Seventy-five years ago tomorrow, on 20 May 1944, Jean Weidner and three other members of Dutch-Paris were arrested outside of a restaurant in Toulouse by French paramilitary collaborators in the Milice. Ironically, it was a case of mistaken identity. Weidner had a price on his head, but they thought they were arresting a French Communist who they wanted in connection to the deaths of several Miliciens.

One of the Dutch-Paris men, the one who lived in Toulouse, fumbled his documents and ran away down the street. The other three were taken to the Milice prison, which was not very far at all from the café that Dutch-Paris used as a headquarters in the city. Two nights later one of them jumped out of an upstairs window, made his way to the café to collect some money and then took the first train out of town. He made it to Switzerland without mishap.

But that left the other two in the custody of the Milice, who were not known for their kindness. Weidner, who definitely had a way with words, convinced the Milice commander that he and his colleague were harmless Dutchmen who didn’t carry weapons and weren’t doing anything to harm France. He was hoping that the Milice commander would release them instead of turning them over to the Germans. It was the Germans, after all, who had put the price on Weidner’s head.

Weidner and his colleague sat in the prison for a few more days while the Milice commander travelled to Vichy, in part to consult with his superiors about what to do with them. They made good use of the time by cultivating the good will of their guards. So when the commander returned with the news that the two Dutchmen were going to be turned over to the Germans, the guards were willing to look the other way when those Dutchmen jumped out of an upstairs window and walked quickly away from the prison.

They did not walk to the café, but to the home of a Dutch priest. By sheer coincidence they ran into the one man in all of Europe who was best able to get them out of the city. The Milice and Germans were expecting them on the Spanish border, so they went to Switzerland.