Eddy Palacci
| Eddy Palacci | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Edmond Vita Palacci February 9, 1931 Paris |
| Died | October 29, 2016 (aged 85) Tel Aviv |
| Residence | Israel |
| Nationality | French-Israel |
| Occupation | Chemical engineer, author |
| Spouse(s) | Laora Hurvitz |
| Parent(s) | Isaac Palacci, Marceline Bémant |
| Relatives | Colette Rossant (sister), Juliette Rossant (niece) |
| Family | Pallache family |
Edmond Vita Palacci (February 9, 1931 – October 29, 2016), generally known as "Eddy Palacci," was a French-Israeli chemical engineer and author, whose memoir recounts his survival in Occupied France during World War II and help for the French Resistance.
Born in Paris, Palacci traveled with his family to Cairo to live in the mid-1930s, where they hoped his father would recover from illness. In the summer of 1939, weeks before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Palacci's mother sent him home to her parents in Paris.
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 marked the beginning of World War II. His grandfather decided the war would not last long and that his grandson should stay rather than return to Egypt, where his mother, father, and sister remained.
When the Nazi attacked France in 1940, his grandparents fled south with him but returned to Paris. He experienced anti-semitism in school during the rest of the occupation. By 1942, he had to wear a yellow star in public. Seven members of his family were rounded up and deported to the Vel d'Hiv.
When the Gestapo started a hunt for Jews in Paris, his grandparents decided to hide their grandson on a farm in Les Essarts-le-Roi, near Rambouillet, outside Paris. He spent the rest of the war there (January–September 1944), where he wound up supporting the French Resistance, as detailed in his memoir.
Palacci's interaction with the French Resistance began in June 1943 in Paris, when he overheard a secret "Ventriloque" ("Ventriloquist") transmission on a friend's crystal radio set. At Essarts-le-Roi, he discovered three officers–British, Canadian, and American–on the scene to sabotage railway. They give him a nightly assignment: listen to Ventriloque for messages. Ignorant of their meaning, Palacci shared the messages with the officers. Over time, they give him more specific instructions. Finally, in June 1944, they told him to listen for Paul Verlaine's poem "Chanson d'automne" ("Autumn Song"), whose first verse contained a signal. On June 5, he hears the second line started "Bercent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" ("Lull my heart with monotonous languor"): the original reads "Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" ("Wound my heart with monotonous languor"). He notes the change to the officers, who go into action, though they leave Palacci still ignorant.
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