Seventy-five years ago Jean Weidner and his lieutenants were still trying to figure out just what happened in Paris, Brussels and Lyon at the end of February 1944. With the bird’s eye view of hindsight, we know that German police coordinated raids on several Dutch-Paris addresses on the same morning in Paris and then in Brussels and Lyon two days later. But at the time the resisters had no way of knowing that. They knew that a handful of their colleagues had been arrested and that others were missing. But what had happened to them? Had they been captured? Had they gone even further underground to avoid arrest and just not re-established contact yet?

The question had wider consequences than the fate of one particular individual. If the missing person had gone deeply underground, then he or she was safe, which was a relief. If he or she had been arrested, though, torture was likely. Torture would likely give the Germans more information, which would put more of the line in danger. But how much? Would it be safe to continue Dutch-Paris’s missions of helping fugitives to Switzerland or Spain if they found new safe houses in Paris? Or had the arrests gone far enough to compromise even the hiding places of Jews whom Dutch-Paris was supporting in occupied France and Belgium?

Slowly, and very cautiously, Weidner and the other leaders were able to piece together the extent of the damage. They learned about some arrests from eye witnesses, people who had been in the building or on the street when an arrest took place. They found out about others through the representative of the Dutch Red Cross in Paris, who had access to some, but not all, prisoners. If a resister was arrested under a false name, he would have to rely on physical descriptions and rumors to identify a prisoner.

The survivors could also call on relationships with prison officials who they had been cultivating or, in some cases, on outright bribery. And, most surprisingly, they could hire lawyers. Jean Weidner, for example, hired a lawyer to inquire after his sister Gabrielle. The lawyer had at least two meetings with a Gestapo official regarding her status and the conditions of her imprisonment. This might have been because she was arrested as a hostage and the Gestapo wanted Weidner to have an open channel to turn himself in. Someone, possibly Weidner or possibly a family friend, also sent a lawyer to negotiate on behalf of the 14 year-old boy who was arrested with his father. The father was held completely incommunicado under maximum security (Nacht und Nebel), but the lawyer successfully arranged the release of the boy into the custody of Dutch officials.   He was able to describe the people he saw in prison, which solved a few mysteries.