My Exodus of June 1940 – Le Havre, Trouville, Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët

Gérard Régnier recounts his exodus of June 1940 as a historian, placing it precisely within a period that, with hindsight, appears as the darkest in our national history: the "dark years." He meticulously describes the international situation during the 1930s, the retreat of the French and British Allies in the face of Hitler's provocations and his "bluff diplomacy," and the misplaced confidence of timid political leaders and incompetent military commanders.

His account shows him at the age of 6, on 11 June 1940, crossing the Seine estuary from Le Havre to Trouville-sur-Mer with his widowed mother and his 12-year-old brother, aboard a fishing boat, under fire from German Stuka aircraft. In 1941 and 1942, in Le Havre, during the bombing raids, he spent a succession of nights in a tiny cellar. Evacuated to Lillebonne in 1943, he one day saw his young schoolteacher in the street, in a milice uniform. He would learn long after the war that, as a member of a Le Havre resistance group of secondary-school pupils, his teacher had been arrested by the German police in 1941 and imprisoned for six months in the Santé prison.

And, as a particular "privilege" of a Le Havre native, the author would experience a second exodus four years later, in August 1944, making his way in stages — entirely on foot this time — along the forty kilometres separating Le Havre from Lillebonne. The sight of women having their heads shaved in the town square on the day of their arrival is an indelible memory. Thrust prematurely into the role of attentive observer in the adult world, the exceptional circumstances of this period allowed him to assess those around him through their behaviour. Yet, protected by an admirable mother and making the most of every small daily happiness, he is at pains to show that for a child, even the most dramatic circumstances are very often followed by moments of joy — testament to childhood's capacity for resilience.