France and Captivity
On June 14, 1944, pilot Roy Allen and the crew of his B-17 Flying Fortress embarked on a mission over Nazi-occupied France. Hit by flak, Roy was forced to parachute into France. Trapped behind enemy lines, he was rescued by Colette Florin, a 21-year-old schoolteacher and member of the French Resistance. He stayed with Colette for a few weeks until he was able to be moved into Paris. Once he arrived in Paris a man told him that he was taking him to another agent who would then sneak him into Spain and then on to England. The agent that was taking him to his supposed "British Agent", who went by Captain Jacques, betrayed him, turning him over to the Gestapo. He was then taken to Avenue Foch which at the time was the Gestapo headquarters for all of France. At Avenue Foch he was tortured, labelled a terrorist and denied his rights as a Prisoner of War under the terms of the Geneva Convention. He and other airmen were then taken to Fresnes Prison located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, 7 miles south of Paris. As the front neared them, the Germans decided to ship Roy Allen and all of the other 168 Allied airmen to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. They left Fresnes, traveling by train in cattle cars. The cars were designed to hold up to 40 men. The Germans loaded them with 80, forcing their passengers to stand for the long duration of the trip.
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Famous quotes containing the words france and/or captivity:
“Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in nineteenth-century France and England, or twentieth-century Russia and America.”
—Lillian Hellman (1907–1984)
“Had it pleased heaven
To try me with affliction, had they rained
All kind of sores and shames on my bare head,
Steeped me in poverty to the very lips,
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience.”
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