families.â
Name changes too, and false papers, but was that girl connected to any of them? If so, then they really did have a problem on their hands.
Near Le Bourget, the giant Paris aerodrome, the fog the rain had brought was so thick at 0347 Berlin Time, St-Cyr knew Lufthansaâs early-morning flight from Berlin through to Madrid and Lisbon would have been cancelled. That such could even exist in wartime was remarkable, but there were also once- or twice-weekly flights to Bristol by Pan-American Clipper and the Free Dutch KLM * from Sintra, which was about ninety kilometres to the west of Lisbon. âNot that theyâre one hundred percent safe from being shot down, mademoiselle, but they do offer hope,â he said as if again to her.
The Luftwaffeâs Luftflotte 3 squadron of bombers that had taken over the airfield in June 1940 would also have been groundedÂ, and London and other cities and towns given a peaceful night, this district too.
âAnd to think that not so very long ago I stood waiting, along with 100,000 others, including my first wife, to cheer Lindbergh as he landed the Spirit of Saint Louis at twenty-two minutes past ten in the evening, 21 June 1927. It was memorable, mademoiselle. Agnès and myself wouldnât have missed it for all the world, but who would have thought weâd be in another tragic war by 1 September 1939?â
At the turn-off to Drancy, that transit point for Jews and Gypsies, there was only one tiny blue-washed light over the black-lettered arrow that had originally been put up by the Préfecture du Département de la Seine more than a year ago. An unfinished, U-shaped complex of low-income tenements, five of which were currently being lived in by legal citizens, the remaining unfinished four-storey had at first been run by French police but had been taken over by the SS in July of this year, though the perimeter was still guarded by Frenchmenâjobs, if nothing else. âYet itâs only five kilometres (three miles) from Paris. Technically youâre an illegal, mademoiselle, and by the Vichy statute of 24 October 1940, subject to immediate arrest and internment regardless of whether you are Jewish or not. Even without the Occupierâs having requested such a thing, Vichy undertook to have everyone who had come here to evade the Nazis prior to 1 September 1939 and thereafter locked up.â
Aubervilliers was industrial, the stench of soot rank on the fog-ridden air. Ash heaps, incredibly poor housing, raw sewage and all such things marred la zone , the peripheral suburbs, and made them deplorable for far too many but ⦠Hermann had stopped and had taken out his pistol.
âWhen the end comes, Louis, itâll start in places like this. * Itâs now all but impossible for the Wehrmacht to even patrol the streets here at night. Stay close. Itâs not often a bank van crawls through at 0420 hours.â
The curfew would end at 0500 hours, but because of its imposition, the farmers couldnât do the usual and arrive at Les Halles in the early hours, and the belly of Paris had become a mere shadow of its former self.
Given the lack of traffic, the control on the Porte dâAubervilliers had far too many heavily armed men. Again Hermann had to pause, and when he came back, he was clearly unsettled. âIt canât be for us, Louis. It has to be for that passseur âs gazogène . Kriminalrat Ludinâs been waiting for hours to have a word. Oonaâs with him in the car and desperate. Stay up front in the van and use the lockdown so that no matter how hard the boys here try, they wonât get in.â
Acorn water lay between them on the linoleum-topped table. Nicotine-Âstained, Ludinâs thick fingers lit yet another, a Juno from home this time, that gaze of his behind those steel-rimmed specs unfeeling.
âKohler, must I remind you that a few answers are necessary?â
This
Name changes too, and false papers, but was that girl connected to any of them? If so, then they really did have a problem on their hands.
Near Le Bourget, the giant Paris aerodrome, the fog the rain had brought was so thick at 0347 Berlin Time, St-Cyr knew Lufthansaâs early-morning flight from Berlin through to Madrid and Lisbon would have been cancelled. That such could even exist in wartime was remarkable, but there were also once- or twice-weekly flights to Bristol by Pan-American Clipper and the Free Dutch KLM * from Sintra, which was about ninety kilometres to the west of Lisbon. âNot that theyâre one hundred percent safe from being shot down, mademoiselle, but they do offer hope,â he said as if again to her.
The Luftwaffeâs Luftflotte 3 squadron of bombers that had taken over the airfield in June 1940 would also have been groundedÂ, and London and other cities and towns given a peaceful night, this district too.
âAnd to think that not so very long ago I stood waiting, along with 100,000 others, including my first wife, to cheer Lindbergh as he landed the Spirit of Saint Louis at twenty-two minutes past ten in the evening, 21 June 1927. It was memorable, mademoiselle. Agnès and myself wouldnât have missed it for all the world, but who would have thought weâd be in another tragic war by 1 September 1939?â
At the turn-off to Drancy, that transit point for Jews and Gypsies, there was only one tiny blue-washed light over the black-lettered arrow that had originally been put up by the Préfecture du Département de la Seine more than a year ago. An unfinished, U-shaped complex of low-income tenements, five of which were currently being lived in by legal citizens, the remaining unfinished four-storey had at first been run by French police but had been taken over by the SS in July of this year, though the perimeter was still guarded by Frenchmenâjobs, if nothing else. âYet itâs only five kilometres (three miles) from Paris. Technically youâre an illegal, mademoiselle, and by the Vichy statute of 24 October 1940, subject to immediate arrest and internment regardless of whether you are Jewish or not. Even without the Occupierâs having requested such a thing, Vichy undertook to have everyone who had come here to evade the Nazis prior to 1 September 1939 and thereafter locked up.â
Aubervilliers was industrial, the stench of soot rank on the fog-ridden air. Ash heaps, incredibly poor housing, raw sewage and all such things marred la zone , the peripheral suburbs, and made them deplorable for far too many but ⦠Hermann had stopped and had taken out his pistol.
âWhen the end comes, Louis, itâll start in places like this. * Itâs now all but impossible for the Wehrmacht to even patrol the streets here at night. Stay close. Itâs not often a bank van crawls through at 0420 hours.â
The curfew would end at 0500 hours, but because of its imposition, the farmers couldnât do the usual and arrive at Les Halles in the early hours, and the belly of Paris had become a mere shadow of its former self.
Given the lack of traffic, the control on the Porte dâAubervilliers had far too many heavily armed men. Again Hermann had to pause, and when he came back, he was clearly unsettled. âIt canât be for us, Louis. It has to be for that passseur âs gazogène . Kriminalrat Ludinâs been waiting for hours to have a word. Oonaâs with him in the car and desperate. Stay up front in the van and use the lockdown so that no matter how hard the boys here try, they wonât get in.â
Acorn water lay between them on the linoleum-topped table. Nicotine-Âstained, Ludinâs thick fingers lit yet another, a Juno from home this time, that gaze of his behind those steel-rimmed specs unfeeling.
âKohler, must I remind you that a few answers are necessary?â
This
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