Dear Diary #6

   Dear Diary,

                                                                                                                                       December 10, 1941

 

It is 1941, I am 29, I have 4 years old twins, and I am living with my husband, Theo, a Headmaster, at Beuvry in the north of France.

 Almost without warning the phrase "Mobilisation Generale" (General Mobilization) is everywhere. It makes us shudder, especially for those who remembered WWI. Its only been a few days, everything is disorganized. All men are including my husband and my brother of just 21 years. All teachers are leaving and all employees from the local authority, etc... It is an indescribable muddle but were starting to get used to it.

 

                                                   Its hard to sit here and watch, but know I am helping through the French Resistance, but I am not helping my family, my husband and brother are leaving, my children are being deported to Switzerland. They asked me if I wanted to go but I said no because I need to stay here with Charles DaGuall , Nancy Wake, and Marshal Petain. I need to stay here because I need to fight so I can defend my country, peu importe quel est le coût, so my children have something to return home to, so they can keep the generation of the French Fighters alive forever, to tell the story of how France was a strong fighting nation of this-so-called World War 2. They have to keep the generation alive, to never let it die.          
Vive la Résistance.  Vive la France.

 

Alpha

      Cordialement,

 

Forever and Always,

-Hélène Delattre

 

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.” 
-Winston Churchill

 
"Today we are crushed by the sheer weight of the mechanized forces hurled against us, but we can still look to the future in which even greater mechanized forces will bring us victory. Therein lies the destiny of the world."
-Charles de Gaulle