Searching for the Dutch-Paris Escape Line
Let’s continue our discussion of why many people assume that anyone who made it from the Netherlands to Spain or Switzerland during the war did so with the help of Dutch-Paris. The simple answer is that Dutch-Paris is the most well-known civilian escape line in western Europe. I say civilian to distinguish it from lines like Comet that were supported by the Allied secret services such as the British SOE or the American OSS. Those line specialized in helping servicemen, particularly aviators, whereas Dutch-Paris helped anyone who needed it.
But it’s crucial to this story that a small percentage of the fugitives who Dutch-Paris helped were Allied aviators. Both the Americans and the British put considerable effort into recognizing the civilians who helped their servicemen during the occupation, which created a lot of very useful documentation and also a certain buzz. In addition to that the leader of Dutch-Paris, John Weidner, and some of his colleagues from the line, were commissioned into the Dutch Army after the liberation with the task of vetting Dutch nationals in France, looking for collaborators. This put them in a position to meet a lot of American and British officers, which they used to look out for their resistance colleagues. It also gave Weidner the clout among the French to have Dutch-Paris named as a full-scale Resistance network in the official French classification of resistance groups. This was very good news for resisters seeking pensions or other benefits but also added to the line’s fame.
Weidner became a bit of a celebrity in the Netherlands immediately after the war as did Dutch-Paris. It was a glamorous and overall happy story in a grim time.
Going forward to the 1960s, Weidner worked with an American journalist to write a book about his personal experience during the war. The facts are sketchy, but it enjoyed a certain success. And it led to a documentary about Dutch-Paris (narrowly defined) on Dutch tv. There were a couple of scandals involving people claiming to lead Dutch-Paris who did not. If you were inclined to be charitable you could say that they did help fugitives across the border and simply assumed they were part of Dutch-Paris because that’s the only line anyone had heard of. More publicity for Dutch-Paris.
My own research and books have added to the fame of Dutch-Paris. I would be the last person to denigrate the courage and accomplishments of the men and women of Dutch-Paris. But I would also never say that they were the only 320 people in occupied Europe to help the persecuted. There were other people and other groups trying to rescue fugitives. None of them as successfully or as grandly as Dutch-Paris. But they were also courageous and they also deserve to be recognized.
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