DEPORTATION DIARY, from Dachau to Natzweiler-Struthof

Musician and blind man: the journey of Arthur Poitevin, Resistance fighter and deportee.

Born in 1917 into a family of fishing sailors from Port-en-Bessin, Arthur Poitevin lost his sight at the age of four. He received the providential support of a university professor who had himself become blind at that age. Arthur attended the Clermont-Ferrand conservatoire, where he obtained a First Prize in violin and a Second Prize in piano, before becoming a violin teacher in Bayeux.

He joined the Resistance. Shortly after his marriage in August 1943, he was arrested and interned at the Struthof in annexed Alsace, then at Dachau in September 1944. He left the camp in May 1945 and on his return wrote this Deportation Diary, describing the haunting presence of the crematorium, the deprivations and suffering, the roll-call sessions in the cold, and the abuse endured by prisoners who had attempted to escape.

Revolted by the brutality of the SS and indignant at the passivity of a few, it is he — so deeply attached to fraternity and Christian values — who supports his comrades in distress.

The unique testimony of a young blind musician, confronted with the horror of the concentration camps, sustained by an ardent will to live.