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Hiding a enemy was a capital offense during the 3rd Reich, and official method of execution for civilians was the fallbeil ( guillotine). Used from 1933-45, anywhere from 16,000 to 20,000 people were beheaded by the 20 guillotines in Germany and Austria.
That would tend to keep anyone not agreeing very quite.
Yes - 357FS/355FG Captain Roland Dufresne was shot down near Koln on 11 Feb 1944. He walked to Belgium and then France before hooking up with Underground. Smuggled to a point south of Calais and picked up british. He returned to Steeple Morden in September and was re-instated to combat ops because the part of the Underground he was involved in was over-run by Allies.
would linz austria be deep enough count? there was the account of Lt Bruce Carr from the 354th FG who was shot down and stole a fw 190 from a german airfield and flew it home. i do believe someone else did the same thing afterwards. if you have never read the account of this you should its pretty good and humorus.
Stock Footage - US airmen of 354th FG examine German FW-190 fighter aircraft taken by US Lt. Bruce Carr, in Ansbach Germany
Hiding a enemy was a capital offense during the 3rd Reich, and official method of execution for civilians was the fallbeil ( guillotine). Used from 1933-45, anywhere from 16,000 to 20,000 people were beheaded by the 20 guillotines in Germany and Austria.
That would tend to keep anyone not agreeing very quite.
Thank you for your input drgondog, highly appreciated.
Do you have further information as how Cpt. Dufresne made his way out of Cologne, Germany into Belgium? Did he made contact with individuals or managed the feat on his own.
His is without doubt a fascinating story.
German citizens at least had the small comfort of a right to a trial, a very small comfort because acquitals were rare.
By the Grace of God (of your preference) I doubt if any of us has had the personal experience of living under such threats. We simply do not know how we would have acted in the same situation. Especially with a family to consider. My mother was involved in some resistance work and told me that one simply had no way of knowing how anyone would react. Bold brave men might fold under torture, weak wimps might resist until death.
We must applaud those who chose to act against evil but be vary careful not to blame those who did not. If you were they you do not know what you would have done. I hope that I would have been bold but I fear that I might have been craven. I thank God that neither I nor my children have ever had to make such decisions. Civilians assisting aircrew ran far greater risks than the aircrew and I have met POWs who avoided contacting civilians for help for just that reason.
No Questionairre attached to the MACR and Dufresne passed away many years ago.
To be entirely fair to the Germans of the time, even those who might have had little time for the nazis might also have borne a perfectly understandable antipathy for the allied airmen who were deliberately bombing their civilian centres to rubble. Of course many civilians were killed in occupied Europe as well, but nothing like the numbers being blown to bits in the Fatherland because they weren't being deliberately targeted. It's hard to imagine a resident of Cologne or Dresden harbouring a downed allied pilot because they agreed Hitler was an A-hole.
By the Grace of God (of your preference) I doubt if any of us has had the personal experience of living under such threats. We simply do not know how we would have acted in the same situation. Especially with a family to consider. My mother was involved in some resistance work and told me that one simply had no way of knowing how anyone would react. Bold brave men might fold under torture, weak wimps might resist until death.
We must applaud those who chose to act against evil but be vary careful not to blame those who did not. If you were they you do not know what you would have done. I hope that I would have been bold but I fear that I might have been craven. I thank God that neither I nor my children have ever had to make such decisions. Civilians assisting aircrew ran far greater risks than the aircrew and I have met POWs who avoided contacting civilians for help for just that reason.