The Nazis held power everywhere in France now, with collaborators working hand-in-glove with the occupying forces. It was often still dark when I started walking, but the villagers would see me and call out in French, ‘Have you eaten? Are you hungry?’ And they would invite me in to share their breakfast. These were people who had very little themselves, poor farmers who were already suffering from the hardships of the war, but they were willing to share everything they had with me, a stranger – and a Jew. They knew they were risking their lives helping me, and still they did it. Even when
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