Zero Night

Mark Felton Central 940.54724 F327Z 2015

Found while looking for "Comet" at Central. That's the name of a WW2 Western European underground network that aided escaping allied POWs. This book describes the escape of 40 allied prisoners from Oflag VI-B on August 30, 1942 "Zero Night", using 4 ladder/scaffolds placed over the double wire fence. The ladders were disguised as bookshelves. Electricity to the fence and search towers was supplied by the same circuit as a prisoner-accessible building inside the fence. Three prisoners reached freedom through the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Spain, aided by Elvire De Greef and Andree De Jong, whose Comet Line helped 400 allied soldiers escape to Spain.

Jong was captured and tortured by the Gestapo in 1943 (who believed her incapable of her accomplishments), liberated from Mauthausen in April 1945. She worked as a nurse in African leper colonies, retiring home to Brussels in 1985, dying in 2007 at age 90. My hero.