The gendarmerie, the French military police, was in part complicit in Dieulefit and protected the mayor’s secretary, Jeanne Barnier (96). Jeanne Barnier is an amazing story herself as she fabricated hundred of false identifications with real official documents and stamps. The whole village was complicit, and many more people helped and were not recognized. For many, it was only natural to have contributed to passive and active resistance against the occupation and certainly helped shelter so many Jewish people.

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Justin Jouve (97), Dieulefit mayor was removed from his function by Petain for refusing to pledge loyalty. He resigned and joined the resistance with his son. He was replaced by General Pizot considered loyal to Vichy. Pizot while pledging loyalty to Vichy,  let his secretary, Jeanne Barnier, falsify around two thousand sets of false identifications during the occupation. Barnier received the “righteous among the gentiles” denomination for the false identifications provided to Jewish people and for hiding Jewish children in her home. She also made false identification papers for the resistance, the FTP and the abbot Glasberg.

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Dieulefit integrated 1500 refugees for a population of 3500 people. Hidayat and his family were not alone, however, he was certainly visible due to his darker skin tone. From the signature and text that Hidayat left in Beauvallon’s guest book (98), we know that he was in Dieulefit April 29, 1942.

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The three women directing Beauvallon’s school were very well informed of political history and development as they built an extensive and varied network. During a trip to Great Britain in 1938, they were exposed to what the Nazi persecutions were doing.  Having a propensity for an open heart, altruism, generosity and a welcoming personality, resisting and taking action was a normal reaction for them against such horrors. The first refugees were French army officers repatriated from Lyon before leaving for London, or people hurt in the Vercors just north of Dieulefit, then Jewish children and teenagers and political refugees followed. They were not only in close contact with the Maquis but participated, organizing and supporting people who were evading the STO (forced labor in Germany) and helped with airdrops and communication. They also helped people to escape to Switzerland like Bernard Bernson.

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In Beauvallon, not far from the school, the boarding house was meant to take care of elderly people but now hosted parents of the children who took refuge in the school. Mrs. Rivard with Mr. and Mrs. Dourson were running this house. There was another school in Dieulefit called La Roseraie, run by Pol Arcens and his wife Mad (both recognized as “righteous among the gentiles” after the war) as they also took in many Jewish teenagers.

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 In Dieulefit, the initial human and unconditional welcome morphed into resistance that emanated from solidarity with the plight of oppressed people and from a political attitude averse to Nazi and fascist ideology.

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This, in turn, continued toward active organized resistance to Vichy and the Italian and German occupation. Many studied this phenomenon in Dieulefit and other villages in the region. It was not born from any organized group but was directed by the free choice made by individuals that were initially of protestants but also of catholic beliefs and others. More importantly, as the village of Dieulefit was half protestant and catholic for a total population of three thousand souls who absorbed fifteen hundred more people, the fraternity among the populace was found to be exceptional. Practically nobody was caught or denounced to the Vichy police or the German Gestapo. Hidayat found the perfect environment to hide and live in peace with his family, his wife Helena and two young children. The third child Gayan was born in Dieulefit at the end of 1944.

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December 11, 1942, Vichy ordered all Jews in the Free Zone to be identified as such on their identification documents. British subjects were also subjected to arrest and be put into camps set up around Montelimar.

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Hidayat became a music teacher at the Lycée Musical of Dieulefit in 1942 according to his own biography (99). We know from his entry in the Beauvallon guest book that he was in Dieulefit since April of that year.

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Throughout the war years, Claire (Hidayat’s sister) said that they had no direct news from Hidayat but heard through Sufis that he and his family were alright (22). They knew from a telegram received two months after their arrival in Oxford that Hidayat made it to Solignac, in the Haute Vienne, and was staying at Chateau Marbouty.

Claire's information after that was incorrect (23) as Inayat was born in Nice on December 26, 1940. Therefore, in the four months from August 18, 1940, at Solignac to December 26, 1940, Hidayat’s party made its way to Nice. I would assume they did not stay in Solignac very long as Leny was already five months pregnant and travel would have been more difficult for her. Claire’s information that Hidayat was in Dieulefit September 5, 1941, might not be correct, however, he might have visited there shortly looking for a safer place to stay. Fazal was born in Montelimar July 20, 1942 however Hidayat was in Dieulefit April 1942.

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The Lycée musical (29), 17 rue Gabriel Péri was an institution run by the Eberhard sisters, Hélène (100) and Jeanne. The Eberhard’s sisters as the other leaders in the Dieulefit’s school showed great sensibility toward their student personal, familial and psychological situation (101). Jean-Pierre Lévi took violin lesson at Lycée musical. His father was arrested and deported. From that moment, they provided him free lessons. 

November 11, 1942 Germans and Italians shared the zone called “Free.” The Drôme department was put under the Italians army occupation.

