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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2007 
The Last Time I Saw Paris
 MexicoCityCollege.com
Part III of The Last Time I Saw Paris, as transcribed by MCC historian Joseph M. Quinn from two 1947 issues of Mexico City College's "El Conquistador."
Morning did come and it was ironical to find such a bright, beautiful day amid all the desolation. We found ourselves in an abandoned village, and I was able to join Therese and Odile again. We went to a farm and had a party.
We gathered all the loose poultry and the women cooked them. I found myself seated next to an officer, the only one among all the soldiers. He remarked to me that I didn't seem to speak the language of all the others, and I explained that I was a teacher.
We proceeded to have, in this very rustic setting, a true drawing room discussion. Then we started traveling again and found the roads filled with peasants laden with all their possessions.
There were many old people resting alongside of the road. One of the most tragic things I saw were the burnt-black corpses of many old people who were too feeble to take cover from the strafing of the Italian planes. Out little group was quite lucky. We never got hit once.
The next day was another beautiful day - too beautiful for what was about to happen. All of a sudden we found ourselves surrounded by Germans. They seemed to mushroom from everywhere. This was a terrible thing for our men companions, who were immediately taken prisoner.
All this was accompanied by terrible bombing and strafing. The women were told to go into the ditch. While all the terrible noise was going on I was in the ditch destroying any papers which might prove embarrassing.
During all this I saw some real human ugliness, too. I saw two low-cultured women tearing each others' hair out over a can of sardines. Then there was a girl who had been professing her love to one of the French soldiers. As soon as the battle died down, she got out of the ditch and joined the Germans.
The Senegalese soldiers suffered a terrible fate. They were sent to the Ruhr after the last war and the Germans hated them. On my way back to Paris I saw many of their bodies hanging from trees.
Being the only one who spoke German, I climbed out of the ditch after the battle cleared and asked what we were expected to do. A German officer said we could return to Paris if we wished, but not for another 24 hours, so as not to interrupt German movements. In other words, we were to keep quiet for a day.
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