"The train started moving, nobody got off and the Gestapo officer started going from compartment to compartment and when he saw us he shouted, "Don't Move!" and took our papers away from us. Soldiers were guarding the corridors all along the speeding train. We were trapped like a bunch of herded animals. I could have kicked myself. The Gestapo officer rushed to the rear of the train using the same tactics. I said to Daniel "Come with me into the corridor, never mind the papers and luggage", but he was so slow!
We chatted to a young soldier and he took us to be one of them. I then checked the next door from my position to where Daniel stood talking and made a sign for him to come over. I already had the handle in my hand but Daniel was too slow! I was just about to utter the word, "jump"", when all of a sudden a Gestapo came in, Luger in hand, pointed at us and harshly told the soldier off and shouting at us, "what in the hell do you think you are doing up there"?
Too late now we had lost our chance, we were pushed into the compartment again and within a few minutes another victim was pushed around by the Gestapo officer's helpers and came into our compartment. This woman turned out to be the real prey they were after, we were just extra fish caught in the dragnet. Now I wondered whether he recognized us from before!
About fifteen of us were caught, that is a considerable haul, I think. From then on the Gestapo man got very pompous and busy. Chiefly, interrogating the woman and concentrating on her. She was still young but not a teenager either. I never got her name, it wouldn't have been real anyway. According to our Gestapo man she turned out to be an agent or a spy. Looking at her intently and then back to us he said, "it is because of people like you that these boys are going to be shot, now"!
Well, on this there was no doubt whatsoever about our fate. I had had enough of Daniel dragging his feet and it was now everbody for himself, now to make the best of it and to get away when the first opportunity arose.
The trip to Biarritz was very sombre if not depressing; the sun was shining, the shimmering haze clearing up over the countryside making it even brighter. No concerted attempt was made to escape by those individuals left to their own thoughts as he disappeared from our compartment to others. Obviously he had other victims who were just as important.
It was a pity because it had to be done now as it was probably the best moment to escape while were were still fit. I thought we could jump the guards and gestapo and in the confusion roll off the train into the isolated countryside - using the free ride to get closer to our destination. The massacre would be ugly but what were the odds! Each individual had their own knowledge of what awaited them as well as torture and afterwards execution. In this way we reached Biarritz junction and I had just seen a glimmer of sunlight reflecting on what looked like a small yacht harbour or bay full of white painted boats whose brilliance caused me to shade my eyes.
I knew the Gestapo in the occupied zones were stretched to breaking point so I had to quickly look for an opportunity. I had previously heard of patriots being caught in the fields being made to dig their own graves before being shot. This thought made me even more determined. As the train came to a stop we were herded off and lined up in the hall under the scrutiny and watchful eyes of the guards, rifles at the ready.
There were people behind the guards and I noticed an elderly woman wearing sunglasses that nodded as she made a recognition amongst us. We were marched off now and I saw more of the bay to my right which I tried to memorise. I made up my mind that this would be the place to make a get-a-way. I would dive into the water and swim just below the surface and advance under water to just the other side of the boats. I had trained for that and liked it. I would have to get rid of my clothes under water as they would become heavy. If they were shooting the bullets would be ricocheting on the surface and they would think after a while that I had drowned.
Afterwards I found out that there was no water behind the quay at all, just soft mud, which I couldn't see from where I was walking, nothing but quagmire and very smelly mud with rocks scattered here and there around.
That would have been the end of the road for me
So in a little while we arrived at the hotel, their centre for all operations in the region. It was quite a famous hotel because of King Edward the Seventh holidaying there and that was it's name. Now it was the Gestapo's headquarters.
I looked very intently around before entering to assess the situation ..."
To be continued ....
Friday, 20 January 2012
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Day 23 - A Gestapo starts taking snapshots of us at Dax station!
"The little town was teaming with troops and we told the proprietors that permission had been granted, smiling at us they said no need for that and let us enter They have us a room under the stairway and entrance. Well tucked away and with no windows for a quick escape, just a small partridge hole. We asked the maid to tell us the time early in the morning when she brought the coffee and bread so we could catch the early bus. There was only one per day and we had to make good on that one. We couldn't stay around any longer.
The idea was to get off at the coastal zone and begin walking from there as well as selling our luggage to make extra cash. The rest was up to luck, intuition and skill in dodging the patrols from there!
In the morning we were taken completely by surprise as the maid was late. Then Daniel had to play and flirt with her and I had the feeling that the bus had already left at 7, which it had, and I was already becoming very angry by the minute. When we arrived at the bus stop we were told it had already left, indeed, and that was the end of my patience.
