Carnet d'un temoin (1940-1943)

Presents the diary of Lambert (1894-1943), covering the period between July 1940-August 1943. Lambert, a French Jewish journalist and administrator of the Comité National de Secours and the Comité d'assistance aux réfugiés d'Allemagne, dealt with refugee problems which arose following World War I. He was particularly interested in the plight of Jewish refugees. He served as the head of UGIF from the end of 1941 until his arrest in August 1943, when he was interned in Drancy. Four months later, he and his family (wife and four children) were deported to Auschwitz where they were gassed upon arrival. Although written with the caution necessary under stressful and dangerous conditions in southern France, Lambert's diary reveals his efforts to aid and protect the Jews, as well as his contacts with French and German authorities for this purpose. The diary also conveys his agonizing struggle to understand how his loyalties as a Frenchman could withstand the Vichy government's efforts to turn the Jews into pariahs of the society he cherished. In the introduction (pp. 13-62), Richard Cohen highlights the moral dilemmas which Lambert faced, which resembled those of other Jewish leaders in Europe having to decide whether or not to collaborate with the Nazis and the local authorities. He presents new information on how Lambert provided aid to the Jewish resistance via UGIF.