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Emmett joined the French Resistance after the 1940 occupation by Germany, working as
a courier, and on several occasions over the next two
years was nearly caught by the Gestapo. In
August 1942, his unit was betrayed and he and Suzanne
fled south on foot to the safety of the small village of
Roussillon,
in the Vaucluse
département in the
Provence Alpes Cote
d'Azur region. Here he continued
to assist the Resistance by storing armaments in the
back yard of his home. During the two years
that Emmett stayed in Roussillon he indirectly
helped the Maquis
sabotage the German army in the Vaucluse mountains,
although he rarely spoke about his wartime
work.
Emmett was awarded the Croix de guerre and the Médaille de la
Résistance by the French
government for his efforts in fighting the German
occupation; to the end of his life, however, Emmett
would modestly refer to his work with the French
Resistance as 'boy scout
stuff'. '[I]n order to keep in touch', he continued work
on the novel Watt
(begun in 1941 and completed in 1945, but not published
until 1953) while in hiding in
Roussillon. |
