Léa Beaudufe-Hamelin 11:00 a.m., September 28, 2021
Jean-Charles is a "Child of La Creuse".
Placed in an orphanage in Reunion Island when he was a child, Jean-Charles was deported to France to repopulate departments emptied by the rural exodus.
He tells Olivier Delacroix about his uprooting and his difficulties in reconnecting with his family.
TESTIMONY
In the 1960s, several French departments such as Creuse, Lot or Cantal were depopulated due to the rural exodus. Michel Debré, then a member of Parliament for Reunion, who was experiencing a demographic boom, suggested to General de Gaulle to send Reunionese children placed with the DDASS to mainland France. Between 1963 and 1982, more than 1,600 children aged 2 to 12 had to leave their native island, sometimes without the consent of their parents. They are called the "Children of the Creuse" and Jean-Charles is one of them. He tells Olivier Delacroix the consequences of his deportation to France on his life.
After her divorce, Jean-Charles' father obtained custody. Despite his good professional situation, he abandoned it. Jean-Charles was then placed in an orphanage: "The court gave my father custody of my sister and I. He separated us, but we still do not know why. My family does not want to talk about it. Maybe. be that it's a shame. Maybe their hands were tied. Maybe it was also difficult to do because DDASS was a big institution in the 1960s. "
Jean-Charles does not know anything about the circumstances of his departure for France: "I do not know if my parents were consulted for this departure. I do not even know if someone signed a paper. I do not know how it is. is decided. There is a complete blur. "
Jean-Charles remembers, on the other hand, his state of mind when he knew he was going to leave: "We said to each other: 'Great, we are going to go to France! We are going to discover something else and we will come back, as we do. told us'.
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There are some who have never returned to Reunion Island
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We were told that we would learn a trade, that we would be educated and that after that we would come back to see our family as often as possible. There are some who have never returned to Reunion. They never saw their parents again, they don't even know their family. We had no mail, no contact, nothing at all. We were really cut off from them. I wonder if they knew we were in France. "
He recalls his long journey which led him to Quézac in the Massif Central: "We were all grouped against each other. We cried because we left our island. We were small. We didn't see anyone around. us. It impressed us. We arrived in Paris and we took the train to Albi. It was cold, we were in shorts. We left Reunion in summer clothes. We hold on with everything. who is around. There are friends. We try to distract ourselves so as not to think that we have no family. We try to forget all that. "
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I see it as a deportation
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Five years ago, Jean-Charles found Jean-Max, also sent to France at the age of 12, when he was not an orphan. He has never returned to Reunion and no longer has any contact with his family. He gives his point of view: "I see it as a deportation. I cannot say it otherwise. We were taken from Reunion to send us to mainland France. We did not come of our own free will. They were designated without giving us any explanations. It was supposedly to populate, to study and to come back to Reunion with some luggage. It did not happen like that.
We were left at the orphanage for two years, then we were put to work.
I had to go back to Figeac.
It was only there that I could find a friend to accommodate me.
He didn't have any money either, so every now and then he had to steal a few chickens for food.
We had nothing to eat.
My parents did not know that I was in the metropolis.
When my father found out, he must have got drunk and died at home.
I am a man who is missing a lot.
I had no affection.
I would have liked to see my father again.
I did not have this opportunity. "
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When Jean-Charles' mother learned that he was in France, she gathered the necessary money and moved to Nice to find him: "She was a cleaning lady. She took a taxi to come to me. to pull out of that and take me home. I stayed with her for a month, not even. The DDASS came back to get me to bring me back to Quézac. The DDASS tore me away from my mother. I took it badly. . Anger, we had it. With hindsight, we leave the anger in a corner, but we do not forget it. "
Jean-Charles got back in touch with his mother at the age of 19, but he was unable to forge emotional ties with her: "We never lived together. We loved each other as mother and son, but we never lived together. 'was not united. Yet we loved each other. We wanted to pick up all the little pieces that are missing in life. It's hard to go back to fill that 19-year-old void. It's impossible. We scored a lot. In Nice, we were training with other friends. We broke a few cars. We wanted to see what it was like. We even shot each other. We could have gone wrong. "
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I did not feel in my family
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Unable to establish an emotional relationship with his mother, Jean-Charles decided to return to Reunion Island to find his paternal family: “The door was wide open, I thought they were waiting for me. When I told them that I 'was Jean-Charles, their grandson, my grandfather jumped up and said,' We don't need a bastard at home. 'It shocked me. I thought I was going to be welcomed with open arms, like a prodigal son who has lived for years on his own.
I found myself up against the wall being called a bastard.
I was 20 years old.
I didn't understand his reaction.
Even now, I don't understand.
An uncle stood up saying that I was not a bastard.
I went back to France because I didn't feel like I was in my family.
You can feel it when there is a link.
I gave up everything.
It hurt my heart a lot.
I didn't have a lot of memories.
The few memories I have are in this house and they are wasting away. "