Odette Micheli
Odette Micheli (* 1896 in Geneva ; † 1962 ) was a Swiss writer , translator and delegate of the Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross (SRK, Kh) for occupied northern France.
Life and activities
Odette Micheli grew up as the second youngest with three brothers in the hamlet of Landecy in Bardonnex on the outskirts of Geneva. Her father Horace Micheli (1866–1931) was a landowner, journalist with the Journal de Genève , national councilor and member of the ICRC . The Protestant Micheli immigrated to Geneva from Lucca , Italy , in the 16th century as religious refugees .
During the First World War , she worked as a volunteer in the International Central Office for Prisoners of War with the ICRC President Gustave Ador and her father.
In 1918 she married the Swiss composer Frank Martin . From October 1918 to June 1920 they lived in Zurich , then they returned to the Micheli estate in Landecy and spent some time in Rome , Ravenna and in 1924 in Paris . Their son, Renaud, was born in 1922 . In 1930 they got divorced. Odette Micheli was responsible for organizing the services of the Protestant Church in her parish.
During World War II , she was the head of the delegation for Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross in Paris and was responsible for the northern zone of France occupied by the Wehrmacht .
Activity in children's aid
During the occupation of Paris , tuberculosis spread again. So it took a bigger action to fight this epidemic. The Swiss authorities had decided to allow 10,000 French children from the occupied northern zone and the unoccupied southern zone to spend three months in Switzerland.
From the end of 1940 Micheli headed the delegation for the occupied northern zone of the Swiss Working Group for War Damaged Children (SAK) (from January 1942 Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross ) in Paris, where, after tough negotiations with the German authorities, she received permission to take children between the ages of 6 and 12 years to send to Switzerland to relax.
In November 1940, the first 83 children from the South Zone at the reception center in Geneva in May 1941 were children from Belgium at the reception center of Basel on. The media response to the first special train from Paris, which arrived in Geneva on March 25, 1942 with 647 children from the occupied northern zone, was great. From November 1940 to the end of 1941, the SAK transported 2,202 French children from the unoccupied and 2,897 from the occupied zone, as well as 2025 Belgian children to Switzerland. The advantage of the children's trains to Switzerland was that thousands benefited, while the SAK homes in France could only take a few hundred children.
The participation of Jewish children in the children's trains was initially not planned because it depended on the approval of the authorities on both sides of the border, their return was not guaranteed and the number of refugees in Switzerland could not increase. Apparently, however, Micheli still managed to let a few Jewish children from the occupied zone travel with him from time to time after she had informed the German authorities and they turned a blind eye. There was greater flexibility for child aid for Jewish children who had fled to Switzerland or were housed in SRK homes in France.
In addition to the convoys to Switzerland, around 700,000 meals were organized for the malnourished children in Paris and the big cities between 1944 and 1945, and over 2200 tons of food were distributed in camps, canteens, schools and day nurseries even after the war.
The last "quiet" convoy
In October 1942, the children's trains from the northern zone were banned by the German occupiers. The message arrived three days before the departure of the last convoy with 1,220 children, some of whom were pre-tubercular, from Paris. However, Micheli's delegation managed to let the train depart because the military and civil authorities did not know the departure time and route. For Micheli's delegation, this audacity had no consequences on the part of the SRC or the authorities. The convoy was able to pass the demarcation line without any obstacles and drive to Geneva. These children were the first to be quartered in the large Henry Dunant Center (formerly Carlton-Parc Hotel , today ICRC headquarters ) in Geneva , which was newly created at the suggestion of Hugo Oltramare . The Red Cross and the Swiss authorities decided not to spread the news of the German ban on children's trains because they feared that it would damage the other ongoing aid operations.
The convoys could only slowly be resumed at the end of 1944 after Micheli asked for it in October. This depended on the collaboration with the French Red Cross, the restoration of rail connections and military operations.
Saving the people of Dunkirk
After the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944 by the Allies , there were still enemy bases in the summer and autumn of 1944, such as the great Atlantic ports ( Lorient , Saint-Nazaire , Dunkirk , Royan ), which were blocked by the Allies or destroyed by air raids .
When Odette Micheli, who was a SRK delegate in military and political circles, learned that the Americans wanted to bomb Dunkirk , she asked General Eisenhower to postpone the bombing for three days so that the population could be evacuated. At the beginning of October 1944, she organized the evacuation of 18,000 adults and children into the interior of the country with the help of the French Red Cross and the Swiss consul in Lille , Fred Huber. The city was ultimately spared. The German occupation did not surrender until May 9, 1945.
Honors
- In 1946 she was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor by decree of the French President .
- She was made an Honorary Citizen of Dunkirk for her services.
Publications and translations
- Souvenir d'un frère . In: Louis Micheli, 1893–1945, P.-E. Grivet, Geneva 1946
- Study of the life of Sigismondo Malatesta
- Aperçu sur l'activité de la Croix-Rouge suisse, Secours aux enfants, en France 1942–1947 . Edité par la Croix-Rouge Suisse, Geneva 1949.
- John Collier : Le Mari de la Guenon . Translated from English by Odette Micheli. Stock Paris 1933, Robert Laffont 2012, ISBN 2-221-11024-2
- Hermann Graf Keyserling : Voyage dans le temps . Autobiography, translated from German by Odette Micheli and André Meyer. Stock, Paris 1961, ISBN 2841001946
- John Kennedy Toole : La bible de neon . Translated by Odette Micheli, Robert Laffont 2008, ISBN 2221110749
literature
- Philipp Bender: The heroic deed of Odette Micheli. In: Humanité (magazine of the Swiss Red Cross) 3/2011
- Paul-Emile Dentan: Odette Micheli ou l'initiative humanitaire . In: Impossible de se taire: des protestants suisses face au nazisme (Impossible to be silent. Swiss Protestants against National Socialism). Labor et Fides Publishing House, Geneva 2000, ISBN 2830909887
- Helena Kanyar-Becker (ed.): The humanitarian Switzerland 1933–1945: Children on the run . Basel University Library, Schwabe Verlag , Basel 2004, ISBN 978-3-7965-2168-3
- Serge Nessi: The Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross 1942–1945 and the role of the doctor Hugo Oltramare . Karolinger , Vienna / Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-85418-147-7 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Odette Micheli in the catalog of the German National Library
- Odette Micheli in the Dodis databaseof diplomatic documents of Switzerland
Individual evidence
- ^ Carl Ludwig: The refugee policy of Switzerland in the years 1933 to 1955 . Bern 1957
- ^ A b Serge Nessi: The Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross 1942–1945 and the role of the doctor Hugo Oltramare
- ↑ Philipp Bender: The heroic deed of Odette Micheli. In: Humanité (magazine of the Swiss Red Cross) 3/2011, pp. 16–17
- ^ Sont nommés chevaliers de la Légion d'honneur: Mme Odette Micheli, directrice à Paris de la Croix-Rouge suisse , In: L'Impartial : La Chaux-de-Fonds , May 22, 1946
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Micheli, Odette |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss writer and Red Cross official |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Geneva |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1962 |