Watercolor painting of women collecting Red Cross packages acquired by an American internee

Leonie Berthe Roualet (1900-1978) was born in Hammondsport, New York to Leonie (née Calmesse, 1869-1942) and Henry Charles Roualet (1866-?). Leonie and Henry were both originally from France, where they worked as champagne vintners. They immigrated to New York in 1890, where they continued to work as wine merchants. Leonie Berthe was raised Catholic and had two older brothers, Georges (George, 1891-1951) and Andre (Andrew, 1894-1973), and one older sister, Henriette (1898-1969). Georges served in the U.S. Navy during World War I aboard the USS Wisconsin. After the war, the entire family moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. In the 1930s, Leonie’s mother, Leonie Calmesse Roualet, returned to France to take care of her ailing brother. While caring for her brother, she too became sick, and in 1939 Leonie traveled to France to take care of her mother and her uncle. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and two days later France and Britain declared war on Germany, officially starting World War II. In May 1940, Germany invaded France and occupied the northern half of the country. Leonie’s sister, Henriette, began to worry about the fate of her mother and sister as she struggled to contact them, and she wrote repeatedly to the U.S. State Department for information on their whereabouts. In November, she received a telegram stating that her mother was in a hospital in Bordeaux, while her sister was living with their uncle in Épernay. On December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. Following this declaration, German authorities began arresting American citizens in their occupied territories with the hope that they could exchange them with German citizens interned abroad. On September 24, 1942, the Gestapo arrested Leonie as an enemy alien and sent her to a prison in Châlons. From there she was transferred to Frontstalag 194 in the Vittel internment camp. In Vittel, Leonie lived in hotel-like accommodations with running water and heat. She was able to send and receive mail, and accept Red Cross packages. The Germans published propaganda photos and press stories about Vittel to showcase it as representative of conditions in German camps. Despite these improved living conditions in comparison to other German camps, Vittel was still surrounded by barbed wire and constantly patrolled by armed guards. Leonie often suffered from malnutrition while interned in the camp. On September 12, 1944, the Vittel internment camp was liberated by Free French forces. Immediately following liberation, Leonie worked for the Red Cross and helped establish the first displaced persons (DP) camp in Paris. In December 1945, Leonie returned to the United States aboard the S.S. Gripsholm, accompanying a convoy of refugees at the request of the American Embassy. She resettled in Cleveland, reuniting with her sister, Henriette. In Cleveland, Leonie continued working for the Red Cross before becoming the director of the diocesan Catholic Resettlement Council when it was established in 1949. Working for the Council, Leonie helped resettle thousands of refugees from wars and political strife around the world.

Gertrude Hamilton (née Trick, 1887-?) was born in St Louis, Missouri to Marie (1871-1949) and Frank Trick (1852-1913), and had one younger sister, Hilda (1892-1951). The family lived comfortably with Frank working as an architect for Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. In 1905, Gertrude married George Wenzlick (1883-1957), a clerk for Anheuser-Busch. The couple moved to California in 1908, and filed for divorce in 1909. Following her divorce, Gertrude travelled through Europe, and spent time living in Paris. While there she met Gregory Warren, a British officer, and they married in 1914. On March 24, 1916, Gertrude was aboard the French passenger steamer, the Sussex, when it was attacked by a German U-boat in the English Channel, resulting in roughly 50 casualties and multiple injuries. Due to the presence of several Americans aboard the ship, including Gertrude, Germany responded with the Sussex pledge, agreeing to give adequate warning before sinking merchant and passenger ships, in order to keep the United States out of World War I. Following the death of her husband, Gregory, Gertrude continued to live in Paris where she met Laurens Morgan Hamilton (1900-1978). Laurens was the great-great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton and the grandson of J. P. Morgan, and was in France as a Lieutenant with the United States Army. The pair eloped in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on January 22, 1920, against the wishes of Laurens’s parents who objected to the couple’s age gap. Gertrude and Laurens travelled together back and forth between Europe and America before getting divorced in Florida in 1940. Following her divorce, Gertrude returned to Paris, despite France having declared war on Germany in September 1939. In May 1940, Germany invaded France, eventually occupying the northern half of the country. During the invasion Gertrude worked as an ambulance driver for the American Hospital in Paris. When German troops entered Paris, Gertrude drove her ambulance throughout the night to move wounded French prisoners of war (POWs) from the Palais de l'Élysée, which was occupied by Germans, to the hospital. For her services to wounded French, the government of France awarded her the Medal of Honor of the Service de Sante. When the American Red Cross took over the American hospital, Gertrude started working for them and taking supplies to POWs in prison camps. On December 1, 1940, the American Red Cross ceased activities in Paris, so Gertrude transferred to the French Red Cross. Then in July 1941, she began working for the bureau for civilians set up by the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association). On December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. Following this declaration, Germany began arresting American citizens in Germany-occupied territories with the hope that they could exchange them with German citizens interned abroad. In September 1942, Gertrude was arrested and sent to Vittel internment camp. Gertrude lived in hotel-like accommodations with running water and heat. She was able to send and receive mail, and accept Red Cross packages. The Germans published propaganda photos and press stories about Vittel to showcase it as representative of conditions in German camps. Despite the improved living conditions at Vittel --when compared to other German camps-- it was still surrounded by barbed wire and constantly patrolled by armed guards. Gertrude was in Vittel for two months before the YMCA secured permission from the Germans for her release, so she could return to her job of taking care of civilians released from prison camps. She was arrested again in September 1943, and sent back to Vittel for another six months. During her second internment conditions had worsened, so that Gertrude was no longer able to receive mail and food rations. In fact, rations were so low that the internees relied on Red Cross packages for food. Gertrude was released on a six-month permit and was expected to return to the camp in August 1944, but Paris was liberated that same month, saving Gertrude from a third internment. Following liberation, Gertrude continued her work helping civilians released from prison camps.

The watercolor was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Mark Roualet, great nephew of Leonie Roualet.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Mark Roualet