children claimed that the baby was endangering all the rest and they should leave him in the forest. Before this could turn into an argument among the group members, the mother managed to quieten the baby with the aid of a small pillow. Quickly quiet was restored, and it was only by a miracle that the baby did not suffocate. The German soldiers did not discover the group of children.

A further walk uphill through the forest brought the group to a path, at the end of which was a torn barbed-wire fence. After they crossed the fence they would be in Switzerland! The group began to climb the hill, faithfully following instructions. Suddenly a strong beam of light shone above the children’s heads. Terrified they stretched themselves out on the ground immediately, hearing the voices of soldiers shouting in a German dialect. The soldiers dressed in green uniforms approached the little children and ordered them to come to the barbed-wire fence. The children did not dare resist, and only when they were next to the fence did it become clear that these were not German soldiers but Swiss. The soldiers separated the wires of the fence and made a passage for the children. Gilbert was the first to cross the fence confidently and enter Swiss territory – to the longed-for freedom.

After the war

The war ended a few months after the border crossing. The Blum family was re-united and rebuilt their home in Strassburg, France. Gilbert’s parents established a home for Jewish children whose parents had perished at the hands of the Nazis. The home operated for 18 years, and was closed only when the last of the children married and set up his own home. Gilbert’s sisters made aliya when they reached adulthood, and the Habermas family was declared “Righteous Gentiles”. Gilbert studied carpentry and worked at this profession until retirement. In 1992 he made aliya, and established his home anew in Jerusalem with all his family.

Based on: Morgenstern Naomi, Bamistor – Yeladim Bitekufat HaShoah BeTzorfat, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, תשנ"ח.