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| Francois Cevert? |
| ALBERT FRANCOIS GOLDENBERG Not a lot of people know it, but the person to whom this website is dedicated shouldn't really have been called Francois Cevert at all. His father was Charles Goldenberg, a man who had fled Russia in 1905 at the age of just 4 to escape the pogroms. At 11, Charles found himself penniless, but by dint of hard work - and a little fortune - was able, in 1923, to buy his own jewellers shop in Paris. In 1938 he met and married Huguette Cevert - a beautiul young French girl, and life seemed idyllic. Except, of course, that Charles Goldenberg was Jewish, and Paris in the War was no time to be openly advertising the fact. He lived in secrecy, in a maid's flat, opposite Huguette. A member of the Resistance, wanted posters sprang up seeking the man who was 'a danger to the security of the Reich.'. Charles was very careful - never walking home by the same route twice, but the pair lived in constant fear of being caught. On one occasion, it seemed that Charles had been found - there came a rap on the door of the block of flats where he lived. The Gestapo were outside, and began questioning his neighbours - not all of whom Charles knew well, and not all of whom who could be trusted. Eventually, the panic passed as the uniformed officers left. The reason? They had been looking for a man named 'Galtenbert'...... But Charles was never found. The man who had started with nothing and yet carved out a highly successful career for himself was too wily for the Nazis. In the midst of this turmoil, three children were born - all of whom were registered, for safety reasons, under their mother's name. 'Albert Francois Cevert' was born on the 25th February 1944, but it was the 'Francois' part that stuck, and after the War ended, so did the 'Cevert'. Somehow, Albert Goldenberg just doesn't sound the same....... |
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| "Albert Goldenberg" just doesn't have the same ring, does it? |