We’ve been talking about how Dutch-Paris recruited new members. No matter who a resister approached, the invitation to join the network was fraught with peril. There was the possibility that the person they were talking to was either working for the Germans or being watched by them. There was always the possibility that even someone you’d known for years might betray you. They might have even done so extremely reluctantly but under some pressure applied by the occupation authorities, such as holding a family member hostage.

Let’s pause for a moment and look at this from the other side, from the perspective of the person being asked to do something illegal and very obviously dangerous. Many people refused to help without betraying the person who asked them. Others were eager to have an opportunity to act against the oppressor or to help the persecuted.

It’s also possible that the person being asked was already in the resistance and was alarmed to be approached by strangers. The first thought had to be that these strangers claiming to be resisters could very easily be agents provocateur. That’s what happened with a priest in Toulouse, we’ll call him Father.

The leaders of Dutch-Paris had a constant problem with staffing in Toulouse because they had not lived there and there was no well-established Dutch colony there as there was in Paris and Brussels. They had a few dedicated and effective students but needed more people. In particular they needed someone who was deeply established in the community who could be trusted as a top security contact and safe house.

They had heard rumors about a Dutch priest who’d been living in Toulouse for years and had a reputation as someone who would personally go up against the occupation authorities on behalf of his parishioners. They decided that they would appeal to this priest’s patriotism as a Dutchman and ask him to work with Dutch-Paris.

Father may have been willing to talk to Gestapo agents directly on behalf of individuals, but he was wary of strangers. He needed to be nothing more to the Gestapo agent than an overly zealous parish priest. His effectiveness would be destroyed if they thought he was part of the organized resistance. So the original conversation between the leaders of Dutch-Paris and Father was guarded, to say the least. Neither side wanted to admit anything. The leaders of Dutch-Paris concluded from this that Father was exactly the sort of security-conscious person they wanted in their network.

Despite no one admitting anything at that first meeting, they did agree that Dutch-Paris would have a certain phrase read out during the usual BBC radio program full of code phrases. It had to do with a vase of flowers. They got the code phrase onto the BBC and Father joined the network. It’s a good thing too because they ended up needing his shelter during an escape.

To my knowledge that was the only occasion that Dutch-Paris had anything to do with the BBC. How they got it there was never explained, but it probably happened through the office of the Dutch military attache in Bern, Switzerland.