大象传媒

Mrs Irene Gosset interviewed by John Gaisford and Rosie Mere
Transcribed and edited by John David from audio and video recordings

In five years, I doubt if I spoke to a German five times, which sounds very strange when you think that at the beginning there were more troops than there were locals, because they brought thousands and thousands of troops. It just happens that in my work I didn鈥檛 come into contact, neither did my father. You saw them walking around, of course, you know, day to day, but I didn鈥檛 actually come into personal contact with them, very very rarely. Once I chased, very foolishly, chased a German who had stolen my friend鈥檚 purse, I thought afterwards how very stupid of me. I found the purse, thrown in a hedge. When I tackled him, I don鈥檛 know if he understood any English, a lot of them spoke very good English, they spoke better English than we did, this one I think he was an ordinary soldier, I think he was getting on in years, anyway, he didn鈥檛 know what I was talking about. Really, I think I was very lucky, it was in a quiet country lane, and he could have attacked me, if he鈥檇 felt like it. That was one experience, another experience was cycling two abreast with a friend. Now, I know people resent these things, but really it was quite a sensible law they made, that you had to cycle single file. I tried to bluff myself out of it, but the two gendarmeries just grinned and charged me a reichmark and they gave me a receipt, I don鈥檛 know what has happened to it, it would be quite and interesting thing. Another night, coming home late, I live in the Foulon, and they were stopping people, stopping everybody coming down on their bikes, and I had forgotten to take my identity card out with me. That would have meant straight into internment at the prison, but I dived down a side road and I got home without any problems. Yes, we used to go to concerts, and that, at night, in the pitch dark, one night, coming home from the Central Hall, which was then the Little Theatre, going up the Grange, we heard sort of pad, pad, pad behind us, we were a bit scared, so we hastened, and eventually it turned out to be one of our own policemen.

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