Tuesday, February 21, 2012

In My Dad's Own Words: Rene Duschler - neighbor & friend

My dad's story in his own words as a teenager in Paris, France 1930's - © Beverly Margolies

The period between 1934 and 1939 up to early 1940 was for me a happy life. I was young with little responsibilities making good money and no worries. I had friends, especially one very good, close friend living in my apartment building on the second floor. His name was Rene Duschler. He was 2 years older than me. When the war started in September 1939 he was old enough to be drafted and I was not. Rene lived with his father who was a divorced man. He was a peddlar who sold ties and various items from a suitcase, traveling to cafes and restaurants to sell his goods...

Rene Duschler had to report to the military authorities and was sent to the front line in France by the Maginot line where he was taken prisoner by the Germans a few months later..... Somehow he escaped from Germany as a Prisoner of War and returned to his apartment in Paris in early 1940. His father was afraid the Germans would come looking for him, so my parents hid Rene in our apartment, which was on the fourth floor, 31 Rue Fessart, 19th arrondissement.

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