by Elizabeth R. Skoglund

Jacques-Pierre looked up at the blue sky and saw two airplanes.  He continued to walk across his father’s beet field on his way home from school.  Suddenly he heard a loud noise above him.  Looking up again, he saw one of the planes burst into flames.  The other plane flew away.

About this time, something even more startling happened.  An object that looked like a big white balloon came out of the burning plane.  A man dressed in a soldier’s uniform dangled at the end of the white balloon.  The airplane crashed further away and a flame of fire shot up into the air.

The soldier dropped slowly into the far end of the beet field.  He floated down with the big white balloon and fell KERPLUNK on the ground.  Jacques-Pierre had never seen one before, but he was sure that the white balloon was a parachute.

Jacques-Pierre stood very still.  His heart beat very fast.  His shoes sank into the mud in the beet field.  Somewhere far away a bird sang.  Jacques-Pierre was afraid

THE ENEMY

Jacques-Pierre lived in a small village in the south of France.  The village was called Le Chambon.  A war was being fought all over the world, and France had already been taken over by the enemy.  All of this happened a long time ago, long before you and your friends were even born.

The enemy were called Nazis.  Many soldiers from many countries were fighting  against the Nazis.  The Nazis wanted to steal land from other countries.  They wanted to kill people who were different from them.  Above all they wanted to get rid of all Jews.

The Nazis thought that the color of a person’s eyes or hair was important.  They didn’t realize that honesty is more important than blue eyes.  They didn’t know that kindness is more valuable than curly, blonde hair.  They didn’t know that the color of a person’s skin didn’t matter.  Jacques-Pierre remembered what he had heard of the Nazis.  Then he ran home to get his father.

DISCOVERY

“Come quickly, Papa,” Jacques-Pierre shouted as he reached the edge of the beet field.  “Come quickly.  A soldier with a parachute jumped out of a plane and fell into our field.”

Papa came running from where he had been working just outside of his house.  He was planting flowers in a garden for Jacques-Pierre’s mother.  Papa ran into the muddy field with Jacques-Pierre following after him.  Jacques-Pierre ran too.  Jacques-Pierre’s side began to hurt from running so fast.  He wanted to stop, just for a tiny moment, but he kept running to prove he could keep up.

At last Papa and Jacques-Pierre could see the big white balloon-like parachute.  “You’re right,” said Papa, “it’s a parachute.  The parachute opened up and let the soldier fall safely to the ground.”

The parachute lay flat on the ground.  It looked like a busted balloon at the end of a birthday party.  Jacques-Pierre wished he could tell his friends about the soldier falling out of the sky.  But he knew that the white balloon was a secret.  This was war.

Jacques-Pierre and Papa found the soldier nearby.  The soldier lay very still and Jacques-Pierre was afraid again.  He was afraid that the soldier was dead.

“He’s an American,” said Papa.  “I can tell by his uniform.”

At that moment, the soldier moaned.  It was the best moan that Jacques-Pierre had ever heard.  It meant that the soldier was still alive.  Jacques-Pierre and Papa turned the soldier over.  The soldier was covered with mud.  His arm lay limp and his face had cuts.  But Papa said he would live.  “Run to the house, Jacques-Pierre,” said Papa.  “Tell Mama to get help fast.  We must hide the soldier from the Nazis.”

RUNNING FOR HELP

Jacques-Pierre ran toward his house.  Papa shouted after him: “Don’t tell anyone else.  Don’t forget, the soldier and the white balloon are our secret!”

“Yes, Papa!” Jacques-Pierre called back.  Then Jacques-Pierre ran fast.  This time he had to hold his side tightly so it wouldn’t hurt.  His mind raced, too.  It raced as fast as his legs.

For many months, the village of Le Chambon had been hiding Jews from the Nazis.  In this small town of three thousand people, about 2,500 Jews found refuge.  Everyone in Le Chambon was a hero.  In Le Chambon, no one was turned away who needed help.  Every home took strangers in.  They fed them and gave them clothes and a place to sleep.

Most of all they protected Jews from the Nazis.  No one in Le Chambon turned people over to the Nazis.  Instead they helped get the Jews whom they rescued out of France to a safer place.  Sometimes they hid a soldier.  Or a child.  Or a whole family.  The Jews were always hungry and afraid.  They were always afraid of the Nazis.

Jacques-Pierre stumbled over an old beet root.  His shoes felt squishy from the mud.  But he still kept running and his mind kept remembering.

Jacques-Pierre remembered a question he had  asked one night at the dinner table.  It was a question which he had  been afraid to ask.  “Will the Nazis come and take me?”

Papa had said not to be afraid.  “The Nazis don’t want little boys like you,  Jacques-Pierre.  They just want people who are different from them.  They especially want people who are Jewish.  They want them so they can destroy them.  They would like to kill every Jew.”

