POW Escapes from Vittel - Grandma's Story

Hi,
My maternal grandmother, Panela Ann Moore was a POW in Vittel. I'm researching her story since her passing, but have few family members left and details I can find.

When she was 19(ish) her parents passed away. Her uncle took in the younger children and those elder siblings needed to leave and find work. Grandma traveled to France to become the governess of a large house, somewhere in the North. I've been told this may be the Crossley? estate where she became engaged to the young Master of the house called Jacques Muneir?
It looks like she was in Chartres in 1940 (visiting friends), captured on the 5th December 1940 and taken to Besancon. She was there for 5 months before being taken to Vittel.
She escaped, with some others and was the 25th person to have escaped, all of whom were women. Does anyone know details of these escapes? I understand another escapee was a Mrs Eddington, who Grandma stayed in contact with and I have a picture of them meeting in London after getting back to the UK.
She was nearly caught by the Gestapo during the journey, and had to make a "quick exit" after being betrayed during the journey and was almost caught on the demarcation line, as the authorities knew a party was escaping and were lying in wait.
I believed she was in the Vichy area, but my auntie suggests she was in Lyons gaining money and resources to secure a visa.
She then traveled through Spain and Portugal before flying home from Lisbon at the beginning of August 1942.

She did write her story and sent it to the BBC, I don't know when this was though. They returned it and said they had no interest, but apparently there was then a TV programme or radio play based on her exact story. She was furious at this and destroyed her manuscript.

My aim is to trace her journey backwards, from her repatriation, through the paces she stayed in Spain/Portugal, through Vittel and Besancon. i;d love to find out were this estate was that she worked in when first in France and what happened to the family and her ex fiancé Jacques. So I've set up a website dontknowjacques which I will hopefully get live soon so people can contact me and send me information. I'll then start showing any images and stories during my travels.

If anyone knows where to start, POW lists from Vittel, contacts that can assist etc. then do let me know

At Vittel


Meeting up with Mrs Eddington in London once back home


Pictures of Grandma at the time

 

Another lady who was at Vittel & possibly Besancon as well was Sofka Skipwith, who was active in helping Jewish internees avoid the death camps among many activities. She had a very interesting and varied life having being born a Princess in Imperial Russia.
Sofka Skipwith - Wikipedia

There have been two books about her which may even mention your grandmother or her escape & I would recomend both as her story is so interesting & also for background on the Vitell camp, although the autobiography is a little guarded on some points.

Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life by Sofka Zinovieff (2008) This is by her grandaughter.
Sofka - The autobiography of a Princess by Sofka Skipwith (1968)

I have both of these and if I can find them will look to see if your grandmother is in there.

Travers

This autobiography looks like it also features a story similar to your grandmothers, escape via Marseille, Spain & Portugal

Rosie's War: An Englishwoman's Escape From Occupied France by Rosemary Say (2012)

The British Newspaper Archive index lists several newspaper articles written at the time of her return to England.

Plymouth Girl Escapes
.. demarcation line anto Unoccupied France and pass from imprisonment to freedom. . One of that party, which included fifteen French prisoners of war and six Alsatians, was a young Plymouth girl. Miss PamelaAnn Moore, 35, St. Georges-avenue, Peverell, who has ...
Published: Monday 10 August 1942
Newspaper: Western Morning News

results

 

Would this be her?

 

Thanks both,

I've recently read Rosie's war. Doesn't mention Grandma specifically and is focuses a lot on Besancon. But still a great read. Also some very useful sources in the back.
Sofia's mentioned in a few places, so my next purchase will be her books.

The newspaper article is indeed referring to my grandmother. My Auntie sent me a copy of that article and then I found the online copies.

She was captured in Chartres. Some reports said that's where she lived, but others she was visiting friends, whcih I think is the case. Years ago we did actually try to visit the town/village she lived in, but frustratingly neither myself, nor brother can remember the name.

I was hoping to get details on the flight home with BOAC, but not sure many records are available nor where to look. This would form the start of my travel journal, working back towards the big house where she worked and met the mysterious Jacques.

The BBC have said they'd check their archives, but without more details, like what date she submitted her book and when the broadcast went out, that looks like a dead end for now.

Grateful for you time and help.

 

Might be worth checking previous threads that include Vittel, some on a glance refer to a civilian internment camp: http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/19714844/&q=vittel&o=relevance

On a glance nowt for Besancon: http://ww2talk.com/index.php?search/19714887/&page=2&q=Besancon&o=relevance

 

The biography of Sofka Sopwith written by her grandaughter after Sofka's death is most of the autobiography with extra research and an interview with her closest friend in the camp. She has her own website so may be worth contacting her to see if she heard about your grandmothers escape during her research.
Sofka Zinovieff

I do remember a fictional BBC radio drama show or short series about British women interned in France. If I remember rightly it was on the BBC Sounds website & may have had a second airing on Radio 4 Extra within the last few years.

There is also a British comedy drama film called Two Thousand Women made in 1944 about women internees held at a hotel in a fictional French Spa town that is clearly based on Vitell.

There may be a report held at the National Archives of any interview the authorities the did with her on her return to the UK. I am aware that servicemen who escaped/evaded the germans & returned to the UK were interviewed and these were filed away after the war. She would have had valuable information about conditions in the camp, & the escape lines.

This newspaper article shows that Mrs Eddington was in London by 7th August 1942.

.. badge worn surreptitiously or even openly by British sympathisers. To an Englishwoman, Mrs. Eddington, who has recently escaped from internment in Occupied France and with whom I talked yesterday in London, it was the symbol of hope and heap in desperate ...
Published: Friday 07 August 1942
Newspaper: Belfast Telegraph
Results for 'mrs eddington france' | Between 1st Jan 1942 and 31st Dec 1942 | British Newspaper Archive

Travers

 

Have located my copy of Sofka Skipwith's 1968 autobiography. It does not mention either your grandmother, Mrs Eddington or their escape(s). Some people she mentions only by nicknames. I'm not surprised as it was a camp of two thousand people living in several former hotels in Vittel and Sofka writes that there were many internees that she never spoke to.

