Editing Joseph Di Mambro (section)

== Early life ==
Joseph Léonce Di Mambro was born 19 August 1924 in [[Pont-Saint-Esprit]], a town in the [[Gard]] department of France, the oldest of three siblings.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=26}}{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=301}} His father, Raphaël Di Mambro, was an immigrant from [[Northern Italy]], a glassworker. His mother Fernande Marie Raoux was a seamstress.{{sfn|Michaud|1996|p=24}}{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=26–27}} Di Mambro was regularly bullied in school for his Italian heritage.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=26}} While extremely close to his mother, he hated his father and his sister; he viewed his father as lacking ambition.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=27}}

His family was not particularly religious, though Fernande would sometimes attend church, and Di Mambro was fond of the atmosphere of [[Mass (liturgy)|mass]].{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=27–28}} At the age of 16, he gained an apprenticeship as a jeweler and watchmaker.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=301}} At a young age, he viewed himself as better than other youth, apart from the rest.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=27–28}} When the glassworking facilities closed down during the [[occupation of France]] (as the Nazis had little interest in glass work), his father instead made weapons for the Nazis, as did many other workers at the time.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=27}} When some of his associates joined the [[French Resistance]], he distanced himself from them, while also trying to avoid being incorporated into the [[Service du travail obligatoire|STO]] (the Vichy France compulsory work program for the unemployed).{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=27–28}} His friends stated that the occupation made him secretive and distrustful of others.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=27–28}}

Towards the end of the war, the occupying Germans attempted to hunt down the remaining resistance fighters and those who refused to participate in the work program, and many went into hiding.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=27–28}} Possibly in an effort to avoid forced labor and being moved to Germany during the occupation, Di Mambro married Jeannine Saltet on 11 March 1944, having a single child in the relationship, Bernard.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=27–28}}{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=54–55}} He did not attend school for long, preferring music; after the war he was part of an orchestra.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=30}} Saltet was also a musician and would later become a music teacher.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=54–55}} After a friend's family's house was raided by German officials and burnt to the ground for collaborating with the [[French Resistance]], Di Mambro's house was also searched; his family was spared by the Germans due to the fact he played the [[violin]], as the German officer was a musician.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pages=29–30}} Following the liberation of France, his father disappeared under mysterious circumstances and was never found. Di Mambro did not mourn him for long.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=54}}