The life lessons of the last resistance fighters – Henri Becker, 98 years old

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50 YEARS OF THE DOT. He was arrested by the Gestapo in Grenoble on August 20, 1944. At the age of 20, he already had long clandestine activities to his credit.

“LOne of them approaches me and, in a very gentle tone, he says to me: it’s so sad to die at 20 years old. I relax. He takes the opportunity to unleash a violent punch in the stomach. I fall to the ground. He asks the question again: addresses, meeting dates. He even offers me to be one of them…” The scene takes place in Grenoble, on August 20, 1944, on Cours Berriat, at the headquarters of the Gestapo.

Seventy-eight years later, Henri Becker, with a good eye, describes it to us as if it had taken place yesterday, clean, “without blunders”. We are far from Grenoble, on the tenth floor of a Parisian building, Quai de la Loire: the terrace bathed in a scorching sun overlooks the Montmartre hill, overlooking the Bassin de la Villette.