Bernard Musmand was born in 1930 in Metz, France. The Nazi takeover in 1940 forced his family to move to the south of France, which was outside of German control. They sent Bernard to a boarding school, where he posed as a Catholic. He became a courier for the Sixieme, a resistance group, and transported falsified papers for those escaping Nazi persecution.

Bernard often came face to face with Germans or with French sympathizers, but he knew how to act confident and had a trick: to ask for the time or a match in perfect German. This eased any suspicions others might have of his true identity. His youth and his chutzpah saved him countless times.

When the Gestapo came to the boarding school looking for Bernard, the dean arranged his escape before the Germans could capture him. Bernard went to Millau and again joined the Sixième, all of whom joined the Maquis armed resistance. Aged fourteen and very afraid, Bernard went into an ambush against Nazi troops, gaining bravery once in battle.

When the French Army reformed, he was made Second Lieutenant but given a desk job. Refusing permission to fight on the German front, he revealed his age and Jewish identity in exasperation. Within two weeks, they relieved him of duty and sent him back to his family and schoolmates.

"It was an exciting time, in certain ways," Bernard remembered. "I wish and hope it will never come back, but everything counted, and you felt life was precious." As a young man, he swore never to speak German again. "I knew it was hateful; I know what the Germans did for Israel, but I can't forget." Bernard never uttered another word of the invader's language.

Bernard passed away in January 2010.