​​​Born in 1925, Raymond was only 15 when he and his family were arrested on 4 October 1940, in Petit-Couronne, near Rouen. On that same day, German authorities issued a decree ordering the confinement of Gypsy populations, though France had already imposed restrictions on their movement. Families like the Gurêmes were taken into custody under the supervision of French police and sent to internment camps.

​Raymond’s family was first placed in Darnétal, then moved to Linas-Monthléry, and later transferred to other camps, where they faced harsh living conditions and frequent mistreatment. Determined to resist, Raymond repeatedly escaped, often walking long distances to secretly bring food back to his family. By the end of the war, he had successfully fled ten times.

​In 1942, while his relatives were moved again, Raymond was arrested and sent to a reformatory. After escaping once more, he found work in a hospital, where a wounded man recruited him for the Resistance, asking him to steal a German truck. Denounced by the hospital director, he was imprisoned in Angers, then transferred to Troyes, and eventually deported to Germany, where he endured the brutality of disciplinary camps.

​While in Germany, Raymond cleverly defied a German guard who repeatedly shouted “Schnell! Schnell!” by responding only with “Shut up,” mocking him for days. When the guard realized it, he struck Raymond violently, leaving him unconscious with a fractured skull. Friends rescued him, and later in 1944 he lost an eye in a bombing that killed several comrades nearby.

​At just 16, Raymond formally joined the Resistance. In June 1944, he escaped Germany by hiding in a locomotive’s coal compartment with the help of a railway worker and returned to France, joining the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieurin which brought together various French Resistance groups during the liberation of Paris.

​Even after liberation, injustice persisted. Internment camps remained open until 1946, and many families lost everything. Recognition came decades later: Raymond received political internee status in 2009, the French government acknowledged the persecution in 2010, and a national tribute took place in 2016.