Wilhelm Byk was born in Vienna on December 23rd 1920.
The testimony that we are reproducing here was written in Lourdes on February 11th 1945, and we have decided to keep the statement as it was composed by Wilhelm Byk with its linguistic imperfections and its own truth, that of the witness.
In February 1939 I left Austria illegally to seek refuge in Belgium as a Jewish person. When I arrived in Belgium I thought I had been saved from a tyrannical regime. On May 10th 1940, the day of the German attack on Belgium, I was evacuated to France. On my arrival in France I was placed in the camp of Foga for a few days and then transferred to St Cyprien close to Perpignan. Although I am Jewish, I had Austrian nationality and was therefore recognized as Austrian.
Life at St Cyprien was most primitive.
On the unhappy day of the armistice, all German citizens were freed but Jews stayed in the camps, and our time of captivity had only just begun. In fact the Vichy government treated us like genuine criminals, and special guards were put in place to watch us. The heat was terrible, the food bad, there wasn’t a bed for any of us, for a long time we had to sleep on the ground on a small amount of hay.
The amount of vermin was terrifying, cases of typhoid fever and malaria became a daily occurrence. Thousands of my fellow Jews died in the course of this terrible epidemic. Young people were particularly vulnerable to these deadly illnesses. In July 1940 us Jews numbered around 7000 at St Cyprien, the survivors of these 7000 were transferred in cattle wagons to the camps of Gurs and Argelès.
When I arrived at Gurs, I met many other unfortunate people. At this time I was together with my father and brothers. I had thought that my suffering was at an end, but I was wrong. This suffering, these deprivations became greater and greater. On one hand the cold was intense, on the other the hunger was unbearable. Every day there were deaths from cold and hunger. Today would be the turn of one person, tomorrow that of the next. When we say the mass burials, we asked ourselves in our misery – would mine be the next turn? Thousands of Jews paid for their internment at Gurs alone with their life, it being impossible to withstand these hardships. In the morning, a beaker of coffee, at 11 o’clock the ration of 250g of bread minutely weighed. The menu was almost always the same, a soup consisting of water containing a few leaves of cabbage or pumpkin and Jerusalem artichoke as vegetables were served at midday. The evening meal was the same as at midday. There was a small canteen and sometimes we could buy dates or figs, but you had to have the money. No complaints from the interns were accepted by the sector head, each suggestion was made in vain. The sectors were all full, a large proportion of the interns became unwell; the fear of starving to death had a serious psychological impact on all those suffering. One day a piece of good news was heard in the camp – that we had the opportunity to leave Gurs. Indeed, a few days afterwards, a convoy of several hundred vehicles was formed in order to take them to the center at Récébedou.
On leaving Gurs, I was convinced I had survived internment. We were told that a reception centre had been set up at Récébedou; it is true that there was no hutting at Récébedou, but apart from that, the poverty of the camp was the same. A central kitchen prepared meals for more than a thousand people- for the inmates- special catering called Mess was arranged for the guards. A large part of what was intended for the inmates was used for this notorious special catering. Whilst the interns died of starvation, the guards didn’t hold back from serving themselves French fries, they had an abundance of everything, because they were taking our rations.
Orders such as: It is strictly forbidden to take anything from the waste containers were typical.
Hunger forced many of the prisoners to each carrot peelings and even potatoes that they had fished out from the waste containers. Exorbitant prices were paid for a piece of bread. Everything was being sold: suits, shoes.
In spite of everything, the camp administration did not hesitate to impose military discipline; those who couldn’t keep to it were mercilessly sent to the infamous barbed wire enclosures.
August 1942 arrived. There were still survivors. What a miracle! They were gathered up, men and women from the barbed enclosures; they were told nothing about the future.
Special guardians organized the transport, they were counted like cattle and put in closed cattle wagons.
It was the journey of death, the hardest path to be made to walk. I had the luck to be able to escape thanks to the intervention of a sector head who used me as an interpreter, and my father was saved too at the same time.
