Marianne Debouzy (5 December 1929 – 20 June 2021), born Marianne Bella Lehmann, was a French historian who specialized in American history.
Biography
Debouzy was born into a Jewish family in Paris in 1929. After World War II, the family decided to change their surname to Lalande to avoid anti-Semitism.
Early life and family
Before the war, Debouzy grew up in the 16th arrondissement of Paris with her father Louis Lehmann, sales manager for a waxed canvas company, her mother, Hélène (née Cahen), who ran a leather goods store, and her two sisters.
Debouzy is the mother of business lawyer Olivier Debouzy.
Escaping the Nazis
After the defeat, the Lehmann family moved to Lyon, where the father continued to work for Gillet at the company's headquarters. "We stayed in this city until January 1943, and many friends and family members joined us. We were constantly worried about the rumors of roundups [...]. We were very worried about those who had remained in the occupied zone: two of my mother's cousins were arrested in the roundup of notables that took place in Paris in December 1941. They were deported and murdered.
Resistance
In 1942, Debouzy's father hid a liaison officer from the British secret service Special Operations Executive and allowed him to send out radio messages. The English spy, whose real name was Brian Stonehouse, was arrested and deported to the Struthof, Mauthausen and Dachau camps, but managed to survive.
The escape
After the German invasion of the southern zone, Debouzy's father lost his job and decided to leave the city. Several options were considered, including taking refuge in Dieulefit where, according to information from a pastor in Lyon, Protestants were hiding Jews. This option was rejected, however, as the fear of denunciation in a small village was great. Moreover, Louis Lehmann wanted to make himself "useful and not hide away waiting for the Liberation", explained Debouzy. Despite having affidavits sent to them by cousins living in the United States, which could have enabled them to join them, his father decided to go to England via Spain. Once in Spain, the aim was to ask the British consulate to let them pass to England in exchange for the help he had given to the Special Operations Executive.
The journey
Debouzy's father made meticulous preparations for the trip. He enlisted the help of his acquaintances to set up the project, in particular Monsieur Brunet, mayor of Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans, who helped him find a smuggler. A doctor, Henri Berger, with whose family the Lehmanns had befriended during a vacation in Val-d'Isère in 1938, provided them with false identity cards in the name of "Lemoine", as well as a medical certificate attesting that Debouzy's mother needed to take the waters at Amélie-les-Bains (a town located in the then forbidden border zone) to treat her rheumatism. A former employee of Hélène, who had married a Spaniard and was living in Barcelona, took his daughters and wife for a walk in the Parc de la Tête-d'Or, to prepare them for the long journey ahead.
In January 1943, the Lehmann family took the train to Perpignan: "My mother, sisters and I on one side, and my father on the other. A bus then took us to Amélie-les-Bains. We spent one night there, before a van came to pick us up. When we reached a village, the locals explained that, since Vichy took a dim view of public balls, they went dancing every Sunday at an inn on the other side of the border, and would be taking us with them. So on Sunday, we set off across the mountain with the villagers. We layered on as many clothes as we could. On the way, we passed two German army sentries, but they didn't ask any questions and let us pass. The villagers led us to a ruined house, where a smuggler arrived a little later. We followed her through the night along the smuggling paths. Then a man took her place. We walked for several hours without a hitch, except for a negotiation between my father and the second smuggler, who demanded more money than the sum initially agreed, arguing that he had to pay the cab that was to pick us up. My father stood firm and told him he'd pay him once we'd reached our destination. The ferryman finally agreed to this arrangement. And so, in the early hours of the morning, we reached a dry riverbed. The ferryman told us to wait there for the cab he had booked, then took his leave after collecting his money. Eventually, a cab arrived."