Saturday, January 6, 2018

The Saboteur

From USA Today:
Robert de La Rochefoucauld was still in his teens when he decided to follow an exiled Gen. Charles de Gaulle's call for resistance against the Nazis in 1940. He walked from France — where his family tree reached back to 900 A.D. and included Hundred Years' War soldiers, the duke who woke up Louis XVI during the storming of the Bastille in 1789, an abolitionist friendly with Benjamin Franklin and associates of acclaimed writer Marcel Proust — to Spain and ultimately made his way to England. de Gaulle gave the young man the thumbs-up to join the British, who were training agents from the Continent in special operations.

La Rochefoucauld learned how to help local resisters in countries under Nazi rule fight back — everything from how to make and place explosives to how to kill an attacker with one's bare hands to how to withstand torture. Scenes include his dressing up as a nun to evade German authorities and, once the Nazis captured him, escaping en route to his execution. (Read more.)
Share

No comments: