Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac

Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac, née Hiltermann, alias Touty, (17 January 1919 - 2 October 2001) was a member of the Dutch-Paris network during the French Resistance. Captured by the Nazi she was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. After the liberation Suzanne Hiltermann moved to China in the 1960s. She came back to France and retired in Ardèche next to Chambon-sur-Lignon. To reward her fight for freedom and for the saving of many allied pilots during the Second World War, President Harry S. Truman gave her the Medal of Freedom (1946).

Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac, 1960

Early life

Suzanne Hiltermann was born in a family of magistrates and industrialists. At the age of 20, she left Holland, to study ethnology in Paris. Shortly after the German invasion of France, she joined the French Resistance.

World War II

Dutch-Paris Resistance Network

In 1943, Suzanne joined the resistance Dutch-Paris network. This movement was founded by a Dutch diplomat Herman Laatsman and led by an industrialist, Johan Hendrik Weidner. It operated in direct coordination with the Allied forces. After saving the life of more than 1000 Jews persecuted by the Nazi Force, The réseau specialized in saving Allied pilots shot down in continental Europe, helping them to return to their bases.

Through the connections established by Touty within the German Embassy, in particular with Karl-Heinz Gerstner, the Dutch-Paris network received confidential information and forged papers.[1][2]

As air missions increased, and more planes were shot down, Suzanne Hiltermann was more involved in all the operations needed first for sheltering the pilots and then for moving them out of the Nazi controlled areas. Touty accompanied several groups of pilots to the Gare d'Austerlitz to join the train for Toulouse, from where they would escape through Pyrenees to Spain.

According to statistics from the US Department of Defence, more than 120 pilots were saved. According to the historian Megan Koreman, "Between 1942 andc1944, the Dutch-Paris escape line, what Americans would call underground railroad, rescued approximately 3,000 people from the nazis"[3].

Denunciation

Leo Marc Mincovschi worked as an interpreter at the German Embassy.[4] He informed Touty, on her return from Toulouse, that Suzy Kraay had been arrested by French police on February 10 and that the network was blown. Both rushed to the apartment of Touty, on Laos Street, to destroy all evidence, papers, clothes and other incriminating objects. Touty then contacted Hermann Laatsman and Captain Weidner. Both thought that there was no reason for alarm: "It's simply a black market story. There is nothing to fear".

February 26 began with a Gestapo dragnet that led to the arrest of all members of the Dutch-Paris network apart from Captain Weidner who managed to flee. Touty was arrested on February 27, 1944. She was interned in Fresnes and Romainville. After several brutal Gestapo interrogation sessions, she was deported to Ravensbrück in the convoy of 18 April 1944.

Deportation

Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz was one of Touty's fellow inmates and friends at Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her son Michel (one of the founders of the Arte television channel) later reported his mother's memories of those times: "She never spoke of the camp, but it was a continuous presence, every second of her life" ("... il était présent à chaque seconde de sa vie ") In the cattle wagon that transported the prisoners across Germany, Jacqueline Pery[5] remembered Touty as one of the few prisoners who had a clear idea of what to expect. She had spent most of her youth living relatively near the German border. She spoke German fluently, and had read "Mein Kampf" before the war had started. Having heard and understood the meaning of Chancellor Hitler's speeches, having maintained close connections with anti-Nazi Germans after 1940, and having frequently escorted persecuted Jews to the Swiss border, she was well informed about the hellish universe that awaited them.

White buses drive through Odense on the way to Sweden

At the camp, she remained in the block occupied by the French. Life and work were very hard (see in the detailed testimony of her friend Jacqueline Pery de la Rochebrochard). When her 17 year old future sister in law, Simone Souloumiac, with whom she shared a workbench, showed her despair, Touty whispers to her: "Hold on! We need to see the end of the movie”.

President of the Swedish Red Cross, Count Folke Bernadotte is approached by Himmler to discuss a "peace of the brave" with the Allies. During his second interview with Heinrich Himmler, the Count requires the freedom of some women detained at Ravensbrück. Himmler finally gives his consent.

