European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

But the police was there at night as well.

We also handed out leaflets at the gates of the factories, even though we were quite visible there.

We took precautions there as well. One of us would be on the look out for the police.

We’d leave around two or three o’clock in the morning to distribute the leaflets.

Sometimes we’d distribute them in front of the factory gates, even though that was very risky.

It was also difficult to produce the leaflets. It was good to distribute them, but they had to be made first!

So we tried to find friends that were not too well known and take the material there -

the mimeograph machine, and the typewriter and hide them in the basement.

We had to take precautions to protect these friends, but to be able to continue with our activities as well.

We organized ourselves, trying to find places where we could secretly meet,

where two or three of us could meet, maybe four, never more than four.

We would meet in a basement or at friends’ not known for their political activities, but willing to help.

They would let us in. We’d arrive at different times.

But then there was also the need to hide the material, the mimeograph, the typewriter etc…

We had to be careful with all of that.

There were various newspaper publications in the Rouen region,

talking about the number of political activists being arrested. One had to be very careful.

We had a certain amount of support in the population.

Some people said we shouldn’t do that, or when we were arrested, they’d say:

“They shouldn’t have done that”, but others did support us, some of them very quietly because they were afraid.