The Silence of the Sea - Paul Vercors and the French Resistance

Imagine you were living in France in 1940 when the German tanks rolled into your country and forced you to surrender. Would you have been brave enough to defy the Nazis and join the Resistance? Or would you have bowed your head and given in? These are hard questions for all of us. Some very courageous souls managed to create a publishing company right under the noses of the Gestapo and publish works which opposed the fascist regime. It was a terrible risk. Many were denounced, interrogated, tortured and executed by firing squad. Everyone was scared, but these brave individuals risked their safety to speak out. Thus was formed the secret publishing company Les Editions de Minuit (The Editions of Midnight). They never got caught, though they had a few close calls, and the publisher still exists today. The very first book published by Les Editions de Minuit was a story entitled The Silence of the Sea by a cartoonist and illustrator called Jean Bruller. Of course he didn’t publish under that name. His pseudonym was Paul Vercors. He tells the story of a French family, an elderly man and his niece, who are forced to have a German officer live with them. They have no choice, they have to have this stranger, this enemy, in their house, so how can they demonstrate their resistance? They do so by giving him the silent treatment. No matter how much he tries to befriend them, they won’t talk to him, they won’t even look at him. They are the “Silence” of the title. The Progress Theatre in Reading was due to perform a dramatised version of this wonderful story in May this year, exactly 80 years since the German invasion of France. Sadly this has had to be postponed due to Covid-19 but we hope this little taster will convince you to come and see us when we can finally perform! This video was organised and delivered by the director, Dorothy Gibert, shot and edited by Martin Barrera and contains extracts read out by Progress Theatre actors Esther Arzola and Gareth Saunders.