Tortured

The officer walked back around his desk and sat down. Then he said, "At this present moment, we have your wife and two little girls in the hands of the SS in Barletta. If you simply write the address of Jean Moulin on this piece of paper, we will immediately take them back to their home. However, if you fail to cooperate with us, we will be forced to let the SS execute them. Your wife will be questioned and then hanged, and your two children drowned. Then we will torture you until you tell us what we want to know . . . and you will tell us everything, believe me.

"However, if you do decide to be sensible and help us, we will drive you to Italy to be reunited with your family. You have until noon to make up your mind what you will do." He then stood up from his desk and left the room.

Andre's head spun with confusion. It was as though his whole life suddenly came crashing in on him. If he cooperated, he would be a traitor to his country, and if he didn't . . . He leaned forward and thumped the desk in anger.

For three hours Andre wrestled with his options. He wept aloud. He cursed. He prayed. He contemplated suicide by smashing the glass from the barred window high above the officer's desk and cutting his wrists. But what good would that do? They would see that as a refusal to cooperate and kill his family anyway.

When the SS officer entered the room, Andre was bent double with his head in his hands. He took Andre's right hand and put a pencil in it. He looked at the Nazi with utter disdain, then down at the blank piece of paper on the desk in front of him. He leaned forward and with a trembling hand wrote an address on the paper.

On July 8, 1943, the Germans announced that Jean Moulin, the leader of the French Resistance had died. He had been tortured for a month. He was 44.

Lilian had been with Jean the night he was arrested. There were rumors that she had also been tortured then sent to Auschwitz.

To be continue.