Like Hidayat, Ella Rumpf took refuge in Dieulefit in early 1942. Back in Berlin in 1987 she recounted her memories in a book (102). At the turn of 1942, she lived in Lyon and worked underground with Hermann Nüding. The French resistance told them that their names figured in a list provided to the Gestapo for their arrest and they had to leave. They were issued false identification under the names of Jean and Josephine Bauer as Alsatians and were sent to Dieulefit, especially to the Beauvallon School. Ella Rumpf wrote how this school became a center of resistance welcoming many Jewish children separated from parents in hiding or jail. She was grateful to Jeanne Barnier, the town hall’s secretary who provided food vouchers and helped them find shelter near the school. Ella helped the school three times per week, traveling to Comps five miles away to bring back milk, goat cheese, eggs, butter, sausage and flour to feed the children of this growing school population. One day Ella tailored and sewed a black robe for a woman who lost a family member. From that moment many country women asked her to sew clothing for them. Herman Nüding and Ella moved in an abandoned farm, called the “Bauer’s farm”, located near the road going to Comps at Vesc. People in the village loaned them pots and pans, a sewing machine, sheets, and blankets. For a small amount, they were able to purchase a radio that was so important for them. From the news, Hermann Nüding created pamphlets distributed by his communications couriers. Later on, they used it to receive messages critical for airdrops. Ella was working indifferently for Catholics and Protestants. She did her best uniting them in their hatred for the German occupation. She incited them to provide food for the school’s children instead of the occupation force requisitions. Later, she directed that effort in feeding the “Maquisards” (resistants) who were hiding in the mountains and woods. She also asked the farmers to engage young people refusing to leave for the STO (obligatory work service in Germany) for farm labor. She soon met pastor Eberhard who had been in Dieulefit for twenty years. Eberhard came from Strasbourg and showed great discretion about Ella supposed similar city of origin. Ella and Hermann learned from the writer Andrée Viollis, who was living in the Beauvallon boarding house near the school, that Louis Aragon was in danger in Lyon. They gave refuge to Louis Aragon in their farm and introduced him as a distant family member. Later on, his wife Elsa Triolet who was writing a novel joined him. These German communists, exiled and illegally in France, gave refuge to French communists. They lived there in primitive conditions. Without running water they had to fetch it in the spring, the toilets were outdoor and just a hole in the ground. In winter this was particularly challenging as it was very cold in those mountains. After a few months, Louis Aragon and his wife moved to Saint-Donat in more hospitable accommodations.

Rene Ladet, President of the FFI Historical Commission in Drome provided a document in 1944 speaking of the friendship between Andree Viollis with Jean Bauer and his wife. He found out later that Jean Bauer was one of the political leaders of the anti-nazi movement in Germany and a well-known writer. The Gestapo gave him a death sentence, he was hiding in total solitude. However, he made many friends in the countryside around him. He was also at the center of many airdrops organized by the Maquis and helped them get ready for the time of battle.

February 16, 1943, the law signed by Prime Minister Laval for Joseph Barthelemy, the Justice Minister, deemed it necessary that all males over 20 be subject to forced labor in Germany ‘service du travail obligatoire.’ This STO law caused the departure in hiding of nearly 200,000 evaders, of whom approximately one quarter became full-time members of the French resistance.

Nearby Comps, in one of the big farms, Mother Riaille, and her husband lived there with fourteen children. She was past her fifty years of age. One of her sons was the village major’s secretary. He provided ration cards to the “farmworkers” becoming more numerous as they sought to avoid forced labor in Germany. The unmarried children worked at the farm. With such a large family there was much need for sewing. Mother Riaille ran the farm and her husband was the sheep shepherd (a good alibi for resistance work). A radio transmitter was hidden in the Morin’s farm nearby. This had been installed by the secret army and Mother Riaille would never speak about it.

The Gestapo came from Lyon to Comps after an arrest lead them to suspect the radios around that village. They were unsuccessful to find the radios as they were removed and hidden just in time. When the Gestapo arrived at Mother Riaille’s farm, she gave the signal through one of her children who said: “my mother does not have milk for you, do not come today.” This was enough to let Elsa know that something untoward was happening and that everything should be hidden. It was the pastor Eberhard, named head of a Lyon’s parish in 1942 and Jeanne Barnier who gave the warning after hearing of a denunciation. This was about Mr. Boisjol, Dieulefit’s freight mover who was the contact for the radios at the Morin’s farm. When the German arrived, Mother Riaille gave them coffee and told them that it was her duty with all the people passing by. They made a search that did not turn anything and could not even find the hidden arms.

Mr. Boisjol, Morin and Achard were arrested May 25, 1944 and taken to the Montluc jail. Morin died there from stomach cancer. Boisjol and Achard got their freedom back in July 1944 thanks again to pastor Eberhard who made a special plea to the general in charge of Lyon. It helped that their Gestapo’s file was destroyed in the Health School bombing used as Gestapo’s headquarter.

In the spring 1943, Hermann Nuiding went to Dieulefit to stay in touch with French communists, including Mister Peyrol. They asked the farm to identify and prepare a field for airdrop and parachuting. They provided a field not far from the farm without trees or ravines and sufficiently apart from other farms. They were trained how to mark the field with fires and send signal with a flashlight. They waited for the London radio message at 7 PM for the one destined to them: “the cook make sure that its kitchen is clean.” Thus they started receiving airdrops with arms and ammunitions. Since there was no combat around Dieulefit but much more in the Vercors, they got in contact with the resistance there to supply them.

So many new people were coming to hide from forced labor that it was impossible to host everyone. They had to create a new mountain camp for this “maquis” providing them with military training. The farmers provided food. Medicine was in short supply and was lacking badly.

In the summer of 1943, more information came related to Jewish children's deportation from boarding schools, so Mademoiselle Soubeyran took additional precautions. Nighttime was most susceptible to danger. It became necessary to send the children to the mountain to spend the nights. She organized a hidden hut with straw and blankets for the kids wanted for political or racial motifs. Boys and girls slept there for month in peace. During the day they went back to class. The main road where the German troops passed was easy to observe and its distance provided enough time for a warning. In the winter of 1943, the resistance stopped the German traveling on the road during the night and this allowed the children back to the school dorms. 

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