Lyon
August 31, 1942
By two o’clock in the afternoon, several police units were gathered at the door to the Carmelite convent. A few passersby stopped to watch but most lowered their heads and kept walking. It was better to keep a low profile and avoid any run-ins with the police. The prefect was standing with the officers, ready and willing to attack the building if the friars refused to open, but that proved unnecessary. The door hinges creaked open and two men wearing habits stood aside to let the authorities pass.
The police asked no questions but began searching the entire grounds. They soon arrived in the large hall where the children had spent their grueling days of waiting.
Only one person was in the large room: Madeleine Dreyfus, the psychologist. She had returned to make sure no documents had accidentally been left behind. Her brows arched when she saw the police.
“Where are the children?” the prefect Angeli demanded.
She smiled and said flatly, “Ask Cardinal Gerlier.”
Angeli spat out, “They’re not here. The information from the SS is false.”
“We should search the offices of Amitié Chrétienne on rue de Constantine,” Marchais said. Then he told the policemen to arrest Madeleine.
As Madeleine was taken to the commissary in one police car, others raced toward the headquarters of Amitié Chrétienne with their sirens blaring. There was little traffic, and the cars that were out willingly yielded to the police vans.
Inside the Amitié Chrétienne offices, the police found Father Chaillet. He had helped with the rescue operation indirectly, primarily by appealing to the cardinal for support.
The police arrested Chaillet as well. That was all that the prefect and the intendant had to show for their efforts. The solidarity of a group of volunteers with different religious beliefs and political ideas had managed to stump the authorities and hide the children right under their noses. It was up to the government’s lackeys to try to find the children before all traces disappeared.