Voices of Europe; Yvonne Brunoy and Maria Comberti

Voices of Europe Milton Mayer American author and broadcaster lecturer and professor of social research from the University of Frankfurt has been traveling throughout many of the countries of Europe recording the voices of Europeans who are alive and sensitive to the tragedy and dilemma of the conditions that surround them. People who speak directly and candidly of their own feelings and their own aspirations hear from Paris's Milton Mayer Mademoiselle Eve on the ground is a Paris prostitute and is so registered with the Paris police. Like many other members of her profession she is usually to be found in the vicinity of the world famous Madeleine. The church which bears the name of Saint Mary Magdalen. The voice of Mademoiselle brainwash this is

not her real name but this is a real person. Hers too is a voice of Europe and a voice of humanity. It might not be inappropriate to suggest that whoever would throw the first stone listened to the start of Eve on foreign law before she entered her. I wonder if we should say chosen profession mademoiselle. Would you tell me where and when you were born. I was born in Barry's the 16th of June 1926. And who is your father. I don't know my father. My mother divorced him before I was born. Do you know why

they were divorced. I have no idea. Nobody ever talked to me about my father. And did you have sisters and brothers. I have one brother five years older than I am. What is his occupation. Is a mechanic. Does he live in Paris. No I don't thank you does now. You say you don't think he does. I didn't see him for four years. What was your father's occupation. I don't know. Your mother never spoke to you about him. My mother my family was your family a religious family. My mother was mad hent wasn't münchen I have no idea. Your aunt is this your mother sister. It was my mother's sister. And where did your mother live before you were born

in NO Monday. All my family including my father are from Normandy. And how did your mother happen to come to Paris. She came to see my aunt before I was born and I was born right after the trip and then your mother remained in Paris. She studied with you and your brother with me and my brother. You say your mother was religious a religious woman. She was what religion Catholic and you are you religious. I am very. And you are a Catholic. I am a Catholic and remember so when when I did your mother receive any support from your father after they were divorced and none from nobody because at this time they don't have

those so social security or anything like that. And do you have any idea why your mother divorced your father. Well no I just make guesses. What would you guess. Well I guess he wasn't covered just enough to support a wife and children and. It was the idea of a of my own tough thing to get a divorce. Your mother then had to support herself and the two children. Yes and what kind of work did she do. She was in French as long as I have. I don't know what is it in case you mean in a hotel in big hotels. I asked if she'd she took care of the linens. She did and in a hotel. And were you quite poor or did you always have enough.

We always had enough. Well for me children I have always had enough. I don't know about my mother. She didn't have anything else but children and she wanted us to have everything we could have. What kind of person was your mother. Very great. She was the best person and she was very good just she never did go out without me. She was she was young and pretty but she never think of marrying again. Well she was leaving it was for me and my brother. When did your mother die. In January 1939. How old were you. Twelve and a half years old. And where was your brother at that time. Mademoiselle bring life. It wasn't just what did he do after your mother died.

Well I don't know and I hadn't then. Hence a podium too. But it wasn't school by doing boat school in oter year in Paris learning making like already. Because he was much older than I am and he couldn't do anything in school. So earlier they pulled him to the mechanic and where did you go to school when it was open when I was in boat school for four years seven and a half. And then after I came back to Paris and continuity school and you know in those schools for I've had children and then when I had my certificate I moved to a professional school to learn terror. Well now you say you were in a in a boarding school until you were 11 and a half. What kind of school was it and was a religious school. What sister.

But we go to the village with all the kids of the village to school. And your mother wanted you to go to a religious school. No not for that to put me there because of my have I couldn't stay in Paris. Why not. It was bad for my lungs. And did you recover your health in boarding school. Well not completely but it helps me a great lot. And then you came back to Paradise your mother died when you were 12 and a half. And where did you live then and with whom. With my hand with you or your aunt. And would you mind telling me what kind of person she was. I don't know where to start. It's very hard says she was 58 20. She got me. She Wrote. She was married twice.

