We
were not encouraged to develop friendships with the students at Thame Park
but I did get to know one a little better than the others, between the bounds
of what it was possible to talk about. Lieutenant Ari Rabinovitch ("Arnaud")
had been a student of entomology in France, but his country of origin was
the much-disputed border between Greece and Turkey. On a walk around the
lake he stopped to turn over a log and gently scooped up the insects exposed
to the light. He held them in his hand and invited me to admire them before,
as gently, putting them back. He mentioned that he was acutely sensitive
to pain, and with a sinking heart and a terrible premonition of evil I wondered
if he really knew what could happen to him and why he had deliberately chosen
to continue the fight to get the Germans out of France in this dangerous
way. But I could only guess.
"Arnaud"
was parachuted into France near Grenoble and became wireless operator to
the circuit run by Odette and Peter Churchill. On their capture he was returned
to England and sent out on a second mission, and was captured. He was sent
to what was described as "a bad camp". The news of his death was
brought to me months later. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He was 24
years old.
This episode is mentioned because I resent the implicaton in the book "Odette"
that he was nothing but a foul-mouthed ruffian.
| From
the unpublished memoir of a FANY officer who served with SOE |
|
