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The Empty Coffin: The true and amazing story of Alain Romans, pianist and composer who faced a firing squad ... and survived!
This is the extraordinary true story of Alain Romans, the popular French composer and pianist, whose experiences as a secret agent in World War II put many a thriller novel to shame.
It is a story of great personal courage, almost incredible twists of fate, and astonishing resilience of both body and spirit in a man who, by nature anything but a fighter, was motivated by an overwhelming love for his country.
From the time in 1941 when, with the help of a British agent, he escaped from the infamous prison of Chateaubriand, Alain Romans' terrible course was set. Arriving in England, he immediately volunteered to return to France and found himself attached to a small team about to parachute into Brittany. They did so, were betrayed to the Gestapo and captured.
What happened thereafter must be left for this remarkable book to tell. The events themselves might be thought too fantastic to be true were they not completely authenticated.
Tortured to the very limits of human endurance, then riddled with bullets and about to be buried alive, still Alain Romans managed to cheat both death and his enemies. Twice the prisoner of the Gestapo - who failed to recognize him the second time because of his dreadful disfigurement - and then the prisoner of the Russians, Romans not only lived through his amazing experience to confront his previous "executioner" face to face in a cellar, but also - armed with a revolver - to conduct the huge orchestra of the Stuttgart Opera House.
Plastic surgery has now restored the features of this gifted and very brave man. He wrote the incidental music to the Jacques Tati films "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" and "Mon Oncle" and now runs his own bar in Paris, where he has a weekly radio show.
It is a story of great personal courage, almost incredible twists of fate, and astonishing resilience of both body and spirit in a man who, by nature anything but a fighter, was motivated by an overwhelming love for his country.
From the time in 1941 when, with the help of a British agent, he escaped from the infamous prison of Chateaubriand, Alain Romans' terrible course was set. Arriving in England, he immediately volunteered to return to France and found himself attached to a small team about to parachute into Brittany. They did so, were betrayed to the Gestapo and captured.
What happened thereafter must be left for this remarkable book to tell. The events themselves might be thought too fantastic to be true were they not completely authenticated.
Tortured to the very limits of human endurance, then riddled with bullets and about to be buried alive, still Alain Romans managed to cheat both death and his enemies. Twice the prisoner of the Gestapo - who failed to recognize him the second time because of his dreadful disfigurement - and then the prisoner of the Russians, Romans not only lived through his amazing experience to confront his previous "executioner" face to face in a cellar, but also - armed with a revolver - to conduct the huge orchestra of the Stuttgart Opera House.
Plastic surgery has now restored the features of this gifted and very brave man. He wrote the incidental music to the Jacques Tati films "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" and "Mon Oncle" and now runs his own bar in Paris, where he has a weekly radio show.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 10, 2015
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 10, 2022
Very enjoyable and easy read.
Couldn't believe this is a true story, its exciting and entertaining.
Couldn't believe this is a true story, its exciting and entertaining.
Displaying 1 of 1 review