It's a wrenching, difficult decision to leave your friends, but you know in your heart that the guard is right. By yourself, you have a much better chance to survive. Moving to another part of the camp, you do not get involved in the lives of other inmates as before. Still, you feel like a traitor, leaving your friends and thinking only of yourself at a time when life has become so difficult.
What you are seeking is twofold: to escape from the camp and to get across the Pyrenees. If only you could reach Spain or Portugal, you would be safe.
Rumors had circulated in the camp that a passeur
was active in the
town of Lourdes, not far from the Gurs camp, helping Jewish refugees
across the Spanish border. Lourdes is the place where, Catholics believe,
a young girl saw the image of the Virgin Mary. Catholics come to the site
because of the healing power of its water. Passing
from there into
Spain will bring healing to you.
Your chance for escape comes during an intense rainstorm. Lightning and thunder combine with blinding rain, washing out part of the fence across from your barracks. You can hardly see, but you can't let this chance go by. You dash through the opening and out of the camp toward freedom. You stop for a moment, crouch behind a rock, and try to figure out in which direction to go to reach Lourdes.
If you go in an easterly direction, eventually arriving at Lourdes, continue to page 154.
If you go in a northerly direction, continue to page 153.