She married the first time she was 17 and I have to do it for the two year old Maine that loved her very much. When he died she was kind of young. She was very young so she didn't have time to get tired of the man she loved the MSA she married a second time to a man of her age and she divorced. She stayed 12 years all by ourselves and she didn't never have the children of a she didn't understand children too much. She didn't even try to understand me and it was hard to live with. She was used to be alone. She thought because I had my stomach full and closers that I was satisfied. In what way mamzelle bring one in what way was it hard to live whether I mean what was your life like whether because very I don't read their E

for example. She is very proud and she would never agree that she gets wrong sometimes even if you prove that she's wrong. She would never had made it. She gon be around and how did she bring you up. Where was she. Thought you know it was nothing for a girl to do besides being a dressmaker. There are sewing was the only thing for a ghetto so she told me after I was fourteen that I would go to school to be asked to be at that. I didn't like it at all not at all and I cried that try to make up sound mind but she didn't want to. I would get down going with school if I had the freedom of choice but I couldn't.

You mean the way a regular school. Yes and then too I don't know I had no idea I was too young to make any choice but I think I would go with leathers you know with a letter a cure and after finishing your three years of school tailoring school did you go to work. Yes a friend of my hand family a place in the dressmaker. And how much did you earn working in the dressmaking establishment. I don't remember and I don't know because they used to give me my pay and I have a lot and I take it back home just the way it was humane and gave it to your aunt. Yes how old were you then. I was about seventeen. How long did you work at the dressmaker's. But a year or so and then she had a friend in the same substrate which was the football center in a way that was a tailor

that and for Christmas he needed some help. So she knows I went to school for Taylor before so she told him he could have me. Then after that I asked stay there. How long did you work for this tailor. Oh not very long but six or seven months. Did you know how much you earned there. How much money you earned. Well I guess I knew but I don't remember. Did you take your money home always to your aunt. Always always. As long as I worked and lived with my hand then have and you Frank see young girls having any money and she was very strict very. And now man I was when you left the tailoring the men's tailoring establishment. What did you do. I went to a government job. And is that the stick. I don't know how you called it an Inglese

it's McKenna graphene friend. Yes a kind of a punch machine. Yes and how long did you work there. Right a year. And were you still living with your aunt then. Yes and she told me right after that I had. I kept on working about two months till I have to tell you this was after you say your aunt threw you out. Yeah. And you worked for two months and then I had to stop because I had diphtheria. And what how did you get taken care of when you had that Syria. Oh I was living in my left out of my hand. I was living in the company house for young girls. When I got said to call a doctor and you said I had to go to hospital but I didn't want to because my mother died in the hospital. So they went a little bit till I was almost out of my mind that take me in ambulance to the hospital. It was very

nice I was very well taken care of and I stayed there 15 days and it was all over. And you have never gone back to your ranch sense though. Do you ever see her. I had once in 1946 when I wanted to marry to get mad because I wasn't 21 and I needed consent and to get married. But I've seen no. Only once did she give her consent. Oh yes. And did you get married. No. But you were engaged. I was engaged. Were you engaged to a French no. To an American to an American. And what became of the engagement. I broke it. Why. Because I probably didn't like to leave all my life with him. Have you been engaged since then. Two more times two Frenchmen or Americans one American and one French. Who are the

Americans both in the Army and the American army. And did you break all of these engagements. Oh why. Because I'm hard to please and I don't thank you I couldn't get along could get along with them. And Mademoiselle begin with. If you had a chance to do what you would like to do or to be what you would like to be all of us have these dreams what would you do. I would get married. And have three children two boys and I go. I wish I had a little house not too small. But not to be a big garden. Not in Paris but close enough to come often and I would like to take out of the house. I can do all kinds of housework

but don't work outside. That's all I want. Thank you very much Mademoiselle during my. Everybody maybe not everybody but everybody who has ever gone broke or otherwise got into difficulty in the city of Florence in Italy has heard of Maria come Berti Maybe it's only because she speaks English French and German as fluently as she speaks her own language Italian. Maybe it's something more. Her villa on the Via Belvedere on one of those dreamy hills above Florence is a sort of wild game refuge anyone and everyone comes to see her and some stay on for a long long time. Signora combat is relatively poor. There are villas including hers which do not have hot water and in periods of drought have no water at all. Once she was rich born in Florence the daughter of a railway official she was

married to a distinguished German lawyer. He was also a Jew as he was not. After the elections in Germany in 1930 he committed suicide leaving a note which said that he thought that she would be better able to survive as an area and widow than as the wife of a Jew. She brought up her three children alone in Germany one of them died because the doctor in attendance a Jew was forbidden the practice. Maria can bear he's grown son and daughter are both married now in London. Here is Milton Mayer to interview Senora Maria combating Senora compare. Where do the people of Italy need. That's a question a big difficult question to answer. There may be business like everybody. Maybe you could tell me if the

