Corrections
My very good friend Daniel Morrow, an Historian whom I should have asked to read the MS before it was published and not after, mentioned a couple of mistakes. The first is that Frankfurt is not located in the Ruhr. I was so sure it was that I didn’t even checked… The second is that, contrary to my wishful footnote, General Olry–which I managed to misspel–did not destroy General Erich Hoepner’s XVI Panzerkorps during the Battle of the Alps in June 1940. He did stop a 300,000 strong Italian force, and it is rather...
read moreprivilege
The ultimate privilege in life is not to rise above all, but to find someone you’re ready to die for. That is the privilege women are destroying when they kill the baby they would gladly die for, if only they would allow themselves to know him. The ultimate act of selfishness replacing the ultimate act of selflessness. The ultimate act of self-destruction foisted as an act of liberation. They are lying to you. Wake up.
read moreThe collabos out themselves
At last, we know who they are. Guy Marty, the socialist mayor of Sainte-Terre, in Gironde, has decided to put the authority of his office behind his fear of the French Republic. He is proving that nothing is more dangerous to the political left than the Cross of Lorraine on a French...
read moreTrial documents
trial documents Click on the link to view documents. They include a condemnation to death for one of my uncles, a declaration from witness for the defense, Jean Louis Yves Garrel, a member of the maquis du Vercors and French Army volunteer, a biographt of the witness for the prosecution, and a letter to my father from the attorney he paid to help in his brothers’ case, which letter states that the death penalty has been commuted to forced labor for life. I will translate these documents one of these days, keep...
read moreCitation caporal-chef Robert Romeyer Dherbey
Citation caporal-chef Robert Romeyer Dherbey Click on the link to get the original. I am not sure where this was published. We have a newspaper insert, and of course the official document, framed with the two medals my dad was awarded during World War Two. Many times our family had to resort to showing this in order to prove he was neither a collaborator nor a coward. The text remains the same on all three documents, and here is the translation: Citation to the Order of the Division The general Duchemin, commandant officer of the third light...
read moreedited scenes
These were the original opening and closing scenes, which were removed during the editing process. A young German student comes to Alix Lenan’s home under the pretext that he is researching the summer of 1944 for a university project, but he is lying. I still like them a lot. Opening scene It’s ringing. Once. Twice. Maybe she’s not home? Wait. Old people always take a long time to pick up the phone… “Allo?” “…Allo, oui… Bonjour, Madame. Madame Lenan?” “Oui, c’est bien moi…?” Her voice is steady, barely a note of fragility. I hope I...
read moreEpilogue
Hundreds of graves in this cemetery, hundreds of crosses, hundreds of names. Is this really where the story ends? They didn’t come, the Americans. The Vercors was not important enough. It didn’t fit in the grand strategy for a new European Order. No Mediterranean landing, no backup of any kind, no paratroopers. When the gliders came, they were German. And while in London strategists were weighing timing, tactics, and already obsolete command structures, the small army of the Vercors, the first Maquis of France, the last few square miles of...
read moreVercors night
I came back to the Vercors because that was where most of my family still lived. Sure, I remembered the elusive, scythe-crowned bouquetins and their mad chases across the cliffs, the rare flowers, the breathtaking scenery, it was everything I grew up with. Again I saw streams of clouds shredding on the high reefs―I stood right on the edge. I heard the thunder of the waterfalls crashing from the sky―drank the water cupped in my hands. Went inside the maze of veins deep in the ground and listened to it beat―the heart of the Fortress. It beat...
read more2. A word of caution
This is a novel. To the strict historian, I want to explain that I took liberties with the chronology and location for the events I recount, first because I wanted the story to end well, and second, because I wanted reader to get a comprehensive understanding of what really happened in these mountains, and in order to achieve that I had to pack six months of action into a six week period. On the other hand I also want to make clear that almost everything I describe did take place –albeit not at this exact time time or place. Some of it...
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