Event

St. Paul De Vence

Fortune Jean Giordano was born in Nice, France in the late fall of 1924. Growing up the youngest of three, he came of age under German and Italian occupation of the South of France during World War II. In the spring of 1944 Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces arrived in Nice as part of the liberation. Having grown tired of the dwindling availability of work, the threat of Nazi work camps and life under the Occupation, he lied about his age, kissed his family goodbye and joined them, taking up the fight for liberation. Following the war, returning to a nation in ruin and with no prospect for work, he set sail for Coney Island and a new life.

The story of his journey the pain and the triumph, the love and the loss remained largely untold until his grandson, Benjamin Doerr, started asking questions and recording answers. Originally focused as a side-recording project to tell part of this story through a three-song EP (When Our Boys Have Been Buried, 2010) - St. Paul de Vence soon took shape as full band with a much bigger musical message to share.