Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac

Denunciation

Leo Marc Mincovschi worked as an interpreter at the German Embassy.^[3] He informed Touty, on her return from Toulouse, that Suzy Kraay had been arrested by French police on February 10 and that the network was blown. Both rushed to the apartment of Touty, on Laos Street, to destroy all evidence, papers, clothes and other incriminating objects. Touty then contacted Hermann Laatsman and Captain Weidner. Both thought that there was no reason for alarm: "It's simply a black market story. There is nothing to fear".

February 26 began with a Gestapo dragnet that led to the arrest of all members of the Dutch-Paris network apart from Captain Weidner who managed to flee. Touty was arrested on February 27, 1944. She was interned in Fresnes and Romainville. After several brutal Gestapo interrogation sessions, she was deported to Ravensbrück in the convoy of 18 April 1944.

Deportation

Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz was one of Touty's fellow inmates and friends at Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her son Michel (better known to some as a founder of the Arte television channel) later reported his mother's memories of those times: "She never spoke of the camp, but it was a continuous presence, every second of her life" ("... il était présent à chaque seconde de sa vie ") In the cattle wagon that transported the prisoners across Germany, Jacqueline Pery^[4] remembered Touty as one of the few prisoners who had a clear idea of what to expect. She had spent most of her youth living relatively near the German border. She spoke German fluently, and had read "Mein Kampf" before the war had started. Having heard and understood the meaning of Chancellor Hitler's speeches, having maintained close connections with anti-Nazi Germans after 1940, and having frequently escorted persecuted Jews to the Swiss border, she was well informed about the hellish universe that awaited them.

White buses drive through Odense on the way to Sweden

At the camp, she remained in the block occupied by the French. Life and work were very hard (see in the detailed testimony of her friend Jacqueline Pery de la Rochebrochard). When her 17 year old future sister in law, Simone Souloumiac, with whom she shared a workbench, showed her despair, Touty whispers to her: "Hold on! We need to see the end of the movie”.

President of the Swedish Red Cross, Count Folke Bernadotte is approached by Himmler to discuss a "peace of the brave" with the Allies. During his second interview with Heinrich Himmler, the Count requires the freedom of some women detained at Ravensbrück. Himmler finally gives his consent.

The camp commander Suhren finally accepts, not without major difficulties. The orders of Himmler appear to contradict those of total extermination given by the Führer. The Bernadotte operation is conducted by a Swedish doctor, Dr Arnoldson. On April 23, 1945, seventeen white buses drove three hundred Belgian, Dutch and French women to Göteborg.

Liberation

Touty returned to France aboard a special aircraft of the US Air Force. A few months later she married the brother of Simone Souloumiac, Pierre Souloumiac, captain of the Merchant Marine. In 1951, Pierre Souloumiac joined the Ministry of Merchant Marine where he worked on drafting of the Code on the transport of dangerous goods. The couple settled in an old farmhouse in the hamlet of Balizy, 23 kilometres south of Paris.

Touty often received her old friends from the camp, including Germaine Tillion.^[5] They have long discussions about the Algerian War of Independence. During one of their conversations, they invented the new concept of "clochardisation" to describe the terrible marginalization that affects a large part of the human species. They sympathized with the Algerians who were fighting for their freedom. Their past lead them to denounce torture and to favour independence. Close to General de Gaulle, Germaine Tillion was one of the few interlocutors who were able to convince him of the need for the independence of Algeria. This was achieved by the signature of the Évian Accords between the French government and the Algerian rebels.

Her husband Pierre died on 3 February 1956. Touty then passed through a difficult period. She published tales for children.^[6] She became the correspondent in France of the Haagse Post, a Dutch weekly owned by her brother, GBJ Hiltermann. Elected at the City Council of Longjumeau, she promoted the hamlet of Balizy, building on its rich past as a former Commandery of Knights Templars. She also organized the Festival of Freedom on the square where the Templars’ Chapel used to stand.

French School

To educate the children in the small French colony, Touty founded a school in 1963. At the beginning, the school occupied every morning three rooms in the premises of the French Alliance in Hang Seng Bank Building on Des Voeux Road. It worked with some volunteer teachers, most of whom came from the consulate of France which offices were located a few floors below . The Commandant Houël, the Attaché militaire, handled mathematics. The Reverend-Père Chagny taught literature. Jean-Pierre Angremy was the first history teacher.

With the support of “correspondence courses” of CNTE from Vanves, little by little, the school started to grow 1 200 students are today studying at the Lycée Victor Segalen Hong Kong which became Asia's largest French high school.^[7]

In February 1964, Touty and her children left the British enclave aboard Laos, a ship chartered by the Messageries Marîtimes. The same year, Touty divorced Baron Van Aerssen. Following the opening of universities which was provoked by the events of May 1968, she took Chinese studies at Jussieu.