The camp commander Suhren finally accepts, not without major difficulties. The orders of Himmler appear to contradict those of total extermination given by the Führer. The Bernadotte operation is conducted by a Swedish doctor, Dr Arnoldson. On April 23, 1945, seventeen white buses drove three hundred Belgian, Dutch and French women to Göteborg.

Liberation

Touty returned to France aboard a special aircraft of the US Air Force. A few months later she married the brother of Simone Souloumiac, Pierre Souloumiac, Captain of the Merchant Marine. In 1951, Pierre Souloumiac joined the Ministry of Merchant Marine where he worked on the drafting of the Code on the transport of dangerous goods. The couple had three children: Anne-Geneviève, Irène et Alain Souloumiac. They then settled in an old farmhouse in the hamlet of Balizy, 23 kilometers south of Paris.

Touty often received her old friends from the camp, including Germaine Tillion.[6] They have long discussions about the Algerian War of Independence. During one of their conversations, they invented the new concept of "clochardisation" to describe the terrible marginalization that affects a large part of the human species. They sympathized with the Algerians rebels who were fighting the French. Their past lead them to denounce torture and to favor independence. Close to General de Gaulle, Germaine Tillion was one of the few interlocutors who were able to convince him of the need for the independence of Algeria. This was achieved by the signature of the Évian Accords between the French government and the Algerian rebels.

Her husband Pierre died on 3 February 1956. Touty then passed through a difficult period. She published tales for children.[7] She became the correspondent in France of the Haagse Post, a Dutch weekly owned by her brother, G.B.J. Hiltermann. Elected at the City Council of Longjumeau, she promoted the hamlet of Balizy, building on its rich past as a former Commandery of Knights Templars. She also organized the Festival of Freedom on the square where the Templars’ Chapel used to stand.

The Discovery of China

In 1959, she meets Albrecht Van Aerssen, a Dutch diplomat. They marry in The Hague on April 1, 1960. Albrecht is the son of Baron François Cornelis van Aerssen van Beijeren Voshol[8] who, Minister Plenipotentiary in China advised his country, despite the opposition of the United States to recognize China after the revolution of 1947. Taking advantage of the support of his father and of his wife, Baron Albrecht Van Aerssen is sent shortly after his marriage to Hong Kong by the Dutch Crown, where he becomes Consul General.

French School

To educate the children in the small French colony, Touty founded a school in 1963. At the beginning, the school occupied every morning three rooms in the premises of the French Alliance in Hang Seng Bank Building on Des Voeux Road. It worked with some volunteer teachers, most of whom came from the consulate of France which offices were located a few floors below. The Commandant Houël, the Military Attaché, handled mathematics. The Reverend-Père Chagny taught literature. Pierre-Jean Rémy was the first history teacher.

With the support of “correspondence courses” of CNTE from Vanves, little by little, the school started to grow 1 200 students are today studying at the Lycée Victor Segalen Hong Kong which became Asia's largest French high school.[9]

In February 1964, Touty and her children left the British enclave aboard Laos, a ship chartered by the Messageries Marîtimes. The same year, Touty divorced Baron Van Aerssen. Following the opening of universities which was provoked by the events of May 1968, she took Chinese studies at Jussieu.

The recognition of China by France

In 1963 Touty receives the visit of Bernard Anthonioz, Counsellor of André Malraux and husband of her friend Geneviève de Gaulle. Several talks relate in particular to the future mission of Edgar Faure - who General Charles de Gaulle intends to send in Peking for the recognition of China by France. Touty strongly supports the interest of France to take such a decision. Unlike many other people of her generation, she does not consider the communists as enemies. Many of her friends in the resistance belonged to the Communist movement. She believes in a sustainable alliance of great nations beyond changes and political evolutions. She repeats the arguments her father in law, Baron François Cornelis Van Aerssen, had issued 16 years earlier to convince the Dutch Crown.

