Book Review  –  Coincidences Are Rarely Coincidental

Diana Mara Henry, Andre Joseph Scheinmann, Mel Yoken, Marion Dreyfus–and Me

By: Phyllis Chesler

Many years ago, photographer and academic, Diana Mara Henry, gave me a bound copy of Andre’s Memoirs. I meant to read and review it, I never found the time, but I did hold onto it. This unfinished task haunted me.

Many years ago, my darling, now departed friend, Marion Dreyfus, introduced me to Professor Mel Yoken who thereafter, invited me to lecture at his synagogue in New Bedford, Massachusetts, about anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism. I was honored to do so.

Mel was charming, effusive, and energetic; he loved books, especially French books. In fact, he said he had a library of 15,000 books — all in French. Mel wanted to keep talking for many hours after the lecture. I was too tired to do so for long–but I well remember his generosity and geniality. Mel just happens to be Chancellor Professor Emeritus of French Language and Literature and was awarded the French Legion of Honor.

Very recently, Diana Mara Henry sent me her finished book, just published by Chiselbury. I began reading it–and was constantly astounded. When I came across Mel Yoken’s photo with Andre and the long interview with him that Mel had conducted — I grew very excited. Quickly, Diana connected me with Mel, with whom I’d lost contact and–voila!–we began to email each other.

I had absolutely no idea that Diana Henry knew Mel Yoken until I started reading her book. I had no idea that Mel Yoken had spent time with–and had interviewed–the subject of Diana Henry’s extraordinary book titled: “I am ANDRE. German Jew, French Resistance Fighter, British Spy.” Andre’s life reads like Terry Hayes’s spy thriller, “I Am Pilgrim.” Andre’s derring-do deeds under Nazi rule in Vichy, France were as daring, dangerous, and flat-out unbelievable as were the fictional Pilgrim’s, or the fictional James Bond’s. By the way, did you know that Ian Fleming’s model for Bond was Sidney Reilly, aka Shlomo Rosenblum, a Russian-Jewish spy for Britain?

Here is what Mel just wrote to me about Henry’s book.

“I AM ANDRE, (was) written by award-wining journalist, Holocaust scholar and researcher Diana Mara Henry. It is, succinctly stated, one of the most significant books ever published on World War II, and deserves to be read, studied and discussed by all who are interested in this all-important subject.

The book is absorbing and compelling, deeply moving, fascinating and, above all, thoroughly honest. The riveting historical pageant celebrates how heroism, faith, fortitude and goals achieved truly count for something. In this richly detailed book, there are chapters that are not only engaging and anecdotal, but are also the most spellbinding and theatrical accounts of the Second World War that I have read in years! This is just not another war story. It is a masterpiece filled with every emotion possible, such as joy and sorrow, grief and triumph, sadness and happiness.

Andre, born Joseph Scheinmann in Munich in 1915, (lived in) in New Bedford, Massachusetts from 1951 to his death in 2001. He was a German Jew turned French resistance fighter. As an Mi6 agent, he was at the fulcrum of the jockeying of French and British secret services for the earliest, nearly unknown French networks, 1940-1942.

Henry’s monumental, extremely developed biography details his life, and gives the reader an absolutely sterling perspective of every aspect of Scheinmann’s action and struggle to maintain integrity, undercover of another identity. He was a hero par excellence throughout the Second World War, even in Gestapo prisons and in concentration camps Natzweiler and Dachau.

The impact of Henry’s exegesis of Scheinmann resonates far beyond the pages of this book. It enhances our understanding of World War II and all its intricacies. This oeuvre, which is also richly illustrated, enriches our understanding of one man and what he did to make us understand quintessential heroism. For this and more, Henry deserves praise, and I AM ANDRE deserves a place in the Pantheon of impressive, invaluable books that will most certainly live on forever.”

Now—back to me.

How Andre survived prison, interrogations, torture, death camps, hard labor camps, isolation, and the murder of most of his family is a very daunting but instructive tale. He never gave up, he never backed down, he rebounded from near-capture almost daily, and always came up with new ways to successfully sabotage Nazi plans, for both the French Underground and the British Secret Spy Service. He managed to gain the trust and respect of the Nazis with whom he worked, (on behalf of the French Resistance), because both his German and his French were perfect and his false persona–obedient, humble, “righteous” on their behalf–gained the Nazi’s trust and admiration.

He saved his resistance teams, time and again; he never betrayed anyone; he shared what he had; he was a consummate organizer and survivor.

May we all learn from him.

Thank you Diana for undertaking thirty years of research in order to bring Andre to us, to ensure that his words and deeds are known, now and forever, for all who’ve never had the privilege of knowing or working with him.

Although Andre’s first-person Memoir may be found in Holocaust Archives, his story, as Henry has researched it, flies completely under the radar. Surely, this should be a movie.