Sunday, November 28, 2021

Great story about an "Aryan-looking" young Jew that ended up in France at the start of WW2 and became a prolific member of the resistance

Just one anecdote from the NYTimes

He was soon rounded up with others and sent to a transit camp outside Lyon. A guard divulged that they were being transferred to a camp in Poland.

“I knew a labor camp in Poland wasn’t good,” Mr. Rosenberg said. “I knew I had to find a way not to go.”

A fellow internee was a medical student. He asked her what illness might necessitate admission into a hospital, and she said peritonitis, a disease of the stomach lining. He interrogated her about the symptoms.

Biding his time until enough guards were nearby, Mr. Rosenberg commenced a performance of writhing and moaning. He was taken to the infirmary, where he rubbed a thermometer until it registered a fever. When he next awoke, he was missing his appendix. He also learned that he was going to Poland anyway.

He pleaded with a nurse to let him mail a letter.

Mr. Rosenberg’s message, as he had hoped, found its way to a secret network of priests connected to the Resistance. A rebel priest soon visited the hospital, concealed a parcel of clothes for him behind a toilet and parked a bicycle beneath a window. Mr. Rosenberg then darted off on it, blood leaking from his belly.

After he healed, he joined the Resistance.