How to Flee the Gestapo

About the Author

I’m not just making this up.  I received my doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in modern European history.  I’ve published several articles and a book (The Expectation of Justice: France 1944-1946 (Duke University Press, 1999)) on the Liberation of three small towns in France.  I’ve also taught European history at Texas Tech University and at the University of Michigan.  It’s probably not a surprise that my favorite classes were on the social history of the world wars in Europe.

The subject of the Dutch Resistance has a personal dimension for me as well.  My father grew up in Maastricht, the Netherlands.  His much older brother, sister and father were involved in the Resistance there, although not, to my knowledge, in escape line work.  I suppose you could also argue that my father was in the Resistance too because my aunt confessed to taking him along when she was delivering documents or messages.  He was there to distract the Germans.  I suspect she meant that the occupiers were less likely to make a point of talking to a pretty girl if the girl had a small child with her rather than that they liked to play with small children.  It wouldn’t have been a distraction as much as a cloak of invisibility.

If you yourself or anyone you know were in any way involved with Dutch-Paris, as someone who helped or someone who was helped, please share the story with me.  I will respect your privacy in whatever way you wish.

Megan Koreman, PhD