In this memoir of his scandalously daring exploits as a spy for the British from the director’s office of the French National Railroads for Brittany,

André Peulevey, the name by which the Jewish German ex-pat Joseph Scheinmann was known, details others’ and his own sacrifice and heroism --

documented in eye-witness accounts --- that saved many lives and inflicted savage damage on the Nazis and their collaborators. Then punished

under the “Nacht und Nebel” (Night and Fog) decree, André and his comrades continued to fight from inside Gestapo prisons in Paris and at

Natzweiler-Struthof, the only Nazi Konzentrationslager on French soil, dedicated to the punishment, exploitation and elimination of political

prisoners from two dozen European countries, and the gassing of Gypsies and Jews.

The author tells André’s story at the US book launch……………………see below.

My Story Begins: A time of foreboding as relentless change polarizes German youth in the 1930’s and propels André

from leadership to exile.

A New Homeland: Life in France looks good: business, tennis and romance flourish.

War Approaches: As Germany clandestinely re-arms, André and his father volunteer to fight for France

Fighting for France: André seeks out other soldiers who want to fight, only to be asked by townspeople to stop. By wiles and forgery, he avoids being taken to Germany as a prisoner of war.

Spy for the British: Hired as a German translator at French National Railroad (SNCF) headquarters, André discovers his boss Louis Turban is organizing a sabotage, intelligence, and escape network. André monitors German strategies and losses in the bombing of Britain, German troop and materiel shipments, u-boat bases, submarines caches and the port of Brest, reporting it all to the British through the Réseau 31, Georges France, Johnny and Overcloud networks. His handler is Thomas Greene, known as "Uncle Tom'" and Peulevey is known as "Le Neveu."

By Night to London: While André is spirited across the channel in kayak by moonlight, for training and outfitting, his network is broken and their radio operator reveals his bosses’ identity under torture.

Prisoner of the Gestapo: By bravado decision, André deliberately falls “into the mousetrap.” He has his torturers disciplined and fools his Gestapo interrogators into giving him a cushy writing assigment before his eventual “trial,” death sentence, and 18 months (including 11 in solitary) in prison, where the resistance continues.

“NN” at Natzweiler: “Nacht Und Nebel” is decreed to make political prisoners disappear into “Night and Fog” like a character in one of Hitler’s favorite Wagner operas (Das Rheingold), and Natzweiler-Struthof in Alsace is the camp that the "NN" are taken to for the ultimate punishment. André interprets the language and reality of their taskmasters’ terror and mayhem, organizes his fellow Frenchmen during their terrible ordeal, making sure they understand German orders, negotiating with the ruling class of Communist prisoners, imposing discipline and galvanizing morale.

Four Episodes: André leaves the hospital barracks just ahead of the “work detail ascending to heaven,” is assigned to the weaving shop, where he reorganizes the workers and reduces production by 30%, produces a play, and becomes a KAPO (prisoner boss.) “Do they work like this when I am not around?” asks the murderous Rottenführer Ehrmanntraut. “Of course not!” André snaps back. They took seven months and never finished the curve in the road.

Dachau, Allach, Dachau: Natzweiler-Struthof is evacuated ahead of the Allied invasion (the first concentration camp to be discovered). André is sent to Dachau, then to its slave labor camp of Allach --- where he produces another surreptitious theatrical , this one on the theme of “France and its Provinces in Song” ---and back to Dachau, where he pulls a still live man from a pile of bodies being carted off to cremation and is himself cured of typhus.

Freedom and Loss: Liberation from Dachau is followed by death caused by overeating for many; but André and his friends hitch a ride with American GI’s back toward Paris where he settles up with the British underground and French army paymasters, and is tragically aware that his parents will not return from Auschwitz. His romance with Claire, a translator he met in England, is miraculously reignited and the happiest years of life still lie ahead.

The Concentration Camp Universe: “Why could so many people be kept under control by so few?” “How could one survive a camp?” André faces the hard questions and shares his observations about how the prisoners were played against each other; which classes of prisoner rose to the top; why status in the outside world was not a benefit in the camps; why terror works; what character traits, past history, and goals helped prisoners to survive and how he himself was able to resist a loss of dignity and not abuse his fellow prisoners.

Conclusion; “What happened to us happened in an ordinary time...the guards, the members of the Gestapo and the SS were composed of normal people like us all...teachers, postmen, workers, doctors could be turned into torturers and murderers. The Nazis could only accomplish what they did, first in Germany and later in all the occupied territories, thanks to a lot of complicity in high-ranking places and also thanks to the indifference, lack of courage, ignorance and will not to believe what seemed to be the incredible acts of the Germans.”