Henri Krasucki, born in the suburbs of Warsaw, was 4 years old when he joined his father in Paris, who had emigrated there in 1926.
His parents are textile workers and speak Yiddish. They are learning French in night classes.
Henri attended the secular youth center La Bellevilloise and the youth center established by the Jewish branch of the M.O.I.
As a member of the Jewish Communist Youth, he took on leadership roles in his neighborhood and later in the 20th arrondissement from the very beginning of the German Occupation. After going underground, he put his training in metalworking on hold and became a full-time member of the Resistance. In August 1942, Henri Krasucki, who had been appointed to the Paris leadership of the youth wing of the Jewish section of the M.O.I., was tasked with selecting those among them who would join the FTP-M.O.I. “We never lacked volunteers; my challenge was to exercise good judgment.”
On January 20, 1943, his father, a member of the Resistance, was arrested and deported to Birkenau, from which he never returned.
The Special Brigades organized three major surveillance operations against the Parisian M.O.I. organizations. The first operation led, in March 1943, to the arrest of dozens of young Jewish communists, including “Bertrand”—Henri Krasucki—and “Martine”—Paulette Szlifke (P. Sarcey).
Henri Krasucki was subjected to prolonged torture, including in front of his mother, at the Puteaux police station and at German police headquarters. He was held incommunicado in the death row section of the German military prison in Fresnes. In June 1943, he was transferred to Drancy, where he was reunited with his mother and several of his comrades. They were deported to Auschwitz on Convoy No. 55 as Jews, not as members of the Resistance.
The men and women were immediately separated. Henri Krasucki, Samuel Radzinski, and Roger Trugnan were assigned to Jawischowitz (a subcamp of Auschwitz), where two coal mines were in operation. Henri Krasucki became the leader of the small group of French prisoners in the camp’s solidarity and Resistance organization. As Soviet troops approached, the Jawischowitz mine was evacuated. After a three-day journey through the snow, on foot and in open-air freight cars, the survivors arrived at the Buchenwald camp.
On April 11, 1945, Henri Krasucki took part in the liberation of the camp. He returned to Paris in time to join the May 1 demonstration. He was 20 years old.
Of Convoy 55 to Auschwitz, which included 1,018 deportees, only about 80 survivors remain.
After the Liberation, Henri Krasucki became a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the PCF, editor-in-chief of *La Vie Ouvrière*, and general secretary of the CGT.
References:
— Christian Langeois, 2012, *Henri Krasucki*. Éditions du Cherche-Midi.
— Laffitte, Mourad, and Karsznia, Laurence, 2015, *A Parisian Youth in the Resistance*. Documentary film .
— Photo: MNR-Champigny (DR)
