The Germans quickly realized their strategic importance in living on the border and offered the farmers huge sums of money to denounce those trying to flee from occupied France. Most, like Monsieur Degout, were disgusted by the offer. But the posters were everywhere in Poitiers, offering thousands of francs. The Gestapo had been most generous with its rewards, almost a year’s income for an average impecunious farmer. It could afford to be—after all, it had stolen from France.
