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Description
Joseph Anatole Côté hid for 80 days in Holland. During his stay, he had false papers that gave him a new identity.
Joseph Anatole Côté
M. Côté est né à Québec le 7 octobre 1917. Il fit ses études en génie forestier à l’Université Laval. La guerre éclate et il s’enrôle dans l’Aviation royale du Canada afin de devenir pilote. Il débuta sa formation à Trois-Rivières, puis à Trenton. Envoyé en Angleterre, il débuta sa carrière comme contrôleur de terrain d’aviation, puis il fût affecté comme pilote sur plusieurs missions, notamment à la fameuse opération Market Garden ainsi qu’une autre mission au-dessus Allemagne qui mena à 80 jours d’exil…
Transcription
MY FALSE PAPERSI had occasion to use false papers during my stay; I was called Johannes Smit . . . S-M-I-T. And I was [Annehmer], but I was told it was entrepreneur, I don’t know if it’s . . . for the German army. I had a pass, signed and stamped and all that . . . It was all false, eh? But, the funny thing was that when we went to Holland, in May, we met a woman we knew, who had fed me while I was at [inaudible], hidden there . . . with the American. And she told us it was her husband who forged those documents. She hadn’t told us that before. Her husband was a pretty good artist, and he could forge signatures. I had that pass, Passieren Zu Lassen, they called it. I gave it to the Musée de la Citadelle along with my identification card, the Johannes Smit one. The funny thing is that, according to the card, I was born in Apeldoorn, but I had never set foot there until May when the ceremonies were held at Apeldoorn . . . I told people that, I said, “I was born here, in Apeldoorn . . .” After that, I told them my story. . . It was funny . .