Free The Test of Courage: (A Biography of) Michel Thomas by Christopher Robbins

no?’
    ‘Look, you do what you have to do. It’s your life. You have to live your life and I have to live mine. But if this is what you want to do, we have to separate.’
    They parted angrily. ‘I felt strongly for her. It was a loving relationship and I did not want to break up. But I really didn’t want to see her just then.’ Suzanne was the first to make overtures, which Michel resisted until he was certain she fully understood and accepted his position. He believed absolutely that any compromise made at that dangerous time would prove fatal in the struggle ahead.
    They did not see each other for ten days, until one night he returned to the apartment he was staying in, turned on the light and found Suzanne curled up in his bed. She had convinced his landlady to let her in and had waited patiently for his return. Still he held back physically, although he was deeply in love. He was moved that she should offer herself to him, but felt he could give nothing in return. For Suzanne to be involved with a stateless Jewish student in Hitler’s Vienna exposed her to great dangers. He explained that he intended to find a way to return to France to re-establish his residence status, and would then try to arrange for her to join him.
    Suzanne became emotional and insisted that Michel take her with him. ‘You cannot go without me!’
    ‘I’m vogelfrei - it’s too dangerous.’
    ‘And it’s safe for a Jew to remain in Austria?’ Suzanne asked drily. ‘If I want to share my life with you I must also share the danger!’
    The courage of Suzanne brought the lovers closer together in their final months in Vienna. But Michel was reluctant to risk exposing her to the dangers of illegal flight. He told Suzanne that they could only go forward with the plan if her mother gave consent. Secretly, Michel hoped this would not be given and expected the mother to convince her daughter to take the safer course.
    Suzanne was an only child, a minor, and adored, but Frau Adler was an unusual woman. ‘In normal times this meeting, and the subject of this meeting, would be absolutely unthinkable,’ she said flatly. ‘But this is not a normal time. It is an extraordinary time demanding extraordinary measures. I know how Suzanne feels. All I can do is to give both of you my blessing.’ And on a practical note, Frau Adler obtained a document from city hall bestowing legal majority on her daughter.
    The obvious route to take to France at this time was through Switzerland or Italy, but Michel felt that both would be strongly guarded by German soldiers. His plan was to cross Germany and enter France across the Siegfried-Maginot Line, the supposedly impregnable network of underground frontier fortresses. ‘It was so crazy and unlikely that nobody would think of it - that was my logic.’
    The couple left Vienna in October 1938 and crossed into Germany without incident. They made their way to Saarbrucken, the German town near the French border where Michel had crossed illegally before. They spent the night at a friend’s house and made their way the next day to the hill country, close to Voelklingen, abutting the Siegfried-Maginot Line. The plan was to observe the German patrols and sneak across between them. They watched patiently hour after hour, looking for an opportunity to make their move, but the moment they tried to cross they were spotted and caught. They were taken to a guard post where they sat in silence, listening to the rain drumming on the roof, awaiting the arrival of the Gestapo from Saarbrücken.
    The officers turned out to be young men in the long black leather overcoats that were one of the trademarks of their profession. Michel and Suzanne were pushed into the back of a car and driven for what seemed like hours along a lonely road through woods. The uncertainty of the journey was close to unbearable, and they did not pass a single car in either direction. The driver eventually turned off on to a rough track and bumped along