At War44-04-1845The Silence Of The Sea

I am an old man, not as old as the sea, but old enough. I can hear the surf hammering at the beach near my house on the coast of France. Can you hear it? Oh, of course not.

You are far away. That's an old man's joke. But it's there. The sound is there. It's the sound of a people who are waiting for you. The Nazis cannot hear anything in the silence of the scene, nor do they understand what this silence means, and they do not understand what the serf says to us as it comes into the beach

over and over again. You know, they do not understand that it says to us, be patient, be silent, be of good heart. We in America are coming to help you. America is coming to help you. America is coming to help you.

America is coming to help you. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with the Council on Books in War Time, presents the 45th in its series Words at War. Tonight we bring you a radio adaptation of a novel that was written in Nazi-occupied France.

It is entitled, The Silence of the Sea. The story of an old Frenchman and his niece, and of the German officer, billoted in their house. The old man tells the story, starting from the day the Nazi officer comes to occupy a room in his house.

I remember it was night, but not very cold. All that November, it was never very cold. My niece had just brought me my coffee. Coffee helps me to sleep, as she did every evening. I was sitting in the back of the room and comparative darkness facing the door.