I said to Daniel, "I have got the feeling that it is not good to stay here another day, so let's take the train and jump from it before it enters the station at Dax", maybe there was a stop before that. Everything was running out, time and patience as well. I started to feel very touchy with Daniel. I couldn't hardly drag my feet anymore yet we were so close to our target. The other possibillities could still be used if this one failed. The current decision turned out to be a mistake.
After quarelling back and forth we decided that it was now or never together. So far alright! The dice was thrown now! After all, this game was nothing but a gamble. Approaching Dax rolling along at a steady pace everything looked so nice and peaceful and quiet we took a chance to try the station carrying our luck too far!
We got off the train a short distance before the station. However, there was no chance at all, we had it, the place was suddenly swarming with troops and sergeants and officers in plain clothes looking like American tourists, shouting and giving orders. This was a trap set by the Gestapo and we had fallen right into it. Just the same I told Daniel to get on the next train. Suddenly, the usual Gestapo officer that we had seen several times before was in front of us on the platform taking snapshots or pictures of us ..."
To be continued ...
The idea was to get off at the coastal zone and begin walking from there as well as selling our luggage to make extra cash. The rest was up to luck, intuition and skill in dodging the patrols from there!
In the morning we were taken completely by surprise as the maid was late. Then Daniel had to play and flirt with her and I had the feeling that the bus had already left at 7, which it had, and I was already becoming very angry by the minute. When we arrived at the bus stop we were told it had already left, indeed, and that was the end of my patience.
I said to Daniel, "I have got the feeling that it is not good to stay here another day, so let's take the train and jump from it before it enters the station at Dax", maybe there was a stop before that. Everything was running out, time and patience as well. I started to feel very touchy with Daniel. I couldn't hardly drag my feet anymore yet we were so close to our target. The other possibillities could still be used if this one failed. The current decision turned out to be a mistake.
After quarelling back and forth we decided that it was now or never together. So far alright! The dice was thrown now! After all, this game was nothing but a gamble. Approaching Dax rolling along at a steady pace everything looked so nice and peaceful and quiet we took a chance to try the station carrying our luck too far!
We got off the train a short distance before the station. However, there was no chance at all, we had it, the place was suddenly swarming with troops and sergeants and officers in plain clothes looking like American tourists, shouting and giving orders. This was a trap set by the Gestapo and we had fallen right into it. Just the same I told Daniel to get on the next train. Suddenly, the usual Gestapo officer that we had seen several times before was in front of us on the platform taking snapshots or pictures of us ..."
To be continued ...
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Day 22 - A Premonition of Disaster!
"One day Daniel got so fed up, he wanted to get more food from his uncle and took off. After three days he came back with a hoard. I thought I had lost him too! Now, I said we must take our leave and with our new provisions we easily made it across the fields. Daniel said he had met the same Nazi again and others who seemed to be busy with their investigations. At about that time, Rommels North African Corps had retreated from Benghazi and Tobruk and were sent to rest still wearing their tropical uniforms. In the evening we found them singing and drinking in the locals, mostly white wine.
I think it was time for us to go anyway, I put it to the manager and he was sorry to see us go. He offered to help us by saying he could move us to Maquis of the Coreze if we wanted to... Our mind was made up and the worst gaps in the bridge had been finished. After the pay out the next day and a good meal we went to rest in the old cemetary. The only peaceful place was among the graves and we were not watched or bothered, the grass was green too!
The Germans were busy, we watched them doing a lot of exercising keeping their troops on the go, we observed their assault tactics and were quite impressed, they fell down on their knees after creeping and running after an imaginary enemy as well as rolling away from imaginary shooting, it was excellent training.
We fell asleep and a nightmare suddenly woke me up. I felt an enormous fear. I am sure it was a premonition or warning of disaster and I should have taken heed. In my dream, presenting itself in black and silvery flames, a very pale man of death visited me, I believe as a warning of imminent danger ... I tried to shake the feeling off by telling myself that is was probably due to the presence of the gravestones plus the steak we had eaten had been a bit rotten! I boiled it down to this combination.
We packed our belongings and took the first bus to a place called Mont-de-Marsan, which we reached in the evening to be greeted by a bus full of school children all happy and gesticulating. The country was rising now and we could see the foothills of the Pyrennes in the haze. We left the country of D'Artagnan behind, called Aquitaine and moved towards the country of the Basques now with lots of sheep rearing and horses to lovely mountain views ...
Looking for the usual hidden restaurant and hotel, which didn't take too long, we found one ideally situated near a mountain stream and we checked in. Casually asking for a room they gave me the usual answer, "Go and ask the permission from the Kreiscommandatura". Once they found out that we were trustworthy they let us in, they knew the name of the game, so did we!
It was a dangerous game like everything else it could cost them dear if they were found out, from a severe fine to closure or even deportation and who knows what from there to the camps. Anyway, there was still a good bit of honour around and nobody gave anybody away unless ... "
To be continued ...
