Page:Storm Over Paris.pdf/289
streets-together with their balls of wool. Saw and hammer stood silent in the workshops, machines gathered dust in the factories.
When the raw material vanished from the shops, the workers also were eliminated-in secret at first, in the wee hours of the morning. As time went on, the conqueror became more daring-till at last, like a wild beast who smells his end approaching, the Nazis fell on defenseless Jewish victims using treacherous fingers to aid them.
Traitors arose on all sides. There were also many Jewish cowards who believed that by treason, they would save their own skins. They pretended to be delivering false Aryan passports, or bringing Jews over the border to Switzerland. A Jew who wanted to save his own life would willingly give his name and secret hiding place and be promptly delivered into the hands of the Gestapo by these "brown Jews" who collaborated with their assassins in the vain hope that their lives would be spared.
In the courtyards of Belleville, which had always resounded with songs of Lithuania and Poland, Ukrainian carols and lively dance-music, an absolute stillness reigned now-only interrupted from time to time by the blood-curdling cry of a victim. There were some good neighbors who snatched the children from the bloody claws of the robbers, and gave courage to the victims as they were led away.
But there were others who accompanied the unfortunate ones with a bitter "c'est bien fait." Whoever received such a farewell greeting, didn't get very far. He broke down spiritually right there, and the Nazi finished him physically until he became mere smoke pouring through the chimneys of death factories.
Some did not wait for the blow from the Nazi hand, but put an end to their own lives. One of those was Madame