March 2010

She received the call on her mobile when she was sitting on a park bench down by the lake eating her packed lunch. It was from a doctor at the American Hospital in Neuilly. He insisted that she come straight away to Paris. "Your Uncle, Anton Bittmann was admitted to the hospital a week ago with pneumonia. His condition is very fragile and I don't think he will last the night. He has been asking for you these last few days and only just this morning we found your business card in his wallet, He persists that he wants to tell you a GREAT SECRET."

She rushed back to the office, got on her computer and pulled up Easy Jet. They had a flight to Orly at 14:45 and seats were available. She would have to catch the next train leaving for the airport in seven minutes! She ran into her boss on the way out and informed him she would be back tomorrow.

She arrived at the airport a couple of minutes late due to the fact that the train was delayed. She went directly to the gate as the flight was boarding already, she was given a boarding pass at the desk in return for her printed confirmation.

The plane was half full; she had her choice of seats and took one next to the window in a empty row. So, Uncle Anton was dying. Actually, Great Uncle Anton, and he wanted to see her? What did she know of Uncle Anton? He was her maternal Grandfather's younger brother, born in the small border town of Schaffhausen in the Germanic part of Switzerland, he left in search of fame and fortune at an early age. He was always considered the Black Sheep of the family. When his name infrequently came up, the older members of the family always talked in hushed whispers. Rumour had it that he worked for the Nazis as a translator in Paris during the Occupation, and was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in England after the Liberation. Apparently her Grandfather had to go over in 1945 to pay his release, which was arranged by the Swiss Embassy in London. He has been living in Paris ever since. He must be close to 90 years of age!

Upon arrival at Orly she took a taxi to the hospital in Neuilly. Her first impression was that it appeared to be a plush hotel. The receptionist was awaiting her and telephoned through to the doctor she had previously talked to. A nurse was at his bedside as they entered his room. She was surprised to see how small Great Uncle Anton had become. It must be at least fifty years since she saw him last at a family re-union in Schaffhausen. She was a little girl at that time. The nurse was very relieved to see that she had arrived and said: " Your Uncle keeps repeating numbers, here I've written them down for you – men 3'118, women 5'919, children 4'115. There are dates too – 16/17 July 1942." The doctor mentioned that they looked the dates up on Internet and that it must have had something to do with Le Vél d'Hiv (Vélodrome d'Hiver) where the Vichy government rounded up over 13'000 people for deportation to Auschwitz. When Uncle Anton heard that name, he opened his eyes wide and looked directly at his niece and said in the Swiss German dialect from his native Schaffhausen that the Nazis wanted to kill him too, he had to record their names and addresses because they said everything must be in order. Even though they were all Parisiens, each had the Star-of-David attached to their outer garment. His last words before Uncle Anton expired were: "I didn't want them to hurt the children, I didn't want them to hurt anyone."