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The Last Of The Human Freedoms: the French civilians who chose to help Kiwis during the Second World War by Keren M Chiaroni

When Kiwi airman John Sanderson was shot down over Laines-aux-Bois in 1944, a French family chose to shelter him. A local doctor made a different choice and betrayed them all to the Gestapo. The mother was eventually released but her husband was transported and died on route to Dachau concentration camp. The airman survived the war and began a correspondence with the family. This legacy continues today and provides the inspiration for the Last Of The Human Freedoms.

Based on letters, journals, military records and personal accounts, The Last Of The Human freedoms tells of a number of dramatic escapes by downed airmen made with the help of French citizens. Some of them are members of the French Resistance, while others are ordinary French men and women from many walks of life. All of them were aware of the dangers involved and the helpers associated with two of the three pilots whose stories are told in this book were sent to concentration camps. One died en route, one died in a camp, and the others returned with nightmares that remained with them for the rest of their lives.

The decision of these individuals to help the Kiwis put the lives of those concerned in great danger. Their actions also provide a counterpoint to the policies of the Vichy regime while offering a demonstration of the role of choice in our lives.

In writing this book, Chiaroni conducted five years of extensive research that took her to many locations in France and New Zealand. She interviewed surviving members of the families whose stories the book contains, and was able to access archival resources in both public and private collections.

The Last Of The Human /Freedoms not only offers three compelling stories of a little mentioned part of NZ World War Two history, but also shows the importance of choice. It shows that the ability to choose one's own way and attitude in any given set of circumstances is one thing that cannot be taken away. This book gives life to those French men and women who chose not to seek their own self-preservation but to do what they thought was right and just or what was their duty to do, whatever the cost to themselves. It is an excellent record of courage and bravery in dangerous times.

RRP $39.99
Published and distributed by HarperCollins Publishers

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