The Lost Airman by Seth Meyerowitz

Author:Seth Meyerowitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

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THE GESTAPO AT THE DOOR

At 7 a.m. on February 27, 1944, in Lesparre, the ringing doorbell and sharp knocks brought Simone Blanchard, the Chauvins’ maid, to the front door of the house. Upstairs in the dining room near the wood stove and still clad in her dressing gown, Gisèle wondered who was on her stoop so early. The pharmacy was not yet open, as almost anyone in Lesparre would have known, and she and Pierre were not expecting any new “guests.” Pierre, who was planning to visit several patients on his motorcycle, was in the children’s bedroom talking with his mother-in-law and helping the children to get dressed.

Simone opened the door to find three well-dressed men. Sneering, one introduced himself and his companions as “Dupont, Durand, and Dubois.” Despite their French names, something seemed off about them, and Simone hesitated. In that instant they pulled out pistols, pushed into the house, and grabbed her. She screamed to alert Pierre and Gisèle and struggled for a moment to try to break their grip, but quickly stopped, realizing that they were Gestapo and that resistance was useless.

As the clamor moved up the stairs toward the dining room, Pierre instinctively took a step to join his wife there, but stopped. He and Gisèle had discussed what they might do in a situation like this and had agreed that if one of them could escape capture and alert the rest of the Brutus Network that the Gestapo was onto them, that’s what they had to do. As hard as it would be, they had to do it.

Though he despised leaving the house, he realized he had no choice. He climbed out the children’s bedroom window and onto the roof above the vacant pigsty and jumped to the backyard.

As more Gestapo arrived in dark sedans and poured into the house, several Germans emerged through the back door and fanned out across the small yard. It did not take long to find the doctor’s hiding spot, haul him to his feet, and begin a harsh interrogation on the spot.

Inside, the three agents shoved the ashen-faced Simone upstairs and into the dining room, where Gisèle waited. One of the Nazis pointed his pistol at her and growled, “You will come with us!”

Upstairs from Gisèle, the Germans had rounded up the rest of the family. The three children and Gisèle’s mother, fifty-eight-year-old Mercédes Lacombe, who lived with them, were in the master bedroom. Gisèle, knowing there was no chance of escape, was determined to delay the Nazis long enough for her mother to destroy the Brutus paperwork, fake ID cards, communiqués, codes, and other damning evidence hidden in an armoire conveniently placed close to the bedroom’s fireplace for just such a moment.

Gisèle forced a slight smile at them. She insisted that if they were to take her away for questioning, proper German gentlemen would first allow her to bathe and change.

After a brief discussion, the head agent nodded brusquely to her and told her to make it fast.

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