OPPOSITION TO NAZIS SOME EXAMPLES IN EUROPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1943, Page 4

OPPOSITION TO NAZIS

SOME EXAMPLES IN EUROPE

Recent broadcasts in the B.B.CJs service to Europe have included a number of striking stories. One told of the inhabitants of the Norwegian town of Drammen who stopped going to the cinema for three weeks in order to pay a fine imposed on 150 workmen. The workmen had refused to go to a meeting held by a quisling mayor. Thus by paying for one refusal with another the people gave a tit-for-tat answer as well as an example of intelligent solidarity, ! : J Also told in the European Servicein the French programme—was this story, by the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg, of the escape to Russia of a young Alsatian patriot. He, like many others, tried to escape and join the Allies when, in April, 1942, it was rumoured that all young men in Alsace were to be mobilised by the Germans. He got as far as the frontier, but was caught by the Germans and questioned by the Gestapo until he admitted that he was trying to escape. He was sent first to a concentration camp, later to a.labour camp, and then in the following winter, made to join a German battalion. Of 1,000 men in the battalion 150 were Alsatians. In March they set off for the Eastern front. The young patriot seized on the first opportunity of getting through to the Russian side of the line. The pass-word for this —which'has been made use of by many Frenchmen forced to fight against the Russians —was “Ja Frantsouz, Ja priatelj.” (I am a Frenchman, I am a friend.)