Chemin de la Liberte

[Cendrillon]

If you missed this excellent programme by Edward Stourton it is well worth listening to on iPlayer. It was broadcast on BBC radio 4 last week Monday 14th and this week on Monday 21st at 11.00 .

[Gardengirl]

[quote user="Cendrillon"]If you missed this excellent programme by Edward Stourton it is well worth listening to on iPlayer. It was broadcast on BBC radio 4 last week Monday 14th and this week on Monday 21st at 11.00 .

[/quote]

Yes, I've followed this and really enjoyed it; I was particularly struck by the man following the route to honour his brother (in the previous episode, I think), and people telling about how members of their families had been led or had bravely led soldiers, airmen etc over the mounrtains - and in ordinary everyday clothes in terrible weather.

[Hoddy]

I listened to this too. I thought Edward Stourton brought out really well the degrees of opposition to the Germans. As many have said on this forum before, it's difficult to know what you would have done given the same circumstances. The honesty of some of the people he spoke to was admirable.

I was particularly struck by the woman who managed it in November with a two year old strapped to her back.

Hoddy

[nomoss]

Not really on the Chemin, but from those same sad times, a lonely monument, well cared for, just off the main road near Lespinassière in the Montagne Noire

[IMG]http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab131/nomoss/MonumentnrLespinassiere.jpg[/IMG]

[JMB]

I interviewed my father a couple of years ago, shortly before he died, in order for him to be in a photographic book I am doing about WWII pilots.  He refused to be interviewed several times and when he eventually gave in, it turns out he was absolutely furious with me for interviewing four Germans (including three famous German pilots).  My dad was literally spitting with rage when I told him I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking to "my" Germans. I told him they were gentlemen and very nice guys to boot. I also suggested that should he meet them, he'd realise they were in many ways just like him.

Of the fifteen pilots I have interviewed so far, he was the only one to still harbour resentment to the old enemy.

He once told me that in the 1950's he bumped into one of his friends from early on in the war.  It turns out this pilot was caught dropping off stuff or people for the French Resistance.  When the Gestapo got hold of him they attempted to remove his fingernails using pliers.