The only escape in 1942 mentioned is that of her friends Frida Stewart & Pat Sayle, which looks like January 1942. At least one of these Frida made it back to the UK by August 1944.

Sofka however would have been known to the other internees so I would have expected a mention in the book Rosie's War. She would have been known through her social activities, teaching of Russian and her membership of an underground communist group in the camp. They made as much of a nuisance of themselves as possible & a few times feared being moved from the camp for their activities.


Travers

 

Apologies, it's been some time since I've posted here. I've made little progress to be honest, but have recently had some success with the Red Cross archives. The PDF I've added here is largely an article written by a 'Mrs Ray Eddington', for The Prisoner of War Magazine you will find, on the 4th page of the scan reference to 'Pamela Moore'.
So now we know Grandma did escape with Mrs Eddington, from Vittel and parted company in Lyon.

Now I'd really like to find Mrs Eddington's family and see if they have any information they can share.

 

I've managed to find lots of articles now with Mrs Eddington and a few of Grandma. She states she was living in a village near Chartres before capture, so that narrows my search a bit.
I might travel to Portugal, visit Lisbon where she flew from and maybe sit on the beach near Caldas da Rainha.
I'm hoping the SoE and escape lines groups will help me track her route from Lyon to Lisbon.

A new friend suggested:
On the escape & evasion there was an SOE Escape Line run by Victor Gerson, apparently he had an excellent set up with a Spanish Republican called Josep Rovira who lived in Lyon. Networks being networks...

 

Hi Brett

Thanks for the update & great to see the newspaper articles. I don't suppose many escapees had their photo taken on the beach.

Have had a renewed search around now we know that she is Mrs Ray Eddington & found only a couple of vague hints.

A document on the TNA website from the Cable & Wireless Archives is about a "Mr Eddington" going over to liberated Paris 1944-46 to open a station there as part of the attempt to restore the cable service.
Search results: eddington cable and wireless | The National Archives

In March 1929 in The Times a "Mrs Eddington" is one of three representatives of an organisation called Alliance Francaise who attended a Requiem Mass in London for Marshal Foch who had recently passed away. Not an organisation I had heard of, but it promotes the teaching of French around the world & the language in general. In 1939 it had 30,000 students, so I wonder if Mrs Eddington was working for them in France in 1940. I have taken the liberty of emailing them to see if they know if both Mrs Eddingtons are one and the same etc. They seem to have great records, and their London office in WW2 housed the Gaullist section of SOE.
L'appel du 18 juin - Alliance Francaise de Londres

Lastly I noticed that in one article Mrs Eddington & your grandmother were entertained by Captain & Mrs Nash of Dorking after their return to England and were able to confirm they had seen the Nash's daughter Nina in the camp. I seem to remember the name Nina from the book about Sofka Skipwith. This may be a match for a called Nina Adele Nash who worked for the UN after the war and passed away in 1996, again a memory from reading the book.

Hope this is helpful, thought I would easily find a Ray Eddington & his wife connected to France but no such luck.

Travers

 

I think Nina might have been Rowena Nash, known as Nina at Vittel. She was a descendant of the famous architect and was one of those who eventually escaped (cf pg 238 of this PhD thesis about the two camps: 'The orphan story of British women and internment in Occupied France - Cardiff University')

 

Two inmates who left Vittel in autumn 1942 were paid 'consultants' on the film: 'Nicky' Nicholson (actress/dancer) and a Mrs. Matilda Epton (sp?). Nicky, ex-Athos Follies, was reputed to be a British agent, and had escaped the camp in October '42.

 

Other Vittel escapers not mentioned above that I have in my notes are a Miss Malkin(s), April 1942; Elizabeth Percival of Dublin, Miss Gladys Jeffreys of Somerset Rd, Newport & Miss Olga Marks of Wellington NZ, all August 1941; and a pair nicknamed Mavis (tall,athletic mature Maltese art student at Louvre) and her English 'very close friend' Joy who got as far as Spain but were recaptured and returned.

 

'Pat' Sayle is Rosemary Say, from 'Rosie's War'
Frida Stewart was recruited by HMG after getting home in March 1942.
Her 1943 book 'Dawn Escape' was supposedly key material for the 2000 Women film.

 

The Stewart book has had a few names doctored for obvious wartime reasons but is regarded as being a true account of her Vittel escape, and has the advantage of being written when fresh in the memory by a very clear writer. (She later became a journalist.)

 

p.s. the Stewart book is available for free download at archive.org (when that site is back up.. .)

p.p.s. add to escapers list: 'McTurk' and her stir-crazy padmate 'Bou-Bou', March 1943, as related by Sofka in her memoirs.
'Mac' later appeared as an extra in 2000 Women.

 

So I heard back from the Red Cross who sent me some scanned pages. Not much here about grandma herself, but it confirms she escaped with Mrs Eddington, not just interred with her. So, my current plan is to try and track down Mrs Eddington's family and see what records/stories etc. they may have which might then help me with my search, or indeed understand how the escape itself came about.

 

I've manged to download this book, thanks for the recommendation.

I can watch the 'Two Thousand Women' on you tube, which might be an entertaining aside

 

i managed to find more references related to Mrs Eddington once I moved the search to her, rather than my own Grandma. It's nice to see the article with the photo of Grandma meeting Mrs Eddington in London, gives it a little more context, that they met up and shared a meal.

 

I only found a few relevant articles about Grandma herself, but every bit helps