Hitting back

the long version

"Neither Bauchi nor I Intended to live underground until the end of the war ... we could not stand idly by while mass murder was going on. We did not relish the role of the beaten and the hunted, but wanted to hit back and hunt for ourselves. Abbe Glasberg protested, as did our helpers and friends in the monastery ... This time we fled not from enemies but from friends.". "Since I was a prisoner of the Gestapo and therefore dangerous, I was kept in a single cell ... Interrogations continued, questions were fired and I was beaten when I did not answer ... They did not suspect in the slightest way that I was either Jewish or Austrian. Yet what they did know was enough to sentence me to death ... During one interrogation I was asked for the umpteenth time the motives for my actions. I answered, 'You also had a Schlageter!' (Schlageter was a German nationalist who carried out acts of sabotage against the French in the Ruhr region after World War I and the Nazis honored him as a national hero.) My response was met with silence and surprise. The Gestapo seemed impressed ... The highest-ranking officer instructed me in the fundamental differences between Schlageter and me ... Their initial surprise at my comment dissipated ... but I had planted a seed in their minds."--BOOK JACKET.