"LA FRANCE EST POURRIE"
171
had
about 2000 inhabitants, who were almost without exception well to do.
More than half of these disappeared during the night. The food and
provision dealers who
had
not yet fled stood before their doors while
their goods rotted inside. Meanwhile their families packed. The hungry
refugees wandered from store to store, and were everywhere turned away
in the same despicable fashion.
Towards midday several large food stores, where signs hung saying:
"Sold out. No goods on hand. Proprietor mobilized.''-and before whose
doors a disgraceful bargaining over soup croutons
had
been going on only
two hours before-were broken open by French soldiers and found to
contain surprisingly large stocks of provisions, utensils, table linen, and
even gasoline. All these were distributed among the people crowding
about the stores, loudly cursing the departed merchants who would rather
have left their hoarded goods to the Germans than to the refugees from
Paris. On the main street a great column of military trucks
had
halted.
Its escort consisted of Senegalese riflemen who gazed sadly at the excited
Frenchmen. Lines of civilians, on foot, on bicycle, and pushing baby car·
riages, slowly made their way through the main street in the direction of
the Loire by way of Montargis. A tremendous panic
was
caused by
machine gun fire from a lone German plane.
The inhabitants of Puiseaux who
had
remained behind-there were
perhaps 600 to BOO of them-ran from one store to another taking what·
ever they could. But all they talked of was the "frightful looting" carried
on by the refugees-the "Parisians."
By chance we were able to secure lodgings in the house of a not very
prosperous gardener- only because we managed to convince him and his
fear·crazed wife that it would be unwise to flee on foot. Their relatives
luJd
all gone already.
Over the dinner table the following conversation took place. The
room was filled with things that
had
been taken almost without exceptiou
from the looted shops.
Q:
Why did you want to go away yesterday?
A: They said the Boches were coming today.
Q:
And what do you think they would do to you?
A: Won't they loot?
Q:
What can they take from you?
A: My God, even the French loot now! Can you believe it? They stole
Mother Bontemps' hens, and some of those evil women even stole bed
linen.
Ces parisiens sont tous des pillards.
Q:
But what was looted?
A: They took everything at Mother Guyot's! And what goods were there !
Who would have dreamed of it! For weeks there wasn't any oil in the
whole town-and there she had at least 300 bottles. Isn't that terrible?
They looted everything-silver, sugar. She still had 500 kilos of sugar
in
her store, can you imagine? And there wasn't any sugar to be had
for so long. But they're bad people, these refugees, these Parisians.
They took everything.
It
was such a shame, wasn't it?
