Summary

In the aftermath of the escape from Perigueux, the Nazi regime in France stepped up its efforts to control the French population, and to seek out and destroy the Resistance. The Nazis were particularly determined to find the so-called “Limping Lady of Lyon”, the person they believed responsible for leading that Resistance. Their plan was to “honeycomb” cities in southern France with double agents “to root out and eliminate the remaining terrorist cells” (127). The search was hampered, however, by the fact that the violent Gestapo (the Nazi secret police) and the more subtle Abwehr (the Nazi intelligence agency) were bitter rivals, and refused to collaborate. The former was headed in Lyon by a particularly vicious and sadistic operative named Klaus Barbie, whose torture techniques were (and still are) notorious; the latter was headed, again in Lyon, Hugo Bleicher, more determined than ever...