Francine Christophe, "the child of the camps": putting words on the unspeakable

Audio 29:00

Francine Christophe publishes "l'Enfant des camps" by Grasset editions.

© Photo credit: 39-45: The children's war a film by Julien Johan and Michèle Durren written with the collaboration of Manon Pignot (c) Cie des Phares & Balises / Réseau Canopé

By: Pascal Paradou

31 min

July 1942, Francine Christophe is 9 years old, she is arrested with her mother by the Gestapo.

They go from prison to prison, then will be deported two years later to the Bergen-Belsen camp.

On her return, she tries to tell about the cold, the hunger, the disease, the beatings, the rotting corpses, the fear ... She cannot do it.

Today the words resurface. 

Publicity

Guest:

Francine Christophe

, author, poet and woman of letters, born in Paris in 1933. She was deported at the age of 11 to the Bergen-Belsen camp with her mother.

Today, she testifies regularly in middle and high schools.

She publishes 

"l'Enfant des camps", published by Grasset. 

And

Lucie Bouteloup's

column

,

 "La puce à l'oreille": Avoir la berlue, a column to be found every week on the

RFI Savoirs website.

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