The MJS Children’s Convoys to Switzerland

On August 17, 1943, a young Jewish woman named Mila Racine led a group of 11 children to the small French enclave of Veyrier, situated adjacent to the Swiss canton of Geneva.  She found a way for them to cross the border even though German soldiers were all around.  The children entered Switzerland illegally and were promptly arrested, but they were not sent back to France or placed in the hands of those who wished to exterminate them.  They spent the remainder of the war in relative safety.     

The August 17 convoy was the first children’s convoy that the MJS organized and smuggled into Switzerland.  Over the subsequent two months, an MJS team passed 23 more children’s convoys across the border.  The 23-year old Mila and her 22-year old compatriot, Tony Gryn, directed the operation.  They were assisted by Mila’s sister, Sacha Racine, Sacha’s future husband, François Maidenberg, Bella Wendling, and Roland Epstein.  Although the rescue network was initiated in Saint-Gervais, it was transferred to Annecy in early September.  The children comprising the convoys were of all ages and nationalities, and they were brought to Annecy from many different parts of France.  Every few days, two or three team members would accompany a group of children from Annecy to a designated crossing point along the border between the French towns of Annemasse and Saint-Julien-en-Genevois.  The Jewish rescuers were aided by Catholic and Protestant activists, most notably a young “jociste” named Rolande Birgy.  

During this same time period, the OSE was also passing convoys of Jewish children across the Swiss border.  There was informal coordination between the two organizations, but details of their working relationship remain unknown.    

In September, the Nazis unleashed a reign of terror in Nice, hunting Jews with a ferocity and brutality usually reserved for Eastern European cities.  Jewish parents were desperate to place their children in the hands of those who could safeguard them.  The leaders of the Nice gdoud, Jacques and Léa Wajntrob, worked in tandem with the Annecy team to get as many Jewish children as possible out of Nice so that they could be taken to Switzerland.  Frida Wattenberg and Bella Wendling’s sister, Théa, members of the Grenoble gdoud, helped the Annecy team take children out of Nice.  On September 25, Jacques Wajntrob was seized by agents of the Gestapo. 

In October, the OSE shut down its child smuggling operation, but the MJS team soldiered on.  Although the work was extremely dangerous, the need was as great as ever.  Late in the evening of October 21, Mila Racine and Roland Epstein were attempting to pass a group of several adults and children across the border when they were surprised by a German patrol.  The MJS operation was temporarily halted, resuming in the spring of 1944.