Paul Hillig, from Cloyes to Auschwitz

Description

Happy people have a story to tell, recounted here with humour and tenderness. Paul Hillig, a young Parisian of foreign origin, arrives in the Beauce region with his quirky family, settling in Cloyes, where Zola once found the inspiration for his novel *La Terre*. He succeeds in business, wins the trust of the locals, and soon heads the football club and the town band. This assimilated Jew, though by no means a renegade, is affected by anti-Semitic legislation as early as December 1940. The respect he commands in influential economic, sporting and cultural circles will not save him from deportation.

This biography is also a reconstruction of daily life in the Beauce region during the first half of the 20th century, and a gallery of portraits featuring people of all ages and walks of life from Cloys.

An English scholar and historian, Laurent Berec is a senior lecturer at the University of Haute-Alsace. He has written articles and a biography entitled Claude de Sainliens: a Huguenot from the Bourbonnais in Shakespeare’s time, Orizons, 2012.

Publisher’s website : http://editionsorizons.fr/index.php/paul-hillig-de-cloyes-a-auschwitz.html