"Who Save One Life." The Email message read, "Can you help me by
locating in your records the name of a monastery in France where
I was hidden?" It explained that Quakers in the South of France
had helped the writer during World War II. Archives staff wanted
to help but wondered if there were any ways to do so. Would it
be possible to find the name of a monastery among hundreds of
documents from that period? Would letter writers even include
that sort of information, knowing the letters would be censored?
If this had occurred when Germany occupied Vichy France, would
any letters actually have found their way to the United States?
These were some of the doubts that crossed our minds. It took us
several days to remember an unlikely connection that had
occurred several years before. That was to be the key that
unlocked a poignant and extraordinary story. Some years prior to
receiving the Email inquiry, the AFSC Archives received personal
stories on tape from a European woman by the name of Alice Resch
Synnestved