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Chapter 3: The Exodus

At five o’clock in the morning on May 10, 1940, the high-pitched wail of the sirens on the Eiffel Tower cut through the air. Edith and Johannes ran to the window and looked up in fear at the empty sky. The Germans had invaded Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Three days later came the terrifying news that the Wehrmacht had broken through the thick forests of the Ardennes.
            Bedraggled refugees were soon seen on the streets of Paris pushing carts and prams loaded with suitcases and pots and pans. The smell of burning paper wafted in thorough the French windows of the sitting room on rue de Miromesnil as officials in the ministries burned files and documents. Rumors flew around—all of them contradictory—as the German army pushed towards the Channel ports to take the fight to the British army stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. Life in Paris, however, went on with a veneer of normality until just before lunch on June 3 when a low buzzing sound could be heard through Edith’s kitchen window. It grew louder until it became a persistent menacing drone. There was a rattle of antiaircraft guns and then came the deep reverberating echo of explosions. The Citroën armaments factory on Quai de Javel was blown to pieces. The tension inside the apartment must have been palpable. Marion was in the south of France working for her father and only twelve-year-old Huguette was at home. Even if her parents hid their fear from her, there must have been arguments and recriminations behind closed doors.