We’ve been discussing the practical consequences for resistance networks like Dutch-Paris of the fact that they could not openly recruit or advertise for the best candidates without being arrested and worse. One of these consequences was that everything they did went by word of mouth or gut instinct, meaning that many people came into contact with Dutch-Paris by referral.

As a researcher it’s very hard to trace the pathways made by such referrals because the documents don’t discuss them. Official reports or forms didn’t require a resister to explain how they came to be part of their network. They tended to ask about actions. Most of the interview type documents didn’t ask the question either. But there were definitely circles of connections outside of resistance among the men and women in Dutch-Paris. Some I uncovered. Some I can guess at. And I’m confident there are others I have no idea of.

Here’s an example. There were a number of Dutch university students involved in Dutch-Paris in Brussels and in the Netherlands. It is likely and indeed stated in some documents that some of these students knew each other because they attended the same university and went to the same classes or belonged to the same clubs. One of these students studied medicine at Leiden. He found hiding places for Jews in the Netherlands on his own then joined Dutch-Paris when he started looking for safer hiding places in Belgium. He and another student friend brought several fugitives including Engelandvaarders from The Hague over the border to Brussels. The connection between these two is clear.

I had the great honor of meeting this gentleman in his later years. He was very generous with his time in telling me about his experiences in the resistance. I was surprised one day when he started telling me a story about a particularly difficult trip across the border. To solve the problem he went to see an old school friend who was playing field hockey. This friend was a student at a different university, studying something completely different than medicine. But our man thought that this old friend was probably involved in resistance and he was right. The hockey player had connections with Dutch-Paris and did know how to solve the problem at the border.

I would have liked to have seen how that conversation played out. How long did it take for our man to establish that his friend was still trustworthy enough to trust with the dangerous knowledge that he was involved in illegal work? What, exactly did he say? And how did he prove to his friend that he was equally as trustworthy?

That was the daily reality of being a resister. Every person and every conversation could lead to arrest, torture, and deportation or execution not just for you but for the people you worked with and the people you were helping. But it was impossible to do such illegal work without trusting others.