Read Online Andrée's War by Francelle Bradford White - Free Book Online Page A

young, fairly sheltered and otherwise carefree woman of Andrée’s upbringing would decide to join the French Resistance, it helps to read her reaction following the German invasion of France in 1939 and the Wehrmacht’s entry into Paris in 1940.
    On 15 September 1939 Andrée wrote:
    We are now at war and we will have to live with it. Hitler has to be stopped. We must believe in France’s victory and shout from the rooftops of Paris
‘Vive la France’.
    Ten days later, she added:
    Alain just keeps repeating ‘what bastards they all are’. As for me, I am totally heartbroken.
    By the early autumn of 1940, daily life in Paris was beginning to return to something approaching normality, if such a situation could be described as normal. Following one of the hottest summers on record, when 95°F had been recorded on the streets of Paris, those Parisians who had escaped the Nazis and the city for the hot summer months began slowly to return. Yvonne, Alain, Yvette and Claude had attempted without success to board a British frigate in Nantes destined for Portsmouth. There were too many people trying to leave France and they reached Nantes too late to get on. Alain tried to get on a ship on his own, but was told by a British sailor to return to his ‘Mummy’. He never quite forgave the British for the slight. The family went instead to stay with friends in the Sables-d’Olonne, eventuallyreturning to Paris about six weeks later. Despite hoping that they had managed to make it safely to Britain, Andrée was beside herself with joy to hear her mother’s voice greeting the concierge on their return. Yvette and Claude, at twelve and ten years old respectively, were due to start school, while Alain was about to start university.
    Returning to Paris would prove challenging. Tall, with strong Flemish characteristics and an aristocratic presence, no one could miss Yvonne. Holding her two daughters by the hand, she made her way towards the Place de l’Opéra for the first day of school. As she walked towards the Café de la Paix, Yvonne saw that the road signs had been renamed in German; the swastika flag was flying from several rooftops; and everywhere she looked she saw German soldiers walking along the streets. Hurrying on, her daughters listened as she promised: ‘We got rid of them in 1918 and we will get rid of them again.’
    Emerging from the
métro
station one morning, on his way to register at the Sorbonne, Alain picked up a copy of that morning’s
Figaro
. * As the young newspaper vendor gave him his change, Alain made a sarcastic comment about the accuracy of news reports now that the invading forces were in control of the press. As he stood in line to register at la Faculté de Droit, he looked through the paper and realised how heavily the morning’s press must have been censored. Alain was not slow in taking a decision; before he had even registered as a student, he made up his mind to publish an underground weekly pamphlet or news-sheet. He would name it
La France
, and its role would be to inform Parisians of what was going on in the world, alongside articles enticing readers to resist the occupation.
    Freshers’ Week 1940 at the Sorbonne was different from previous years. Being a student in 1940 would not be about working hard and having fun. France was at war. As the corridors of the university filled with youngsters registering for their chosen courses, conversations bubbled up about theGerman invasion of France and the Wehrmacht entry into Paris, and how they had been betrayed.
    The atmosphere was one of bitterness and resentment as the students tried to come to terms with the speed of their country’s defeat. They felt let down by their army and by a group of politicians whose management of the political situation and handling of its armed forces had been so disastrous.
    One new student at the Sorbonne in 1940 was Noël Le Clercq, a