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| relative at the bedside most of the day. Aimé had thought
that Sophie might accompany her son to the hospital to be with him after
the operation. Could I possibly obtain this additional favor from
the Lieutenant?
The request was certainly delicate. But since the rules had already been stretched, it might not make so much difference. I translated Madame Soulier's request. The German Lieutenant, seeing the worry for their only son so clearly etched on the faces of his parents, did not have the heart to say no. At this point another idea came to my mind. Since Jeanne was also wounded, would it not be possible to take the two girls, whose father was certainly worrying himself sick, down to where they could rejoin their father on their bicycles without having to pass through dangerous territory? By then the Lieutenant no longer cared. Sure, they could come.
There was no problem, he said. Only let them not ride in the ambulance,
but on the trucks. That was fine with me and with the Souliers.
"He is not wounded, is he?" asked the Lieutenant. "Fortunately not," I retorted. But suddenly he had a brilliant idea. Turning toward me he asked, "This Pierre, Herr Pfarrer, can you give me your word of honor that he is on the good side in this war?" He had said, "Auf der guten seite." For me, the "good side" was the Résistance. And I could put my hand in the fire for the fact that he was on the good side. "Surely, Herr Lieutenant. You have my word of honor for that." By then the first rays of the sun were illuminating the horizon and the Germans had to prepare their cleanup operation. They spread their maps on their half of the table and began to discuss the patrols which would go into town. Finally, the Captain turned to me and said, "Our soldiers are now going into Lasalle. We want to be sure that there is no armed resistance in the town. The tanks and the artillery will stay outside, where they are. At the first shot, however, we will have to clean up whatever we find, and that might be difficult for everybody. Could you possibly tell this to the people in the Résistance?" I responded quickly, "Me, notify the Maquis? Herr Kapitän, even if I could do this, I would certainly not know where to begin and whom to contact. I regret to have to tell you that I am not with the Maquis and that I have no means at my disposal to notify anyone." And that was the truth: I could only pray that no hothead would
attempt to shoot at the German patrols as they were being dispatched.
There was no way in which I could avoid a catastrophe at this point, except
to tell the Germans that I thought that the Maquis was certainly dispersed
after the Cornelly debacle and |
