It never ceases to amaze me that there are so many people searching for some kind of roots. I began searching for mine in 2005 when my father, Antonio Harvey Roy, died. I had not known Tony very well. My knowledge was merely a collection of reminiscenses of others and a few odds and ends of information. Among Tony's papers, was a six page document that he called, "The Book". It detailed information that was fascinating to me and took me through American history and into France. It was also the beginning of a "hobby" which is a lifelong research project. In this first blog, I will recount the information from "The Book" added to a few comments that my father made to me before he died.
Life in Rouen During World War II
My father was born in Rouen in February of 1936. His mother's name was Alfredine but I have not been able to find much of her history yet. More about why later. His father was actually an American citizen named Harvey Joseph Roy.
Harvey had an interesting beginning as well. He was born in Canada around Montreal. His father was Damien Risaine Roy and his mother Carmelite Baril. (Their marriage is documented in the Drouin records available on ancestry.com.) They had many children, by some accounts as many as fifteen but I have only been able to document eleven thus far. In any case, Harvey wanted something better, so he moved to Massachusetts. The idea was that he would earn enough money to send for his sisters and brothers. He must have been naturalized (another record I am looking for) because he enlisted in the United States Navy and was stationed in France. It was there that he met Alfredine who was nine years younger than he. I know that the Canadians had a huge presence on the Normandy coast, but in the one photo I have of Harvey he is in an American naval uniform as confirmed by a friend of mine who is a naval commander.
Alfredine was a dark-haired beauty with one child, (Micheline). They fell in love and after Harvey's term of service, he left the Navy and returned to France. They were married although rumor has it that my father was conceived prior to that wedding and that is why Harvey returned to France quite quickly. They were quite happy living as a family in Rouen and had three more daughters to accompany their only son: Lydia, Claudine Marie, and Danielle (for whom I am named). On May 10, 1940 all that changed. This was the day that the Nazis invaded France and the kickstart to a four year occupation that changed this twig of the Roy family forever.
The French coastal town of Dieppe was a natural place for an infiltration and it is only a stone's throw from Rouen. (I will blog later about the history of this area and Rouen in particular). Anyway, during the night Harvey and many other men in the city were taken from their homes. Tony says it was months before the family found out where they were--a work camp known as Compeigne (another later story).
As Alfredine was pregnant with Danielle at the time, my father was left to try and bring in some money for the family. He was only four years old! He told me that he would do chores for pennies and was able to buy bread and milk with these paltry coins. One day, a huge black car pulled in and they took Tony away. He thought he was going to a camp like his father and he was terrified. The soldiers, however, took him to a vineyard and gave him employment as a grape stomper. They would lift him into great vats and he would walk around mooshing the grapes to exact a juice which was later fermented into wine. Tony told me that he would be so tired at the end of a day's work that he would collapse and sleep, sometimes without eating. He also said the juices stained his legs so badly that he looked like he was blue from the waist down. He was terrified not to go when the car would pull in to fetch him, and this is how a five year old boy was able to sustain his mother and sisters during the war. Tony spoke of this frequently because later in life, his mother turned on him and he never understood why. This was also the time in which he encountered his "angel" for the first time.
Harvey was in Compeigne for three years. I am not certain of the camp's liberation day, but as it was just outside of Paris I am assuming it would have been around that time. When the Nazis left Paris, Hitler commanded that everything be destroyed but the nazi officer in charge didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris and he declared Paris to be an open city.
During his incarceration, Tony only saw Harvey once. The soldiers came to the farm where the family now lived, and they told Alfredine that she could visit her husband in the camp. She would be allowed to bring Tony and she was to go to the train station and take a certain train with other wives. For some reason, the pair was late and missed the train. The one that they were supposed to catch was known to be filled with German soldiers. The French Resistance attacked it and many of the wives were hurt and I believe he said that some were killed along with the German army men. Tony and Alfredine did not know this until they returned to Rouen, having taken a later train into the camp. They were able to see Harvey. Tony told me that he always had remember his father to be a big man--in stature and spirit. He described this Harvey as bones with skin wrapped around them. He didn't see Harvey again until after the liberation.
I will post more later, detailing how the family returned to the United States.
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