I think it was time for us to go anyway, I put it to the manager and he was sorry to see us go. He offered to help us by saying he could move us to Maquis of the Coreze if we wanted to... Our mind was made up and the worst gaps in the bridge had been finished. After the pay out the next day and a good meal we went to rest in the old cemetary. The only peaceful place was among the graves and we were not watched or bothered, the grass was green too!
The Germans were busy, we watched them doing a lot of exercising keeping their troops on the go, we observed their assault tactics and were quite impressed, they fell down on their knees after creeping and running after an imaginary enemy as well as rolling away from imaginary shooting, it was excellent training.
We fell asleep and a nightmare suddenly woke me up. I felt an enormous fear. I am sure it was a premonition or warning of disaster and I should have taken heed. In my dream, presenting itself in black and silvery flames, a very pale man of death visited me, I believe as a warning of imminent danger ... I tried to shake the feeling off by telling myself that is was probably due to the presence of the gravestones plus the steak we had eaten had been a bit rotten! I boiled it down to this combination.
We packed our belongings and took the first bus to a place called Mont-de-Marsan, which we reached in the evening to be greeted by a bus full of school children all happy and gesticulating. The country was rising now and we could see the foothills of the Pyrennes in the haze. We left the country of D'Artagnan behind, called Aquitaine and moved towards the country of the Basques now with lots of sheep rearing and horses to lovely mountain views ...
Looking for the usual hidden restaurant and hotel, which didn't take too long, we found one ideally situated near a mountain stream and we checked in. Casually asking for a room they gave me the usual answer, "Go and ask the permission from the Kreiscommandatura". Once they found out that we were trustworthy they let us in, they knew the name of the game, so did we!
It was a dangerous game like everything else it could cost them dear if they were found out, from a severe fine to closure or even deportation and who knows what from there to the camps. Anyway, there was still a good bit of honour around and nobody gave anybody away unless ... "
To be continued ...
Monday, 16 January 2012
Day 21 - Being Harrassed by the Gestapo!
"Comfortably seated we made for the frontier leaving my Mother with verbal messages about possible rendezvous points for George, if he followed later.
At the border we waited till the guard was changed and the french guards came along and when we were alone, we had cigars to give them. The growing of tobacco in Belgium had no restrictions unlike in France. It was taken as a gift. They knew that we were all involved by now and so were they but we helped each other.
In no time we made for Compiegne and I didn't like the police who were watching the station. They gave us a long look! Carefully, I went to Gourcy dodging them and fulfilling my mission and using the pass without arousing any suspicion. Once there it didn't take too long for me to find out that the place was hot and reeking with treason.
We quickly retraced our steps and took a different route making for Paris instead. George couldn't have possibly found us if he had escaped from any incarceration, but you never know, I also knew that he would still try. The advantage with Daniel was that he had an uncle seventy kilometres south of Paris in Pithiviers district well hidden behind the Orleans-Forest. His Uncle was a horse dealer and well known to other farmers. This was the place to hide for a while with lots of food available and dense woods to hide in. We just skimmed Paris and got out as quickly as we could in a great haste.
We made good time to Pithhiviers and everything was as we expected and we received a marvellous welcome. Daniel's uncle collected us at the station as he had been pre-warned of our arrival by telephone. His aunt and uncle talked to us for hours afterwards. Daniel's cousins were a nice couple of boys working hard and helping out on the farm most of the time. Their dad said that when the time came he would hide them in the nearby forest where there was already a group of The Resistance and they would join them.
There were still wild boars in these woods. We saw the damage they did on his land to his vegetables the following morning. We stayed over a week and left loaded with an extra bag just filled to the brim with food. On the way we stopped in a town with a big cathedral along the railway. I think it must have been a famous one!
We arrived in Bordeaux safely and went to a lonely bistro close to the harbour. After a good meal without ration cards! we got to talking to people who knew and pointed out a contractor who was looking for workers to help him in the "Landes" repairing a bridge. The company was from Paris called "Sotramet" and so this was the ideal chance for us to proceed with caution to our destiny.
George we never saw again till after the war, he told us that he went as far as Bordeaux and then turned back. The contractor took us to a place called Belin-Belier. A Gestapo man in plain clothes looked at our papers but the boss said we were in his employ and he would look after us, so we were left pretty well alone.
The break was needed to enable us to slowly explore our re-entry to the coastal zone and also to build up our finances again so that we would have money when we needed to move on. The work was pretty hard, it consisted of repairing a worn out and frail bridge. There were lots of mosquitos in this place, it being moors and fen country, forested, lots of beautiful grass snakes and turtles. The food was different here and the work was harder than we had envisaged. Artichokes and beans every day with little or no meat. Rations cards were arranged and issued to us, so this made us in order for the rest of the area.
