A little more than 75 years ago, on 8 September 1943 Italy surrendered to the Allies. The next day, on 9 September 1943, German troops occupied the Alpine departments of France bordering Switzerland and Italy that had been the Italian occupation zone since early November 1942. This counted as a catastrophe for unknown thousands of people who had fled into the Italian zone as a refuge from both German and French persecution. While they were in charge, the Italian occupation authorities simply refused to turn anyone over to anyone else. Dutch-Paris had settled a number of Jewish refugees in French villages in Haute-Savoie and Savoie because they believed that the Italians would not harm them. They weren’t so foolish as to think that Italian border guards would not shoot at resisters, but that was a different matter.

In early September 1943, however, the Italians were no longer in a position to protect anyone from anyone else. They could not even protect themselves. The department of Haute-Savoie, where Dutch-Paris operated, was in chaos for several days as the Italians tried to save themselves from being taken prisoner; Jews rushed the Swiss border, and rescuers like Jean Weidner tried to gather up their proteges from the mountain villages. German troops moved into the zone with great efficiency, but they started to round up Jews in the south. That meant that some Dutch-Paris refugees were able to remain in their French villages in the northern area until December. But then German troops moved through the villages of Savoie and Haute-Savoie arresting foreigners and suspected Jews. Unfortunately they caught at least two Dutchmen who were being helped by Dutch-Paris. The men were taken to the transit camp of Drancy outside of Paris and were killed at Auschwitz before the month had ended.