The German International Club celebrated its annual Gala in the presence of HSH Prince Albert on Wednesday, July 17. The sovereign is also Honorary President of the Club. The evening’s special guest was Herbert Traube, who was celebrating his centenary.
The event took place in the magnificently flower-decorated room of the Monaco Yacht Club Ballroom, in which a special and moving moment of the evening was the tribute paid to Herbert Traube, a Holocaust survivor who fled the Nazi regime many times, from Vienna, where he was born, to Belgium, then to France. Under the Pétain regime, foreign Jews were declared “undesirable” and deported by cattle wagons to Drancy and then Auschwitz.
As a youngster, Herbert Traube managed to escape from a moving train by slipping through the bars of the wagon. “If the head passes, the body passes,” he said when describing this episode. He joined the Resistance, going on to survive the Foreign Legion with which he fought in Algeria. He took part in the landings in France for the Liberation, and fought all the way to the gates of his native Austria.
He was named Officer of the Legion of Honour on July 14 by the French government. The German International Club welcomed him with great emotion by naming him an “Honorary Member”.
Prince Albert gave him a two-euro coin, which celebrated the centenary of his father Prince Rainier III in 2023. Patrick Wetzel, co-President of the CAI said in his tribute that Prince Rainier III had also enlisted as a foreigner in the French Army of Liberation and fought as far as Alsace.
The gala ended with a raffle where funds for charitable activities were collected, a show with the theme “Dolce Vita” and dancing to the rhythm of Italian songs.
The documentary on the life of Mr. Traube, produced by Clara Laurent, and partly sponsored by the Monegasque Government Le destin français d’un Indésirable will be screened on the evening of Thursday, July 18 on TVMonaco.
PHOTO: Patrick Wetzel, co-President of the German International Club, HSH Prince Albert, and Herbert Traube Philippe Fitte
