Note: this text is based on original documents and could appear shocking in terms of the criteria for the selection of interns to release from Gurs. We leave it up to readers to draw their own conclusions and analysis. The Chansaye center and Vic-sur Cère home are published also an article in French on the Château du Doux
Synthesis of the report presented to the coordination committee for assistance in camps, meetings of December 2nd and 3rd 1941, Nîmes.
Administrative aspects:
The project: The plan was conceived at the start of summer 1941 by three social workers addressing the problem of the housing centres. The aim is to create new housing with a capacity of 50 to 60 people with a view to returning to normal living conditions and finding work for a proportion of the foreign refugees who had been interned in French camps for longer than one or two years. The project is run by the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons (Gerlier), who commissioned the social workers to make contact with the local authorities. After an extended examination of the different aspects of the project (economic, local conditions, administrative), they gave their agreement. On several occasions, the cardinal has interceded with the Vichy government in the project’s favor in order to obtain its authorization.
Geographical aspects:
The centre should:
Be sufficiently far from an urban agglomeration but at the same time fairly close to Lyons to enable our direction, which is based there, to maintain a permanent link with the centre.
Be based in a region where supply problems can be resolved without too many difficulties
Be fitted out in such a way as to ensure rapid installation, without excessive expenditure.
The choice of the Beaujolais hotel at Chansaye in the Rhone therefore seems fitting.
After the request for authorization,
from the town hall of the commune of Poule,
from the police station of Lamure sur Azergue,
from the sub-prefecture of Villefranche,
from the prefecture of the Rhone,
from the minister of the Interior,
the direction of the housing centers could be created.
Criteria for the selection of residents:
The goal is not to create hospices for the “elderly or incurable” but to “return to healthy, socially useful individuals with a human value and sufficient morals a normal frame of existence.” The project also consists of reuniting separated couples. The residents are not selected according to their origins or religious confession. After consideration, the choice was limited to men and women aged from 25 to 45 years of age in the liberal or manual professions, who have been noted for their socially-minded activities in the camp.
Financial organization:
Given the difficulties in finding funding, it is necessary to establish economic autarchy through a system of paying third parties. Two thirds of the residents will be housed for free according to the above-mentioned criteria, whilst the last third will be selected according to their ability to pay board and lodging. Although those with such ability are often elderly, the Management of the centers has nevertheless tried to place previously separated couples as a paying third party.
Each paying third party pays 2500 Frs a month and subsidies the needs of three people. In the case of departure, a refund is possible with a forfeit of 3000 Frs for the cost of replacement of the person (with all the measures this entails). The goal being to be autonomous and dependent on no charitable organization, the Management has nevertheless needed help starting up, which was given by the camps Jewish charities central commission, represented by its secretary general, Mr Georges Picard, who provided 50,000 Fr for each centre. Furthermore the Relico committee has provided winter clothes to the residents.
Organization of the Centers:
Each centre has a French treasurer in charge of accounting and supplies. This is also the centre’s representative to the local authorities. Internal organization is delegated to the residents; a managerial committee is formed of the most highly qualified representatives of three confessions: Jewish, Catholic and Protestant. This committee organizes the life of the community. In each centre there are specialists: a dentist, a doctor, two nurses, a male and female cook, a dressmaker, a gardener, a poultry farmer, a tailor and a carpenter. Workshops allow for the repair of resident’s belongings used for the benefit of the community and also for camp interns. The sanitary service of the Roche d’Ajoux centre (Chansaye, Rhone) is particularly important given the presence of elderly and infirm people. Several centers are in the process of being set up in the Drome, and the Management hopes to extend into the free zone. The national support committee of the Hautes-Alpes already supports the creation of a third house in the department.
Source: SSAE 20010/001 13/168 « centre d’accueil »
The management of the centres is made up of:
The Director: reverend Alexandre Glasberg, vicar of Notre Dame St Alban, Lyons.
Miss Nina Gourfinkel, delegate of the assistance committee of the Jewish population hit by the war (Relico), Geneva and New York, Lyons.
Doctor Joseph Weill of the OSE Union, Montpellier.
Headquarters: Presbytery of Notre Dame de St Alban, Lyons.
The Management works in collaboration with the SSAE and in particular its aid team working at Gurs under the direction of Mrs Ninon Hait.
SSAE: Social Service for the Assistance of Emigrants.
