October 20, 1941: in France, under Nazi occupation for a year and a half, three young members of the Resistance kill Kommandant Hotz in Nantes. Hitler’s reaction from Berlin is immediate and fierce: 150 French people must be killed in reprisal. A French administrator is tasked with deciding who must die, despite the appeals of the parish priest who wants to prevent the massacre. The basin from which the victims will be chosen are the concentration camps holding communists and young men opposing the collaborationist Vichy government. Among these are 17-year-old Guy Moquet, who leaves a letter still read in French schools that runs “I am about to die! What I ask you, and you especially, mother, is to be courageous. I am, and I want to be as courageous as those who have gone before me. Certainly, I would prefer to live. But what I hope with all my heart is that my death will serve a purpose”. |
