The Escape Line — How the Ordinary Heroes of Dutch-Paris Resisted the Nazi Occupation of Western Europe

Hardback, 410 pp Copyright 2018 by Megan Koreman Proceeds from this book sale go towards the AUSA Scholarship Fund In early summer 1942, a Dutch textile merchant living in Nazi-occupied France received a letter from a Jewish couple seeking his help in getting safe passage to Switzerland. John Henry ("Jean") Weidner barely knew the couple and had no experience in clandestine activities or direct connection to any underground organizations. Yet he and his wife, Elisabeth Cartier, decided to help, risking their lives to transport the couple from the French prison in which they were being held across the border to Switzerland. So began what became known as the Dutch-Paris escape line. Over the next three years, it grew from a two-person border operation into one of the most extensive resistance organizations of World War II, running from the Netherlands through Belgium and France and into both Switzerland and Spain, numbering 330 members and rescuing around a thousand people. Dutch-Par