Georges Jouanin

Georges Jouanin was seventeen years old when the Second World War broke out, the last of five siblings. At thirteen, he began an apprenticeship as a printer. In 1942, he came into contact with the Resistance. A year later, he was arrested and deported, and remained a concentration camp inmate forced labourer, until he was liberated on 30 April 1945. A typographer by trade, he joined the Resistance in Vierzon, then in Paris (where he hid to escape compulsory labour). In July 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned, tortured and convicted. Six months later, he was deported to Buchenwald and became prisoner number "38,491". He was sent to the gypsum mines, in Dora-Mittelbau: he escaped this hell by declaring himself an electrician, & was transferred to the assembly of V2s. Subsequently, he was sent to Ravensbrück. At the beginning of 1945, the Nazis made prisoners undertake forced marches, before the allies reached the camps. Georges used the opportunity to escape his tormentors. He joins a group of escaped Frenchmen. Liberated by the Russian army, they survived another month in Germany before their repatriation to Paris. Returned to his Berry family, he faces the consequences of his captivity. He was taken to the Black Forest to treat tuberculosis. There he met a nurse from the German Red Cross who would become his wife. they built a new life, in the Alps, where the climate was conducive to the healing of his disease. George and his wife had three sons.

George wrote a book detailing his experiences: Forgive, Never Forget.