Her friend Bernard is conquered. Discussions go very far. They consider the historical dimensions of such recognition, to contain and resolve the Vietnam war. The composition of the first team who will represent France in Beijing is evoked. Touty recommends the quality of Pierre-Jean Rémy, then vice-consul in Hong Kong. He will later be admitted to the French Academy because of the importance of his work in China. The personality of the first ambassador of France in Beijing is also considered (Lucien Paye).

Nien Cheng

The same year, she meets and becomes friends with Nien Cheng, an exceptional Chinese woman. As a sign of gratitude for their first discussions on China, the arts and the meaning of life, Nien Cheng offers to Touty four paintings by great masters of Chinese painting, including a Qi Baishi.

Back in Europe, Touty learns the abuse her friend and her daughter are subjected by the Red Guards. Cheng's daughter, Meiping is a bright and promising actress. Brutalized an entire day by the Red Guards, while she has not yet twenty, Meiping returns in the evening to the apartment she shares with her mother in Shanghai. When pressed by Nien Cheng, she admits the brutal treatments that were inflicted to her, as "'dirty daughter of a mother serving bourgeois’ imperialism.'" At that time, her mother represents in China the Shell Company. The guards wanted Meiping to condemn her mother. Nien is in tears. Meiping replies: "But, Mom, they can hit as hard as they want, the truth will remain and they will be unable to change anything."

Soon after, in early 1967 Touty learns that Nien has been arrested and deported. She then writes a letter to Chairman Mao Zedong to beg him to free her friend. In vain. Nien underwent several years of captivity in harsh re-education camps. Nien renews relations with Touty soon after leaving the camp. In 1980, the United States and Canada where she emigrated, Nien writes long letters to Touty about the memories of this torment. From the mountains of the Ardèche, where it is housed, Touty relives in these sad episodes some of the agonies she suffered in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. To write is release. She suggests to her Chinese friend to write a book. Nien is persuaded. She asks her to read some of her chapters as she writes. The book is published in 1987 under the title Life and Death in Shanghai. It experienced considerable international success.[10]

Last years

Van Waveren family led her to discover the Ardèche region where she moved in 1981. She spent the last twenty years of her life in Désaignes where she died on 2 October 2001.

Tributes

• The municipal council of Montreuil-Juigné in Maine-et-Loire named a street after her name in the Hameau de l’Espérance.
• In his book, Présence française à Hong Kong, du XIXe siècle à aujourd'hui, François Drémeaux acknowledge the prominent role played by Suzanne Hiltermann in the foundation of the Lycée Français de Hong Kong.

References

1. Gerstner, Karl-Heinz (1999). Sachlich, kritisch und optimistisch (in German). Berlin: Edition Ost. p. 183. ISBN 978-393218078-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Barth, Bernd-Rainer; Müller-Enbergs, Helmut (2010). "Karl-Heinz Gerstner". In H M-E; Jan Wielgohs; Dieter Hoffmann; Andreas Herbst; Ingrid Kirschey-Fei (eds.). Wer war wer in der DDR?. 1 (5 ed.). Berlin: Ch.Links. ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4.
3. Megan Koreman, Wars Long Shadow, Notre Dame Magazine Spring 2220 P.31
4. Gerstner 1999, p. 146.
5. "Survivre à Ravensbrück Témoignage de Jacqueline Péry d'Alincourt*". larochebrochard.free.fr.
6. Germaine Tillion, Algeria in 1957, editions de minuit.
7. S. Souloumiac, "Le Chemin Perdu", in Rachel Green farmland and other tales and new support for the book 1983
8. The Chinese Journals of L.K. Little, 1943–54: An Eyewitness ..., Volume 2 By Chihyun Chang
9. François Dremeaux, Hong Kong, French Attendance, Bonham Books, 2013, p. 212
10. The newspaper article Monde http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2009/11/16/nien-cheng-victime-de-la-revolution-culturelle-chinoise_1267792_3382.html

Further reading

• Koreman, Megan (2018). The Escape Line: How the Ordinary Heroes of Dutch-Paris Resisted the Nazi Occupation of Western Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-066229-5.