As Jacques-Pierre ran, he became confused.  He became so confused that he forgot to hold his side.  Most Jews who had stayed in his house looked like everyone else he knew.  They looked a lot like Jacques-Pierre.  The children ran and played like Jacques-Pierre.  They had mothers and fathers who loved them.

Jacques-Pierre promised God he would never again tease anyone for being different.  “I won’t even tease my friend at school who can’t catch a ball,” he said out loud.  “And I’ll never make fun of Nicole for the funny way she walks.  Never!”

Jacques-Pierre felt better.  He felt so much better that he began to hum a favorite song as he ran.

Then Jacques-Pierre remembered something else.  He remembered how his father had warned him not to talk to anyone about the soldier or the white balloon.  Jacques-Pierre realized for the first time that people in Le Chambon whispered a lot.  They all seemed to have secrets.

Then Jacques-Pierre had a very scary thought.  Maybe the people in Le Chambon had secrets because of the Nazis.  Maybe if the Nazis knew about the white balloon, they would come and take Jacques-Pierre away along with the soldier.  Maybe they would even take Papa and Mama.

Jacques-Pierre felt a funny feeling in his stomach.  Jacques-Pierre was afraid.

THE RESCUE

When Jacques-Pierre reached the big farmhouse where he lived, he stopped.  He tried to catch his breath and waited for his side to stop hurting.  Then he opened the kitchen door.  The door squeaked and he remembered that he was supposed to oil its hinges.  Mama had just finished making six loaves of bread.  Jacques-Pierre could smell the bread as it cooled in front of the window.

“What’s wrong?” Mama asked.  Mama could tell that Jacques-Pierre had been running very fast.

“An American soldier is hurt in our beet field,” Jacques-Pierre said.  “Papa needs help.”   Jacques-Pierre spoke very fast.  He hoped that Mama couldn’t see how scared he was.  Jacques-Pierre wanted to sound very grown-up.

Mama ran outside.  “Andre!  Charles!  Come here,” she  shouted.  Two men who were muddy from working in the beet field rushed to the house to find out what was wrong.

 After some hurried whispers,  Andre and Charles ran back into the field.  This time Jacques-Pierre noticed the whispers more than ever before.

Mama went upstairs.  She put clean sheets on the guest bed and she took a big, soft comforter down from the wooden shelf.  If Mama was afraid she didn’t show it.  But Jacques-Pierre knew better now.  Perhaps everyone in Le Chambon was a little scared of the Nazis every time they saved someone.

Mama came back downstairs to the kitchen to heat some soup.  The soldier would need food in order to grow strong again.  In the village of Le Chambon, people were always heating soup for people they were hiding.

“Why do we hide Jews?” Jacques-Pierre asked Mama.  “Why does our village hide Jews?”

“Because we are Christians,” answered Mama.  “Because the Jews are in danger. Because it is the right thing to do.”

Jacques-Pierre took a large wooden spoon off the shelf.  He used it to stir the big pot of soup.  Sometimes Mama let him do this.  Usually it made him feel grown-up.  Today it seemed more important because he was helping.

“God tells us to feed the hungry,” Mama continued.  “He tells us to protect the innocent.  He also tells us that the Jews are very special to him.”

“What does innocent mean?” asked Jacques-Pierre.  He stopped to swallow a big spoonful of hot soup.

“It means you haven’t done anything wrong,” said Mama.

Just then Papa and his friends brought the soldier into the house.  He would be safe now.  A doctor would come and fix his broken arm.  His cuts would be bandaged.  After a few days of rest, he would feel better.  Then he would be smuggled out of France.  He would go home to America.  Papa had discovered that the soldier was Jewish as well as American.  That meant that if the Nazis caught him he would be in even greater danger.

“Jacques-Pierre,” said Papa at dinner that night.  “You were very brave today.  You saved a man’s life.  A human life is a very important thing to save.”

Mama said, “I’m proud of you, too, Jacques-Pierre.”

Jacques-Pierre felt good all over.

THE SECRET

The next morning, Jacques-Pierre woke up early.  He got dressed quickly and ate breakfast.  Then he grabbed his books in one hand and picked up his lunch in the other hand.  He kissed Mama goodbye and left for school.

Jacques-Pierre tried to act like this was just another day.  But when he reached the edge of the beet field, he began to run.  Jacques-Pierre wanted to find the white balloon.

Jacques-Pierre began to run more slowly.  Then he walked.  Then he stopped altogether.  He looked carefully around.  There was no white balloon.  There was no parachute.  There was no burned up plane in the neighbor’s field.  It had all been taken away in the middle of the night.  It was the first time that Jacques-Pierre had been such an important part of a rescue.  It was the first time he had seen a rescue from beginning to end.

Here and there Jacques-Pierre saw a cluster of green flowers blooming.  Overhead a bird sang.  It was a bright, sunny day in Le Chambon.  Today the little village looked like any other village in Southern France.

But Jacques-Pierre knew that Le Chambon was different from other villages.  He knew that his village saved Jews and that made him feel very proud.  Jacques-Pierre knew the secret of the white balloon.