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You are a child of the Second World War. For readers not familiar with your profile, could you tell us your story?
I was born in Bordeaux in 1937, which was hardly the most auspicious time to be born a Jew given that war broke out in 1939. My father joined the Regiment of Foreign Volunteers and vanished. In fact, nearly all of my family disappeared. I myself was arrested in Bordeaux in January 1944 during a round-up of Jews, but managed to escape in quite an incredible manner. The word “incredible” has a double meaning because the story of my escape was so very unlikely that when I told people about it after the war, nobody believed me, condemning me to forty years of silence. When I tried to tell people my story, they laughed and didn't believe a word, as it surpassed the realms of ordinary human experience.
When I appeared on France 3 Aquitaine when my first book came out, a lady called to ask: “Aren't you little Boris, the boy whom I helped to escape?” She had left her phone number, so I called a taxi and went to see her. That incident marked the start of my search to find witnesses to my escape. For example, I remember that I had crawled under the body of a lady who was dying because of internal bleeding after being hit in the stomach with a rifle butt. The Germans had come to put her in a truck and take her away to avoid witnesses. Given their pact with the Vichy Government, they wanted to project a positive image. The truck drove off carrying the dying woman and me hidden under her body. Many years later, the lady's granddaughter got in touch, and I remain on friendly terms with her son to this day.
Once I had found all the witnesses to my escape, I felt that I had both the right and the opportunity to speak out, something which I had found impossible during the previous forty years. I decided to delve into my memories to investigate whether my own recollections matched the information in archive records and the memories of other witnesses who had been present in the same place and...