On the theme of helping people escape during the Occupation, here is a thrilling account of the experience of a Church of Scotland minister, Donald Caskie, who at great personal risk saved around 2000 Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen. He had been the minister at the Scots Kirk in Paris but gave up a place on the last boat to leave France for England; instead he went to Marseille and set up the British Seamen’s Mission near the Vieux Port.
This was dangerous work, and despite the constant threat of capture and execution, Caskie showed resourcefulness and courage as he aided thousands of servicemen to reach the Spanish border. Finally arrested and interrogated, he was sentenced to death but was saved through the intervention of a German pastor. After the war, Caskie simply picked up where he had left off at the Scots Kirk in Paris, where he served as minister until 1960. He was a truly brave man.
One of my Aix friends knew him after the war and said that the members of his church in Paris didn’t know about his bravery during the war. What an antidote to our current pseudo-celeb culture. ‘The Tartan Pimpernel’ is available on Amazon and a ‘must read’ for people in Provence.
aixcentric 
Thanks for that – I have been wanting to read about some of the resistance activities in Provence during WWII but haven’t found much.
The other person you may like to follow up on is the American Varian Fry who got visas for many writers and artists to escape to the US. If you put his name into the ‘search’ box on this blog, you should find a couple of posts on him, to start you off. Good luck.
A must read ,especially for those continuing the work of the seamanship mission in Marseille, they now give support to the crews of our enormous cruise ships often far from home and unhappy.
Good point!