Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

CHAPTER 13. POSTCARDS FROM THE OTHER SIDE

1 On September 27, 1940 Serge Klarsfeld, Le Calendrier de la persécution des juifs de France 1940–1944 (Paris: Fayard, 2001), I, 26–28. “Enterprise juive” comes from paragraph 4 of this law.

2 The following month For more, see Susan Zuccotti, The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews (New York: Basic Books, 1993), 56–64, and Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews (New York: Basic Books, Publishers, 1981), 75–114.

3 In early May 1941 Serge Klarsfeld, Vichy-Auschwitz (Paris: Fayard, 1983), 15–18. Klarsfeld also shows the breakdown into Polish, Czech, and former Austrian Jews, and by arrondissement.

4 Three months later Klarsfeld, Vichy-Auschwitz, 25–27.

5 As Gouedo explained Jean Gouedo declaration, March 15, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° I. See also his interrogation, March 23, 1944 in carton n° III.

6 On January 2 Renée Guschinow, Audition, March 21, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

7 “I have arrived” … “sell all [her] belongings” Renée Guschinow, Audition, March 21, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III. AN 334, AP 65, 3372–3373.

8 Marcel Petiot had purchased Robert Sens-Olive, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° II, and report March 24, 1944, in carton n° I.

9 Jean Minaud … said Jean Minaud, Audition, March 21, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

10 “electric transformer” Gaston Dethève, Audition, March 23, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

11 “Aryanized” For more on Aryanization, see note to page 13.

12 Porchon, tempted Roland Porchon, Audition, March 17, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

13 “the King of the Gangsters” Roland Porchon, Audition, March 17, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

14 “sixteen corpses stretched out” … “I suppose he asked them” Ibid.

15 “He didn’t seem” … “forgotten about it” René Bouygues, Audition, March 19, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III; Lucien Doulet, Audition, April 24, 1944; also in Jean-François Dominique, L’affaire Petiot: médecin, marron, gestapiste, guillotiné pour au moins vingt-sept assassinats (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1980), 105–107.

16 even after fireman Avilla Boudringhin, Audition, March 16, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

17 “At no point” Joseph Teyssier, Audition, March 16, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

18 Fillion supported Emile Fillion, Audition, March 17, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

19 evidence was mounting For instance, Roger Berody, Audition, March 16, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III, and on the following day, additional confirmation from eyewitnesses Robert Bouquin and Maurice Choquat, also in carton n° III.

20 “the brother of the owner” Emile Fillion, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

21 Teyssier also now acknowledged Joseph Tessyier, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III. Newspapers later covered the story—for instance, Le Cri du Peuple, April 7 and 14, 1944, and Paris-Soir, April 13, 1944.

22 “At that moment” Emile Fillion, Audition, March 18, 1944, APP, Série J, affaire Petiot, carton n° III.

23 jumping out of a window Luc Rudolph (coordination), Au coeur de la Préfecture de police: de la résistance à la liberation. 2e Partie. La Préfecture de police: une résistance oubliée 1940–1944 (Paris: 2010), 56.