The war-time Paris experience -- xxv

It's war, and nothing can alter that fact of the chaplain's existence. Around him the wounded arrive in daily shifts to be processed and sent either to a full-fledged field hospital or home. Chaplain Van sees it as his duty and honor to meet at least some of the wounded when they're taken off the train. 

But were it not for the war, Chaplain Van could not be operating as a servant of God in more plush circumstances.

November 14: 

HQ asked me to change my office to the States building on the University of Paris Campus. This campus con­tains about 25 dormitories. Other nations constructed dormitories for their students attending the University of Paris. Rockefeller fi­nanced the recreational building, containing a swimming pool, auditorium and a tennis court, office is located at the entrance to the building. There was carpet on the floor, a fire place, deck, and chairs. Across from my office is a large lounging room for the soldiers. All the buildings on this campus are occupied by ­American soldiers. This gives me the finest assignment of all the chaplains in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). I am a staff member of General Kimball, who has the finest group of officers I have ever met in the military. And on Sunday I have the beautiful American Church to hold my services. I could not have it better anywhere in the army. 

War's bloody effects spill out all around anyway, despite his plush digs.

I met Chaplain Edwards, who was one of my roommates on Saturnia. He was in the battle of Brest and was wounded with shrap­nel. He received the Purple Heart and is now troubled with arthritis. He has been assigned to a field hos­pital at Rheims.

 November 27:

I met Chaplain De Jong--a member of the Reformed Church of America. While I was talking to him, a  call came from the depot that a train load of wounded soldiers was coming in. We both went to the railroad station. A blizzard had been raging at the front and many soldiers had trench feet. Some had hands shot away. Others had stepped on land mines and had their legs amputated. these soldiers still had the dirt and grime of the battle on them. 

Chaplain De Jong works in the 203rd General Hospital. He believes that the war has deepened the religious life of the soldiers on the combat front.

The nature of the wounds and the bitter cold Chaplain Van notes here suggests a battle scenario very much like that created when Hitler threw everything he had into an offensive which no one saw coming and was eventually called the Battle of the Bulge. 

The date of the entry predates the day the Nazi offensive began, which was--

December 14: 

I don't know that I've found any single story as long and wild as this one--the story of a Dutch Resistance worker. It's so wild that it's almost hard to believe. What she has going for her, however, is a preacher, twice her age, who was no longer a rookie when it comes to war. Secondly, she's gutsy and brassy, as some war veterans are, and as some Dutch Resistance were. Can we believe her? Chaplain Van certainly did. 

Her story is told in its entirety in the diaries--that's something new for the Chaplain. That he was moved by the story--and by her--seems clear. 

Chaplain Van was often called upon  to speak to Dutch people, often Dutch refugees who found themselves in liberated France with no way to get home to Holland. Here's the story he tells to the diary.

A 19-year-old Dutch girl works here for the United States Signal Corps. She originally came from the Dutch East Indies. She was a member of the French un­derground. Once she was surrounded by three German sol­diers and shot all three. She was later captured and was sent to Aachen. On the way, the train was shot up by our planes, and in the confusion she escaped and returned to France.

She said to me that she was ut­terly disgusted with this group of Hollanders in Paris. [Chaplain Van visits this "group of Hollanders" regularly. He explains that they are refugees--men taken, against their will, to France for factory jobs. When France was liberated, they could not simply go home since the Netherlands was also in the  hands of the Nazis.] She called them "een rot Zotje." i.e., "a rotten bunch." She criticized the French for surrendering so quickly at the beginning of the war. She is now keeping company with an American soldier and hopes to go to the United States someday. She speaks perfect French, English, and German. 

She told about her experience in helping an American aviator es­cape to Spain. The aviator was dressed in women's clothing. When her mission was accomplished, she asked the aviator for his revolver. 

When she returned to France, a French girl who was keeping com­pany with a German officer, betrayed her. When several Germans came to arrest her, she de­cided to shoot it out with them. She had five bullets and said to herself, four bullets for them and one for me. She killed two Germans and then put the gun to her head. But the chamber was emp1y. 

The Germans tied her up, tortured her and tried to make her talk. She was unconscious for several days -- she didn't know how long. The Germans thought that she was dead and threw her in a river. While i­n the water, she regained conscious­ness and floated with the stream Finally she swam to shore and fell down unconscious. When she awoke, she found herself in the home of an old lady. This happened in Southern France. 

When the Americans came that way, she and several of the French underground went to the house of the girl who had betrayed her, cut off her hair and painted the Nazi sign on her forehead. She showed me a picture of the girl with her short hair and painted face.