Hubert Verneret

"A history book that reads like a novel, this testimony comes from one of the last living eyewitnesses" of the Nazi occupation of France (Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Correspondent).

 

September 5, 1944

 

The Americans are approaching; we follow their progress impatiently on the radio, by intercepting messages reserved for the commandos. They cannot be beaten now. But it is up to us to do the impossible to speed up the progression of the bulk of their troops, to facilitate the advance of their spearhead, and, above all, to prevent the Germans from withdrawing to the Rhine in good order, with all their equipment.

 

How many human lives will we manage to save?

 

Hubert Verneret was a fourteen-year-old schoolboy in Burgundy when the Nazis invaded Poland and fifteen when France fell. A Boy Scout, he helped refugees and the gendarmerie, moved wounded soldiers, and dug out bodies after air raids. Throughout, he kept a diary recording his actions, thoughts, and feelings as French troops retreated and Germans arrived.

 

In 1944, at nineteen, he decided to join the local maquis resistance fighters, operating from a hidden base in the forest. Though constantly in danger, he found himself frustrated, as he felt fated never to fight the Germans directly, never to take a prisoner. As the Allies approached, the maquisards worked to upset and weaken the retreating Germans to aid the Allied advance. Hubert details the joy with which the maquisards were welcomed in local villages when the fighting ended. Only as he listened to the speech given as the maquisards disbanded did he understand that his part in the war, while perhaps not heroic as that played by others, was still important in gaining the victory.

 

Years later, Hubert interviewed local maquisards to understand more about maquis history; their words and excerpts from the diary of a local civilian during the German retreat provide context to Hubert's youthful testimony. This first English edition of Hubert's diary retains the original prefaces by Col. Buckmaster, chief of the French section of the SOE, and Col. d'Escrienne, aide de camp to Gen. de Gaulle.

Casemate

Teenage Resistance Fighter: With the Maquisards in Occupied France

Sarah Saunders

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