NAZI MURDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1942, Page 4

NAZI MURDERS

FRENCH HOSTAGES SING MARSEILLAISE. ON WAY TO EXECUTION. How French hostages shot at Nantes went to their death singing the Marseillaise has just become known at Free French headquarters in London through a letter written by someone who was in the concentration camp with the condemned men. “That terrible morning, although knowing full well what was jn store for them, they refused to show any emotion,” says the writer about the hostages. “They were taken away at two o’clock . . . and when they passed in front of us (we were confined in barracks) they made a little sign with their hands. “A machine-gun was pointed at the hut in which the hostages were shut up. We waited for an hour in great anguish. We refused to believe that such a terrible thing could be. Alas, soon no doubt was left to us. Three lorries drew up. We could see nothing, but what we heard froze the blood in our veins. “Faintly but firmly someone began to sing. The song was the Marseillaise. Others took it up. After that we heard the lorries drive away. We could still hear them singing the Marseillaise. Then there was sudden silence. “I know they were buried three by three in nine different communes.”