So many ordinary people did what it took, no matter the risk. My Great-Aunt, known as “ La Petite Chocolatiere “ (Simone Le Vavasseur) and her husband during the war (Paris) hid Jews and Allied fliers upstairs while selling candies to the Boches downstairs. The evadees were allowed to come down into the shop after closing time and even take a little air in the garden after dark. Her only complaint after being betrayed by captured Jews was that those damned fliers (Americains!) just couldn’t be silent during the day when the store was full of Wehrmacht & Gestapo customers.

RIP all you valiant women & men who gave your lives freely in the name of an ideal that seems to have largely vanished, acceptance of others and rejection of state tyranny. The light may have dimmed, but it still shines for some of us.