The Sacrifice of Strangers

We were into our second week in this safe house, and the dander from the rabbits was causing me a lot of trouble.  It was hard for me to breathe if I extended myself.  Just going up to bed was a hardship.  I could hardly get up the stairs.  The effort to do it made me breathless and caused me to cough so much that I was really miserable.  Everyone in the house was sure I was sick with a bad cold or some other ailment.  During the day if someone came to the house and we were supposed to rush up stairs quietly and hide, I couldn’t do it quietly anymore.  The family hid me in the living room when someone came.  This was a dark dreary, very cold unused room.  I had a blanket to wrap around me.  Not having to put forth any effort, I didn’t have to cough or wheeze trying to get my breath.

The Triton’s became very anxious about me.  I had told them I would have to leave, and they begged me not to leave.  They couldn’t believe that the rabbits could cause me so much trouble.  They couldn’t understand me when I tried to tell them about the dander in the house.  I didn’t know the words for allergy and dander, and they probably had never seen this in anyone.  They had a doctor, evidently a safe man, one connected with their underground, come to see me.  He was a comfortable older man who could speak a little English.  He told the Triton’s that it was the rabbits causing me so much trouble.  That day they moved the rabbits, cleaned the hutches and all the back entrance.  Each day I did get a little better and could breathe with more comfort.  I wondered how they could part with the rabbits.  Maybe they got a friend to care for them.  After all, they were a main food source.

One evening a safe friend called and explained that everything was planned to start us on our way.  The two men with us not of our crew would be the first.  They would move from this safe house.  This man didn’t give us his name.  By now we were used to the fact that very few people wanted to give out names for their own safety.  The Triton’s and our new friend seemed to know each other, and I assumed they must be part of the same organization.  From my experience with this family I felt they would be doing their best.  After shaking hands with everyone as he left, he promised to be back the next day.  He did come back in the later afternoon, bringing hats and some clothes so that the two guys would look like average French citizens, and they were warned not to speak a word of English anytime.  He told Sam, Gotty, and me that we would have to wait until they could get another guide to take us out.

Late the next day he came for the two men, and after telling them again that they must not speak anytime because their English would make them conspicuous, they set off in a car hopefully on their way to escaping back to England.

The evening was quiet after they left, and we were busy with our thoughts.  I offered that night to let Sam and Gotty have the bed, and I’d sleep on the mat on the floor.  Three of us in a double bed were crowded.  It was nice to sleep alone.

Very early the next morning we were awakened by shouting and violent noises of men breaking into the house.  I jumped up from the mat that I had slept on and tried to pull my pants on when the door of the bedroom was broken open and German soldiers entered with guns pointed at us.  Someone yelled in English “hands up.”  I didn’t need that; we all had put our hands up, and I had let my pants drop.  I stood there with my pants around my ankles while the room was searched.  We had nothing so they found nothing.  This was the day I learned my first German word, “Rausch,” and I learned fast it meant move or hurry, I thought.  I was to hear this word over and over again for a long time.