{"product_id":"the-surgeon-and-the-shepherd-two-resistance-heroes-in-vichy-france","title":"Surgeon and the Shepherd","description":"Of the thousands of people who escaped through the Pyrenees during World War II, at least one hundred owe their lives to a daring scheme that Belgian Charles Schepens masterminded in Mendive, a remote Basque village near the French-Spanish border. The story of this near-miraculous resistance effort, an epic undertaking carried out in plain view of the Nazis, is recounted in full for the first time in \u003ci\u003eThe Surgeon and the Shepherd\u003c\/i\u003e, an incredible, true tale of wartime heroism. \u003cp\u003eIn 1942, in coordination with the Belgian resistance, Schepens stage-managed a highly secret information and evacuation service through the counterfeit operation of a back-country lumbering enterprise. This book traces Schepens’s gradual transformation from an apolitical young ophthalmologist into double agent “Jacques Pérot,” and his emergence in the postwar period as a modern folk hero to the residents of Mendive. Woven into the account are the stories of a remarkable international cast of characters, most notably the Basque shepherd Jean Sarochar, regarded as a local misfit, with whom Schepens formed his most unlikely partnership and an enduring friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart biography, part spy tale, part cultural study, \u003ci\u003eThe Surgeon and the Shepherd\u003c\/i\u003e is based on more than ten years of oral history research. The saga of a Belgian “first resister” who, by posing as a collaborator, successfully duped both the Germans and the local French Basque population, it offers a powerful and illuminating picture of moral and physical courage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":32071326793811,"sku":"","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/products\/9780803236417_8a91414c-1d3f-4c76-a158-eb6f43fa91e7.jpg?v=1674483872","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/the-surgeon-and-the-shepherd-two-resistance-heroes-in-vichy-france","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}