Keeping Mum: A Wartime Childhood

By Brian Thompson, 2006. The following quote is from p. 32:

"...But war had brought out the animal in children."

A Chance to Live: A Family's Journey to Freedom

"...The next morning I walked up to the imposing entrance tower (at Chateau de Valencay) at the appointed time... My new friend was waiting for me at the agte and took me inside. As we entered the main ballroom I could hardly believe my eyes. It was filled with hundreds of sculptures. Some were still in their crates, others had been partially unpacked, and still others were completely out in the open, as if on display. My friend explained that I was looking at art treasures from the Louvre Museum in Paris that had been evacuated before the Nazi invasion to safe locations throughout the French countryside. The Chateau de Vanencay sheltered the sculpture collection. Here it was safe and protected from bombardment, fire, vandalism and theft by Nazi scavengers. My friend was the curator in charge."

The above quote was from Kohnstam's book page 135.

A Chance to Live: A Family's Journey to Freedom

"...The five of us survivors proceeded to shake the hands of the heroes who had worked together to bring us to safety...It was admirable how these French Resistance fighters had planned, organized and improvised our escape. They had risked their lives, their families, and their livlihoods for us. It moved me deeply that, in a time of betrayal and selfishness, there were still decent, courageous human beings who fought dictatorship and persecution in the best way they could- by helping others reach freedom."

From Pieter Kohnstam's book, A Chance to Live: A Family's Journey to Freedom. Above quote from page 108.

The following excerpt from Pieter Kohnstam's book A Chance to Live: A Family's Journey to Freedom. "...I have survived. And as a survivor I am a witness. If this survival of the horrors that are summoned up today in the term Holocaust, is to have any purpose, then it is above all that of keeping awake the memory of the unimaginable, to prevent forgetting and repression andto build all this into the vision of a better future, where such things or anything like them can never happen agaon anywhere in this world." Simon Wiesenthal

Vichy, France

Excerpt from Sisters in the Resistance: How Women Fought to Free France, 1940-1945 by Weitz:
p. 28
"...Petain instituted a series of statutes and decrees aimed at strengthening the French state...Petain's government made overtures to the Third Reich, suggesting a policy of "faithful collaboration"...It was in Germany's interest for France to contribute to the Reich's extensive needs. Petain replaced the republican motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" with "Work, Family, Country" and changed the name of the French Republic to that of "l'Etat Francais", the French state, making it more consistent with Germany and Italy's status and underscoring the break with the Third Republic and republican traditions. The nation was to be purified and its moral tone strengthened; harmful individualism would be suppressed.

Glossary from Binney continued, V-Z

Volksdeutsche- Communities of German minorities in occupied countries who were often suspected of acting for the Nazis.

WAAF- Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

Wehrmacht- A blanket term- literary "defence force"- embracing all of Germany's armed forces.

Welbike- A portable and collapsible mini-bike.

W/T- Wireless telegraphy.

All glossary entries are from The Women who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive by Marcus Binney, William Morrow, 2002

More Glossary terms from Binney; R-T...

Rebecca- The instrument on board a plane that was able to receive signals from an eureka.

Reception Committee- A group of Resistance members who would set up lights to guide planes carrying agents to the landing or dropping ground, help them on their arrival and carry away any containers or packages dropped with them.

Re'seau- Resistance circuit or network.

R F Section- DeGaulle's parallel French department to F section.

SD- Sicherheritsdienst, Himmler's security force.

Section D- A special unit within the SIS for carrying out dirty tricks against the enemy.

SHAEF- Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force

SIS- Secret Intelligence Service

SNCF- Socie'te' Nationale des Chemins de F- Francais- the French state railway authority.

SOE- Special Operations Executive, formed in 1940.

S-Phone- A device that allowed pilots to talk directly to the agents on the ground.

STO- Service du Travil Obligatoire (forced labor for French men in Germany).

Time Pencil- A form of explosive that could be carefully pre-set, allowing agents time to get away, it was activated when an agent pressed a ridge on the pencil, allowing the release of acid that at a pre-determined rate through a wire attached to a detonator.

Todt Organization- The organization Todt (OT) was named after Pritz Todt, Hitler's young engineer and chief architect, and mustered huge numbers of men for the Nazi building and production program, using both forced labor and prisoners of war as well as some volunteers lured in by propaganda.

23-land- SOE code for Spain.

27-land- SOE code for France.