The crew, like us, consisted mostly of hide-aways, some from as far as Paris, some were Spanish - republicans and maqisards at the ready, it was like a transit camp. When at work on the river, we had our problems with the swift current underneath, boards dropping down and then having to get them back.
Once we had an argument with a bad tempered Spaniard who disappeared at different times in a deep hole in the river while pulling the planks back and dragging a pontoon but it turned out alright in the end. The friendship was tense but bearable. We had started to sing the Volga boat song for him and he was not amused about that.
We even managed to see a bull-fight in Bordeaux at the weekend put on by Portuguese, but shame on them, the Spaniards had to save the situation and jumped into the ring just when the air-raid alarm went off. When everything was over we all left and had a swim instead. My dive from the high board was quite enough and turned out to be a complete flop so I had had enough of it!
Returning home again we were harrassed by the same Gestapo man of before. The manager was present and vouched for us again and got us out! That is something, I remarked to Daniel, we have got to avoid travelling on this line!"
To be continued ....
At the border we waited till the guard was changed and the french guards came along and when we were alone, we had cigars to give them. The growing of tobacco in Belgium had no restrictions unlike in France. It was taken as a gift. They knew that we were all involved by now and so were they but we helped each other.
In no time we made for Compiegne and I didn't like the police who were watching the station. They gave us a long look! Carefully, I went to Gourcy dodging them and fulfilling my mission and using the pass without arousing any suspicion. Once there it didn't take too long for me to find out that the place was hot and reeking with treason.
We quickly retraced our steps and took a different route making for Paris instead. George couldn't have possibly found us if he had escaped from any incarceration, but you never know, I also knew that he would still try. The advantage with Daniel was that he had an uncle seventy kilometres south of Paris in Pithiviers district well hidden behind the Orleans-Forest. His Uncle was a horse dealer and well known to other farmers. This was the place to hide for a while with lots of food available and dense woods to hide in. We just skimmed Paris and got out as quickly as we could in a great haste.
We made good time to Pithhiviers and everything was as we expected and we received a marvellous welcome. Daniel's uncle collected us at the station as he had been pre-warned of our arrival by telephone. His aunt and uncle talked to us for hours afterwards. Daniel's cousins were a nice couple of boys working hard and helping out on the farm most of the time. Their dad said that when the time came he would hide them in the nearby forest where there was already a group of The Resistance and they would join them.
There were still wild boars in these woods. We saw the damage they did on his land to his vegetables the following morning. We stayed over a week and left loaded with an extra bag just filled to the brim with food. On the way we stopped in a town with a big cathedral along the railway. I think it must have been a famous one!
We arrived in Bordeaux safely and went to a lonely bistro close to the harbour. After a good meal without ration cards! we got to talking to people who knew and pointed out a contractor who was looking for workers to help him in the "Landes" repairing a bridge. The company was from Paris called "Sotramet" and so this was the ideal chance for us to proceed with caution to our destiny.
George we never saw again till after the war, he told us that he went as far as Bordeaux and then turned back. The contractor took us to a place called Belin-Belier. A Gestapo man in plain clothes looked at our papers but the boss said we were in his employ and he would look after us, so we were left pretty well alone.
The break was needed to enable us to slowly explore our re-entry to the coastal zone and also to build up our finances again so that we would have money when we needed to move on. The work was pretty hard, it consisted of repairing a worn out and frail bridge. There were lots of mosquitos in this place, it being moors and fen country, forested, lots of beautiful grass snakes and turtles. The food was different here and the work was harder than we had envisaged. Artichokes and beans every day with little or no meat. Rations cards were arranged and issued to us, so this made us in order for the rest of the area.
The crew, like us, consisted mostly of hide-aways, some from as far as Paris, some were Spanish - republicans and maqisards at the ready, it was like a transit camp. When at work on the river, we had our problems with the swift current underneath, boards dropping down and then having to get them back.
Once we had an argument with a bad tempered Spaniard who disappeared at different times in a deep hole in the river while pulling the planks back and dragging a pontoon but it turned out alright in the end. The friendship was tense but bearable. We had started to sing the Volga boat song for him and he was not amused about that.
We even managed to see a bull-fight in Bordeaux at the weekend put on by Portuguese, but shame on them, the Spaniards had to save the situation and jumped into the ring just when the air-raid alarm went off. When everything was over we all left and had a swim instead. My dive from the high board was quite enough and turned out to be a complete flop so I had had enough of it!
Returning home again we were harrassed by the same Gestapo man of before. The manager was present and vouched for us again and got us out! That is something, I remarked to Daniel, we have got to avoid travelling on this line!"
To be continued ....
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