Charlotte Sylvie Barrelet de Ricout was a nurse in Paris, France when she during WW1 met the America doctor Sumner Jackson. They married in 1917 and went to Maine, USA to live. But the conservative society did not fit them, so they returned to Paris in 1921, when Sumner got at job at the American Hospital. During the 1920s he performed surgery on many of the famous Americans living in Paris at that time, including Ernest Hemingway. In January 1928 Charlotte gave birth to their son Phillip, called Pete.

During WW2 Sumner treated many soldiers from the allied forces. One was an American ambulance driver, who got in trouble and Sumner helped hiding him in the hospital basement. This was the family’s first step into the resistance movement. The family home quickly became a central base in the resistance movement for exchange of information and money. To protect each other, the family never discussed much about their involvement in the resistance. In case they were captured by the Germans, it was best for each of them to know as little as possible.

In May 1944 Gestapo knocked on the door of the Jackson home and the family was arrested and transported to the prison camp Compiegne. Charlotte was then separated from her family and taken to Romainville, near Paris, where 550 other women also were placed. She had no idea what had happened to her family. She was sent back and forth between many different camps, and was very weak when the Swedish Red Cross picked her up in Ravensbrück and brought her with the White Buses to Malmö on April 28, 1945. At this point she still had no knowledge of what had happened to her family.

Charlotte was reunited with her son Pete in Paris in September 1945. Pete and Sumner were both on the ship Thielbeck, which was torpedoed in the Baltic Sea in Spring 1945. Pete was among the few people surviving.

Charlotte Jackson lived in Paris until her death.

Tags: Escape; Separation; Sexuality.

If you can help us with further information about Charlotte Jackson we will be very happy to hear from you. Please write an email to our researcher Sebastian.

Tags: escape, separation, sexuality

If you can help us with further information about Charlotte Jackson we will be very happy to hear from you. Please write an email to our researcher Sebastian.