At this time my brother was at the emigration camp at Les Milles and had been deported, as was my mother who was in Brussels.
Several hundred elderly people remained out of the thousands of our camp fellows. But the Récébedou camp was still too good for these elderly people it seems; a special camp was reserved just for them: Nexon, a guarded residential centre. These elderly people (from 60 to 80 years old) were thrown once again into hutting.
The same procedure began; the victims of undernourishment and cold were extremely numerous but there were still survivors. A special French commission arrived, sorting took place, and a hundred transportable people were found – it’s a pity to leave them, they’ll be deported. The small number remaining were taken to centres in Masseube, Villemur, Septfond, etc…
So, a huge boat of people was sunk, yet still a few survivors were to be counted. I had the luck to be able to go with my father to Masseube, which was initially also a concentration camp. 200 elderly people were watched by 40 guards. After a six month stay at Masseube, I was arrested in the night of September the 9th to the 10th 1943 and taken to Noé to be enlisted in the Todt organisation.
Several hours before departure I was transferred by chance to the free sector and was, as a result, able to escape the convoy. At Noé itself I only met elderly people; even these old people had been taken to Vernet for deportation; old people, women and children, all were to undergo the same fate. I remember Mrs Altmann and their 5 children, her husband died at Noé, her and her children were not spared from deportation. I managed to get sent to Masseube. At that stage I believed I had survived my ordeals. One evening on January 10th 1944 around 10.10 in the evening, the Masseube centre was machine-gunned. There were serious injuries, such as amongst others Mrs Goldschmitt Emma, Mrs Mann Ida, or Mrs Steiner Régine, who had to be immediately transported to the hospital at Auch. The doctor declared that Mrs Mann was lost and that Mrs Goldschmitt would have to lose a leg, Mrs Mann returned alive but was in a critical condition. The Vichy Journal reported the next day that an English aeroplane had machine-gunned Masseube camp. We learned from an official source that this English aeroplane was a Boche aeroplane, that used the fact that the centre was lit up as an pretext to machine gun it. Mrs Goldschmit, Mann Ida, Steiner Régine are the living witnesses of this barbary, as they are currently at the Masseube centre in the Gers region.
A few months after this machine gunning a commission of two German officers arrived at the centre, asking for a list of all the Jews. (In fact 170). The director declared to us: You’ll be counted and must prepare for deportation.
Luckily at the last minute the Gers region, and France was liberated by the valiant maquisards and the allied armies. The German executioners were driven out of the country. Thanks to this historical event we survived St Cyprien, Gurs, Nexon, Récébedou, Noé and are lucky enough to see liberated France. We are thankful with all our hearts!
In 1945 Wilhelm Byk used the term “evacuated” in his testimonial to describe the arrests and deportations of May 10th 1940. See the section ‘history’ for details of May 10th 1940.
Wilhelm Byk is considered as an ex-Austrian on the lists at St Cyprien, as were his father and brother.
Extract from the list of interns at St Cyprien
Byk Chaim
born 29/4/1898 in Preskorow place of residence before the war: Brussels nationality: Ex-Austrian religion: Jewish Comments: -Le Fauga, Mazeres, Bordeaux
Byk Louis
Born 19/04/1913 in Cernauti Place of residence before the war: Brussels nationality: Ex Austrian religion: Jewish Comments:
Le Fauga, Mazeres
Transferred to Gurs
Arrived at les Milles camp 11/03/1941
Transferred from Milles to Drancy 11/08/1942
Deported from Drancy 14/08/1942
Byk Wilhelm
Born 23/12/1920 in Vienna Place of residence before the war: Brussels nationality: Ex Austrian religion: Jewish Comments: - Le Fauga, Mazeres, Bordeaux
The St Louis of Perpignan' Hospital Archives are not available to the public but it seems that the terms "thousands" is exagerated.
Testimony source: CDJC-Mémorial de la Shoah CCXVI-47
Louis Byk has been deported from Drancy in the convoy 19
Life at St Cyprien was most primitive.