Ninette’s War – gallery

Ninette’s Exode journey in 1940

Branded: Francoise Christiane ‘Ninette’ Dreyfus
submits to having ‘JUIF’ stamped in her ID card in 1943

In exile: Ninette and her father, Edgar, outside their
wartime refuge on the Croisette in Cannes.

Ninette’s diary: the first entry, for 3 September 1939,
marks the outbreak of war, the day her childhood idyll ends.

Prewar peace: Ninette in her father’s study at
24 square du Bois de Boulogne, once home to Debussy.

Swastikas over Paris: the Wehrmacht flag defiles the Eiffel Tower
in 1940, when Hitler paid his only visit to the City of Light.

Collaborator and conqueror: Pétain shocks France by
shaking hands with Hitler at Montoire in October 1940
and pledging support for the Fuhrer’s New Order.

La brune et la blonde: Viviane and Ninette at Marseille’s
Louvre et Paix Hotel at the end of the Exode in 1940.

Foraging for food on Marseille’s La Canebière: Ninette and her
beloved ‘Nounou’ during the exceptionally cold winter of 1940-41.

Clerical blessing for France’s supposed saviour: Marseille’s bishop, Jean Delay, welcomes Pétain in December 1940; five months later, he protests when Pétainists bombed Marseille’s synagogue.

Pétain’s legislative assault: a census to determine Jews’ nationality
and wealth in preparation for social exclusion and expropriation.

An antisemite squatter: Xavier Vallat, Pétain’s first Jewish affairs commissioner, requisitions the banque Louis-Dreyfus as his headquarters.

Sunshine on the Croisette: Viviane, her uncle Jacques
and cousin Manon at the Martinez Hotel.
Two years later, Jacques is gassed at Auschwitz.

Poison pen: Paris-Soir lies about conditions for Drancy inmates, including Edgar’s lawyer friend, Pierre Masse,
later gassed at Auschwitz.

Kissing cousins: Ninette’s favourite relatives, Maryse Schoenfeld
and her wounded veteran husband, André, enjoy their
haute juiverie lifestyle in 1920s Paris.

Radio Croisette: Ninette and Viviane with Edgar outside the Martinez, where ‘Tout Paris’ exiles gather to exchange wartime gossip.

First World War Red Cross nurse, now suspect citizen:
Ninette’s mother, Yvonne, branded ‘JUIF’ in 1943.

La résistante: ignoring her father, Viviane helps people avoid the STO, Pétain’s forced-labour contribution to Hitler’s New Order.

Fighting back: Ninette’s cousin, Pierre Louis-Dreyfus (left) poses as RAF navigator “Pierre Heldé” with his Lorraine Squadron crew, bombing strategic targets with fellow Jews including novelist Romain Gary.

Life-saving forgery: Edgar Dreyfus, banker, becomes
‘Edouard Delmas, industrialist’ in ID ‘authenticated’
by forged stamp of Marseille’s chief policeman.

Résistant bureaucrat at work: Meillon’s mayor authenticates
Viviane as ‘Viviane Delmas’, born in Valenciennes,
where records were destroyed in 1940.

Hiding in plain sight: Ninette and Viviane at the Manoir, home of Pierre Barthe, risk-loving Pau horse dealer and Jew rescuer.

Once a businessman always a businessman: ‘Edouard Delmas’ takes the autumn sun at the Manoir in suit, tie and polished shoes.

A Pyrenean trek: Basque smugglers lead Ninette, Yvonne and Manon from Cambo-les-Bains to the Spanish border town of Dantxarinea.

The righteous gentile who knew no fear: Pierre Barthe gives Ninette and Viviane free run of the grounds of his Pau estate while organising their flight from German-occupied France.

Le roi des passeurs: Henri Delhiart, the Basque smuggler descended from a dynasty of smugglers, who leads Allied airmen, résistants and Jews over the Pyrénées to safety in Spain.

Safe in Spain: the newly-Gaullist French consulate grants papers
to the Dreyfus family, resident in Madrid’s Palace Hotel,
Ninette’s home-in-exile for a year.

Madrid mass: Ninette in Spanish dress attends Easter services at the Las Calatravas church with Spanish friends including Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, future Duchess of Alba (far right).

At Grèges après la guerre: Ninette ponders faith and love. Should she become a Catholic? Will she ever find a soul mate?

Massacre the elderly, the sick and the children: eight weeks
before Paris is liberated, Aunt Alice, aged 70, is transported
to Auschwitz and gassed alongside 327 children.

The bride wears Balmain: Ninette, on her father’s arm,
enters a synagogue bombed by French fascists
a decade previously to wed her “ideal husband”.

Pyramid trousseau: the Hon. Mr and Mrs Montagu fly to Marrakesh for their honeymoon at La Mamounia, one of Churchill’s favourite hotels.