462
PARTISAN REVIEW
the mountain and sea, were sung by many an ancient and modern bard."
We grinned.
During our stay in that filthy hole, the old brick factory, there were
two groups that busied themselves with bringing out news and interpreting
it: the "Nazis" and the "Jews.'' Two or three real Nazis had drawn others
into their orbit-people who had never been able to make up their minds
as to where they stood politically. This gang was up in the early morning
and worked systematically to break the morale of the prisoners. From the
start they declared the situation to be hopeless. The "Jews" turned up
around ten a.m. with mostly very favorable news. They had been talking
to us about the success of the French at Rheims and Verdun.
Then the commander announced, through the chef du camp that the
Germans had reached Lyon.
Excitement mounted sky-high. Committees were appointed who went
to see the commander and demanded that the prisoners be at once removed
from the danger zone. Deqwnstrations were staged in the yards and large
groups of men appeared before the officers lugg.age in hand asking that
they be released. The officers made promises, fixed dates of departure,
stalled for time. The tension grew; it became almost unbearable: We knew
what our fate would be if we fell into the Nazi clutches. "Is this what we
lived for?" cried out an old trade union leader who had for a quarter of
a century served the German labor movement. "But they will not catch
me
.•. not
alive."
When they read in a paper one morning that fighting was going on
south of
Lyon,
the prisoners threatened to use force. The officers got jit·
tery and reinforced the guard. Only after the guards had deserted the
place in scores, did they consider it necessary to make serious preparations
for our exodus. They asked who intended to remain in the camp and to
return to Germany. 15% of the prisoners answered to this question. To
our amazement their number comprised a good many Jews. "For nine
months the administration has tried in vain to sift the Nazis from the
German refugees," said the camp commander when he was given the fig·
ures, "and we accomplished it in ten minutes.''
An
official notice was put up saying that we would leave on the fol–
lowing day by train. Next day, we were again huddled into freight cars.
At
Arles
we snatched a paper from a newsboy. The armistice was
signed with Germany; hostilities would continue however, until a similar
agreement .with Italy became
effectiv~.
So we still ·had the monsters at
our heels.
Montpelier •.. Beziers ••. Cette ... Narbonne •.. Toulouse.
Tarbes.
The camp where the refugees from Spain had been interned
was but a short distance away. It seemed likely that we'd be dumped
there, but the train instead moved on toward
Pau
and
Bayonne.
Our spirits
rose. So they had, after all, decided to ship us to another continent.
Where would we go? To Morocco? To Canada or Alaaka? Or to
Martinique?
