This forged French identity document, made out in the name of Théodore Maillet, helped painter Leopold Mayer escape from France to Switzerland. After narrowly escaping extradition to the German-occupied zone in the autumn of 1942, from where he would have been deported to Auschwitz, Mayer had to go into hiding in the south of France, where he used a false name and worked as a shepherd in the Cévennes. The identity document gives his birthplace as Roubaix, a town on the Belgian border. Another stamp refers to Boulaincourt in the Vosges. These two places were far away; officials checking the identity card would have had difficulty determining whether it was genuine.

At the beginning of the 1940s, French identity documents could be issued on numerous pre-printed forms that were available from any tobacconist. This made it easy to obtain forged identity papers. However, this required the help of a trustworthy person who either worked for an authority or possessed forged or stolen stamps. Many French people were willing to provide this help, thus enabling numerous persecuted persons to escape deportation to the concentration camps. Later on, the authorities made this practice more difficult. Each newly issued document had to contain a cross-reference to the register of births.

After fleeing to Switzerland in January 1944, Leopold Mayer kept the French version of his surname and called himself Leo Maillet from then on.

Further reading:
Jacques Semelin: Das Überleben von Juden in Frankreich 1940-1944 [The Survival of Jews in France 1940-1944]. Göttingen: Wallstein 2018