Page 58 of Shadows In Paris
‘My father told me stories of how our ancestors returned to Israel after each time a tyrant expelled them. When the Romans occupied Judea, they did everything in their power to crush the population. After yet another rebellion, Roman Emperor Hadrian, renamed Judea, Syria Palaestina, to punish the Jews and try to erase the link to their land.’
Hannah spoke softly, sharing snippets of the history of the Jewish people.
Lizzie couldn’t imagine what it must be like to come from a nation that was persecuted over thousands of years just because of their ethnic identity, but she knew what it was like to have her homeland occupied. It was likely the Nazis had entrenched themselves at Seagrove. She clung to the hope that it wasn’t so, and her grandparents still lived in their beautiful house overlooking Portelet Bay in Jersey. Lizzie cherished the memory of her family home exactly as it was when she left.
‘Do you think the Jews will be able to live in peace in their homeland when this is all over?’ Lizzie asked.
‘Not unless we fight for our lives and destroy the Nazis. There won’t be a Jew alive if they repeat what they did in Germany and Poland. Nor a person with a physical disability, mental illness, a homosexual or any other group the Nazis regard as inferior to their bloody “master race”. They have a special word for non-Aryans, you know:Untermenschen.They class us as subhuman and believe our genes must be eliminated from the gene pool.’
The tears rolled down Lizzie’s face and she surrendered to the emotion. Her heart felt like it was bursting, and she found it cathartic to release the pain.
The two young women sat together in mutual understanding, Lizzie sniffing, her face pink and damp. She didn’t know how long passed until Hannah stood. When she returned, she placed two cups of coffee on the table in front of them.
‘You must leave soon. I’ll take you as far as I can without risking leading the Boche to our contact’s door.’
CHAPTER 28
Hannah turned into Avenue Kléber on the way to work, lost in thought, as she pushed hard on the pedals of the old bicycle. Lizzie had looked at her like she was out of her mind when she said she was going in as usual that morning. Lizzie wasn’t wrong. She probably was out of her mind, but this was the only way she knew to fight the evil that had wrapped its vicious tentacles around every breathing sinew of her life.
They’d made up their beds in the basement last night, and neither of them slept much. Hannah was constantly on alert for a bang on the door and the Gestapo sweeping through the house, hunting for them. There was a reasonable chance they wouldn’t find them in the camouflaged basement she had spent weeks concealing when she first moved into the deserted farmhouse.
When Hannah finally drifted off into a deep sleep in the early hours, she woke with a start when she realised she would be late for work if she didn’t leave soon.
‘You’re not really going into work,’ Lizzie said, her sleepy eyes showing her incredulity.
‘I intend to do just that,’ she said, clutching her cardigan around her in an attempt to keep out the gnawing damp of the basement. ‘If the Germans don’t get us first, we’re going to die of pneumonia sleeping down here. Thank goodness we got the Sterns out.’
‘Yes, it’s no luxury hotel, that’s for sure,’ Lizzie said, yawning and rubbing her chilly arms.
Hannah had a lot of respect for Lizzie. Despite Jack ordering her to abandon the farmhouse and find somewhere else to stay for the night, she had elected to stay.
Lizzie had argued, ‘I don’t see the point of leaving when we can hide in the basement. If they’re onto us, we’re just as likely to be spotted if we make a run for it now, don’t you think? It’s so late, we’ll stand out like sore thumbs in the city at this hour.’
‘You have a point. There’s no feasible route through the forest. We’d have to take our chances and avoid checkpoints and sentries as best we can.’
‘I vote I stay here for the night. That way, I’m not endangering you in some risky dash across Paris at night.’
Hannah had thought for a few minutes and then said, ‘Well, it’s your call. If you want to go, I’m happy to show you the way. If you want to stay here, sleeping in the basement is a good plan, so I’ll do that even if you leave. There’s no point making it easy for them to catch me, is there?’
Lizzie replied, ‘No, I’m staying with you. Going now makes no sense at all.’
Lizzie’s concern for her touched Hannah. ‘I hope the SOE knows how dedicated you are.’
‘They might not agree with you when Jack learns I didn’t follow his orders.’
‘True, although he doesn’t have to! You don’t have to tell him everything, you know.’
Now, as Hannah approached German High Command,she inhaled the fresh chilled air before turning off the road and weaving around to the back of the building where she parked her bicycle. Nobody had bothered them in the night, so Francois clearly hadn’t told them about her.Yet.
Poor dear Francois. She suspected he wouldn’t break even if they tortured him. He’d suffered too much already at the hands of those brutes. If she had to put money on it, she’d bet he wouldn’t crack. The thought of him being tortured by the Gestapo made her shudder more than the harsh January winds.
Hannah straightened her beret, which was askew from her mad dash across the countryside and into the city. Her heart pounded as she reached the threshold of the building.
This was truth time.
‘Guten Morgen,’Hannah said, her tone friendly as an ordinary French woman arriving at work with nothing to hide, not the Berlin born Jewish leader of the Liberty Network which only two nights previously had failed in its mission to blow up a train transporting German troops and weapons.
When she entered the outer office, the cleaner, Celine, was just finishing her morning rounds. ‘He’s in early today,’ she mouthed, pointing to the closed door. ‘Something must be up. He’s not usually in this early,’ she whispered.
