Journal de Rivesaltes 1941-1942 (1997)

During the last world war, Friedel Bohny-Reiter, a nurse with the Swiss Red Cross, Children's Aid, worked in the Rivesaltes accommodation camp. This camp, like many others in unoccupied France, housed Jewish, Gypsy and Spanish residents or refugees in the free zone. Thanks to this young woman from Basel, many children were saved from certain death at Auschwitz. The film follows the nurse's itinerary through the diary she kept throughout those dark years. Images of today's camp in ruins, survivor testimonies, Friedel visiting the camp today and working there 50 years ago (through an actress) illustrate this diary. From August to October 1942, over 2,250 Jews, including 110 children, were deported from the Rivesaltes camp to Auschwitz via Drancy. During the same period, in August 1942, the Swiss Federal Council decided to close the Swiss border until July 1944.