Suzanne Tarica

Suzanne Tarica was born Suzanne Mayer on August 24, 1940 in Nice, France. Her father, Daniel Mayer, was born in Bollendorf, Germany and worked as a traveling salesman. He sold curtains and household furnishings. Her mother, Irène “Renée” Lévy Mayer, was born and raised in Germany. Through a series of border changes and political negotiations, during and after World War I, Renée, her mother and her sister became French citizens. Bollendorf had a small Jewish community of about 100 people. The men took turns leading services on Shabbat at the local synagogue. During the high holidays, a rabbi from a nearby town was invited to lead services. Often, Suzanne’s maternal grandparents, Daniel and Melanie Lévy, who ran a local bakery, hosted the visiting rabbi. 

After Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he began to lay the foundations for the Nazi state. Almost immediately, antisemitic legislation was passed, restricting aspects of public and private lives of the Jewish population. Fearing vandalism, Daniel and other young Jewish men took turns guarding the local synagogue at night. By 1935, antisemitism had increased to the point that customers refused to order merchandise from Daniel, making it more and more difficult to earn a living. Daniel immigrated to Nice, France. With the help of an associate, Daniel bought and operated a small paint store. Renée, who had been studying in England at this time, joined Daniel in France. They were married in January 1938. Marrying in France allowed Renée to keep her French citizenship. 

On November 9 and 10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms in Germany and its territories. This event would become known as Kristallnacht or, “The Night of Broken Glass.” The bakery that Suzanne’s maternal grandparents owned was ransacked and her grandfather was beaten. After the attack, the family made the decision to leave Germany. In May 1939, they managed to make their way to Nice via Luxembourg to join Daniel and Renée. Suzanne’s maternal aunt, Marthe, joined them as well. 

World War II began on September 1, 1939 when Germany attacked Poland. France declared war on Germany soon after. Due to their German citizenship, Suzanne’s father and grandfather were considered enemy aliens. They were sent to an internment camp in Antibes, a small town in France that had a military garrison. They were moved to another camp called Les Milles closer to Marseilles before being released in July 1940. Their release was granted because they were married to women with French citizenship. They made it home just in time for Suzanne’s birth in August 1940.  

Meanwhile, German forces invaded and occupied Northern France in May 1940. One month later, Italy declared war on France and occupied a small strip of land on the Franco-Italian border. Suzanne’s hometown, Nice, fell under the Italian zone of occupation. Although allied with Nazi Germany, Italian authorities refused to enforce antisemitic legislation consistently. They also wouldn’t hand over Jews to German officials, despite repeated German demands. However, Nazi sympathizers and militia still posed a threat to Jews in the area, and some antisemitic legislation restricted life for Suzanne and her family. Her father made the difficult decision to close the paint store, since many Jewish businesses had already been aryanized. 

In the summer of 1943, the Allied invasion of Sicily led to the collapse of the Fascist dictatorship under Benito Mussolini. In September, the new Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies. Almost immediately, the German army invaded Italy, and occupied much of Northern Italy and parts of France, including Nice. Deportations of the Jewish community soon followed. The family’s apartment was located across from the train station. They could hear the commotion of the deportations, and it spurred them into action. 

In early October, fearing for their safety, Daniel and Renée sought hiding. A nearby convent that cared for blind and deaf children agreed to take in Suzanne, who was then three years old. After leaving Suzanne, her parents ran into one of Daniel’s old customers, François Giribone. He offered to hide them in a storage room near his apartment. That night, Suzanne’s family moved supplies into the room. The hiding place had access to water and a door that opened to the woods, allowing for the possibility of escape. On occasion, Daniel and Renée snuck out of the hiding place to try and catch glimpses of Suzanne playing in the convent yard. 

As winter approached, the family sought better hiding places. They learned that Switzerland was accepting refugees with children. Marthe and a nun from the convent escorted Suzanne to the train station to meet her parents for the journey across the border. Members of the resistance provided false papers. Family friends sheltered Suzanne and her parents while Daniel made contact with someone who would escort them to the border, for a fee. The next day, they took a train, skipping the main border town due to patrols. The family disembarked at the next town and connected with their escort at a cafe. As night fell, they entered the woods behind the cafe and began their trek through the snow to the border. Upon arrival, they cut the barbed wire fence and began to climb through. Suzanne became inconsolable when her coat got caught on the wires, attracting the attention of a Swiss border guard. Luckily, he allowed them to enter neutral Switzerland.

The Swiss government granted them refugee status. Initially, the family members were sent to different refugee camps. They were reunited in March 1944 in a camp for families and children called “Home pour Internés” of Finhaut. The camp was located on a mountain. The facility was incredibly cold. Food was scarce. Eventually, Suzanne developed whooping cough and a severe ear infection. She was sent away to a hospital for several weeks, but her parents were able to visit. Suzanne recovered in the summer and returned to the camp. 

In August 1944, most of France was liberated, and the family hoped to return to Nice. A few months later, Suzanne and Renée received notification about the repatriation of refugees to France. They were required to report to another refugee camp to receive their travel documents and identity papers permitting them to cross the border. Since Daniel was a German Jew who had been stripped of his citizenship, he was stateless and not given permission to leave Switzerland. However, he was permitted to accompany Suzanne and Renée to the train station. He snuck onto the train and returned to France with his wife and daughter. They arrived back in Nice on February 9, 1945, reuniting with Marthe, who had been in hiding. Suzanne’s maternal grandparents returned to Nice after surviving in hiding on a farm in Southern France.

Suzanne began her education at a local public school, but was the only Jewish student. Her family began attending synagogue regularly again, which provided the community they had lost during the war. Suzanne grew up in Nice and studied anthropology and sociology at a university in Marseilles. She eventually moved to the United States after meeting her future husband, an American. She is now a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.