Escape by Paul Dowswell

Author:Paul Dowswell [Dowswell, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409555230
Publisher: Usborne Publishing

Escape or Die

André Devigny lay on the bed in his small cell at Montluc military prison in Lyon, France. It was August 20th, 1943. He pulled his musty blankets around his head, trying to gain some warmth from the rough, thin material. The light creeping in under his door told him it was morning. Ahead lay another day of interrogation and torture, just like every other day for the last two weeks.

As he drifted in and out of sleep he could hear noises. The prison was waking up. Far away, a door slammed. Guards shouted. Then, closer now, several heavy footsteps and the rattle of keys on a ring. The footsteps stopped outside his door, and the lock was drawn back. As the door opened, bright sunlight spilled in, and Devigny covered his eyes with his hand. Three German guards had come for him. One spoke curtly, in the few words of French he had learned at Montluc.

“Out. Now. Hurry.”

But Devigny was not taken away to be tortured. Instead, he was dragged before Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, and told he was to be shot within the next few days. Bundled back to his cell, he was handcuffed and left with his thoughts. He was 26 years old, and now his life was to be brought to an abrupt end.

Devigny was not surprised by the death sentence. He was a member of the French Resistance – a group of men and women who continued to fight against the German soldiers who had occupied their country during the Second World War. Four months before, in April 1943, Devigny had killed a German spy, and had been betrayed and arrested several days later.

Montluc was where they took him. This grim, grey prison was a last bleak home to thousands of Resistance fighters, and Jewish prisoners who were held here before being transported to extermination camps. No prisoner who entered Montluc had ever escaped.

Devigny was tortured by the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, but gave away nothing. Once his captors realised he was not going to talk, it was time to kill him. Still, Devigny was not going to go without a fight. But he was weak from imprisonment and torture. How could he break out of such a fortress?

As night fell, Devigny began to plot. A small smile played around his lips. He had a few tricks up his sleeve, and now was the time to play them. He may have been handcuffed, but his cuffs were not a serious problem. When Devigny arrived at Montluc, a fellow prisoner had slipped him a pin and he had soon learned to pick the lock on the cuffs. His jailers had given him a single metal spoon to eat his meals, and he had scraped the edge of the handle on the cold stone floor until it was as sharp as a chisel. Using this, he had quickly discovered he could remove a couple of slats from the bottom of his wooden cell door. While

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