happiness of their happiness can be surely far as fair. You know if you ask people what they need they will always answer and have the wishes you knew me. Maybe you moon because we are very poor but I don't believe that broke people must necessarily be mad. I am happy that range than rich people. You know when our poorer people here are unhappy they have only small wishes with jazz which are rather easy to satisfy. Naturally they are cool and lots of them have no work but I don't believe that this is a

reason for being more unhappy than other people. Are you in a meeting Senora comparatively that if the people of Italy were rich instead of poor they not might not be any happier than they are now. Maybe for the for a first time. Because if you get something you are really wishing them for a smaller time rugby betting that a happy that from this moment you are wishing something which is more difficult to get. I believe you know Senor can vary. I suspect you of being an American. You. You have no refrigerator here. No I never had them come. Yes you have no

washing machine. No no we must hold our hands and. You do not even own an on bail. No no and no. And you are to persuade me that you are happy. Yes yes I am. Because maybe because I see people with Tunnel B and cars washing machines and all these wonderful things who are not a bit happier than I. I must say the contrary. And I always feel better said that people are envious when we see that people don't want what they have. If the rich run something. It is surely much more difficult to get for instance

a very rich woman who has everything. She is not beautiful. Then she will always be envious of a poor woman who is beautiful. But what if she is both rich and beautiful that she will not be always beautiful the first wrinkle in her face will make her sill unhappy as a poor woman who hasn't to buy a new dress on or even a dress at all senor compared to him. You are about to fall and who ate terrible crap once you were rich. Were you happy. Surely I'm happier than now because I had all the troubles of a young woman. I was living in the middle of the what do you call

society. But I remember I had a very dear friend of mine very young she was also very well off and we agreed that it will be much better and much simpler if we would have less money and more time for ourselves. And I missed seeing the tourists that week. We are right because we became poor both of us and life became really simpler. But you live in a country and on a continent. Which is. Overcome not only by

the ravages of war but by many centuries of terrible terrible poverty and everywhere I go almost everywhere I go in Europe and of course in Asia and in Africa. The situation is still worse. I find a great surging movement on the part of reformers. To change this situation the illiteracy let's say of this tremendous population of your own country especially in the south of Italy the Salafis ory of people in other countries the power t the almost

absolute poverty that one see is not so much in the streets of Florence but in the backstreets of Florence too. And certainly on the land among the peasants. Yes you are right. But today at the beginning of your question you have an answer to part of it. You said for centuries maybe be centuries maybe people feared for him during this a bit this poverty more than I believe if you were an American if an American family at what became at pool at once it would be much harder to endure it. Then here and then we have our son don't forget. We don't want warm clothes. We don't want good lodgings and. And he. We

have our son and we don't even want so much food because the sun is our best for sure. And you will see that our health their health of our people is not as bad as you would expect. Anyhow progress exists and has maybe to exist but that will not increase the happiness. It has nothing to do with happiness. Happiness has to come from inside and it is only maybe for my feeling the in just man to things as they really are not as they ought to be. This sounds like a tree where elf flies a nasty old reactionary point of view coming from a

woman who is pretty famous as a reformer herself. No I don't agree with you the driver tried to reform our fool myself. I have reformed myself and the only reform the only influence I'd try to get is to show all how I am going on being released satisfied with my life. I am trying to be helpful. And I believe also that education should teach children to be helpful at first. Because it's well done and then they are distracted from their own little worries. And for grown up people people lives the same. Senior are covariant traveling through Italy

as I do I sometimes in the heat of the day in the worst heat of the day. I see a peasant asleep lying with his back against a haystack or in the shadow of a haystack. After what appears to a bit of a lunch hour perhaps nothing but bread and I suppose in Italy a little wine and then only him and a nun. Yes I thought I asked myself. Of course he doesn't speak English and besides he's a sleeper so I wouldn't bother him. I ask myself. This is man happy or I'm happy and what should be done about him.

Yes but I couldn't and now excuse me if I wouldn't like to become personal but do you believe that people in your pocket ever knew. I once was in New York and I know how it is. Do you believe that they are what we call happy. I believe that there are no other rooms for our people than for you or people in the Park Avenue. How would you why would you not try to make them happy. And I'm sure they are. Thank you senora compared to the program you have just heard is made possible under a grant from the fund for adult education an independent organization established by the Ford Foundation. These programs prepared and distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters are introduced by Norman McKee and this is the end AEB tape network.