With an exciting title and two BBC reporters this promised to be an entertaining session. Edward Stourton who came to introduce his book, "Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees" with Allan Little in the Chair, did not disappoint.
Stourton began by asking if there was anyone in the room who actually had some personal connection with the escape route and there were several in the audience. Stourton said that this was one of the untold stories of the Second World War and one that needed to be recorded for posterity before all those that had memories of those years passed on.
Stourton said that there was now an annual event, held to walk the route which took about four days. Generally the weather was good and this contrasted sharply with the kind of conditions the escapees would have had to deal with.
Apart from the many French people who used the route to escape the German occupation, there were many Allied prisoners who tried to reach Spain this way. With all the prisoners of war that were taken by the Germans at Dunkirk, when we lost something like 10,000 men, many of those who escaped from Occupied France, did so over the Pyrenees.
There were some good stories, such as the man in the column, watched by thousands of French civilians lining the roads, who was pulled out of the ranks and taken to a safe house by a young woman, looked after by the local people, and then helped to escape later. The story only came out when the woman died. So it was important not to judge all French people too harshly, he added, as there must be many more untold stories.
Allan Little asked Stourton about how he was allowed to go on the walk by the BBC. Stourton said that he was first given a medical check, then a fitness regime - which he did not always follow he admitted. However, he was permitted to go and found himself with the group of annual walkers and using his 'fractured French' to try to get along and and find out more about the history of the escape route.
Stourton said he found it hard to imagine how people who were starving, exhausted and in some cases injured, would have coped with the walk in bad weather - he had found it difficult enough!
The route, the 'Chemin de la Liberte', was the toughest of all the escape routes used in the last war. As the German cordon tightened it was necessary to go higher and higher over the mountains and this made it all more and more testing.
Stourton told the story of four Jewish men who were on the route when one fell and twisted his ankle; he was left while the others made a reconnaissance and firmy instructed to leave his boot tightly fastened, however, when the guide came back he found the injured man had cut open his boot. When they tried to move him it was found impossible and so he was shot in order to protect the route and the identity of those involved. The guide was tried for murder after the war but was rightly acquitted.
Stourton said that the bravery of the French, Belgian and Dutch civilians who helped Allied prisoners to escape was tremendous and we simply do not appreciate the risks they took. At the time they felt that this was the only way that they could contribute to the war effort.
Those who helped Allied servicemen during the Occupation never knew when there would be a knock on their door or when someone might betray them. They lived in a high state of fear and anxiety which we cannot in any way appreciate.
Stourton went on to describe several other incidents about the war and the sheer horror of what went on - why, for instance, did the Germans build and start using gas chambers at Ravensbruck concentration camp when the Allies had already landed in France?
Stourton also said that some of the worst things that happened in France took place after the war ended or in areas that had been taken back from the Germans - Frenchmen were intent on taking revenge on those who had collaborated.
This was a fascinating and most informative session; Edward Stourton's book will be well worth reading.
Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees by Edward Stourton (Doubleday, 2013)