I was eager to learn all I could about the massacre and what led up to it. M. Lods, a local reporter for one of the daily newpapers, told me that some of the men had died singing or whistling the Marseillaise. The thought gave me chills. When Mme. Jeand'heur loaned me her copy of Jules Perret's journal, I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish it in one sitting. The story was dramatic, and filled with twists and unanswered questions.

The parsonage, church and Perret home in EtobonJules' journal was kept, according to him, on slips of paper which he hid in bottles in his barn. He wrote many of them in the local patois, or dialect, to protect himself if the Germans should ever discover his writings. In the diary, he describes everyday life in the village and the fields, and the changes brought about by the German occupation. As the end of the war neared, though, the people of Etobon and the surrounding villages were brought into that war in ways that would change them forever.