Charles Chevalier Faramus, known as Anthony, worked as a hairdresser in a St Helier salon and later, during the early stages of the Occupation, was employed in the kitchen of the Miramar Hotel.
Arrest
In December 1940 he was arrested on the orders of the Feldgendarmerie, for an act of sabotage. He was later to accuse Centenier Arthur Tostevin and Detective Constable Ben Shenton of reporting him to the Germans for distributing leaflets and alleged sabotage. He was sentenced to six months hard labour and shared a cell with Eddie Chapman with whom he was deported in November 1941.
They were taken by rail to Fort de Romainville in Paris, where many people were interned before being deported to Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, Buchenwald and Dachau.
After a year, Faramus along with other prisoners from Romainville, was taken in terrible conditions by train via Compiègne onto the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.
He was held in these camps and prisons:
- Saint-Denis Internment Camp
- Fort de Romainville Internment and Transit Camp
- Compiègne-Royallieu Internment and Transit Camp
- Buchenwald Concentration Camp
- Dresden Gestapo Prison
- Pankrac Prison
- Mauthausen Concentration Camp
USA
He survived the terrible conditions in the camp and after the war he lived in Paris searching for some of the women and men he had known in Fort de Romainville. During this period he lost a lung following surgery for tuberculosis, which he contracted during his imprisonment in Mauthausen. He returned to Britain and after a series of jobs in hotels and bars was able to find work as a film extra at Pinewood Studios.
He emigrated to the USA with his wife Mary, where they both had careers in the film industry. He played the roles of a British officer in The Colditz Story and a prisoner of war in King Rat. He also worked as Clark Gable’s butler and chauffeur. After living in California he and Mary moved back to Britain living in London and later in Farnham, Surrey.
Life story
An account of his life during the war, The Faramus Story, was published in 1954.
Occupation registration card
On the set of the Colditz Story
Photographed by Mark Gerson with front cover artwork by Michael Ayrton for his first account of the concentration camps
