In the beginning was Silence
From the bosom of Silence was born Sound.

This is how, on November 24, 1944, the Katalin, interview 88, that of farewell, as Gitta Mallasz would call it, who, in the Dialogues with the Angel, says: "In the silence that precedes the interview, I feel a presence of inexpressible intensity, and suddenly I know that this will be our last meeting, the meeting of farewells".
Ce texte très dense, évoque aussi la « force dévastatrice » qui a envahi Budapest, rappelle l’architecture des sept degrés de la vie, et LE célèbre – LUI - une dernière fois. En guise d’adieu, les anges s’adressent aux trois amies en leur disant :

Believe it! Eternal Life is already yours.

So ends, as suddenly as it began, one of the most incredible spiritual adventures of the 20th century, begun in Budaliget in a peaceful suburb of Budapest, pursued in Buda at the Katalin convent transformed into a war factory to protect a hundred Jewish women and of which Gitta accepted the command.
The rest is history.
A week later, on December 2, the Hungarian Nazis burst into Katalin. Gitta then rushes to the German SS who occupy the neighboring villa to whom – thanks to her perfect command of German, her mother tongue – she made believe that she was a “compatriot in a foreign land” and bonded with them. friendship with them to such an extent that she had an opening made between their two gardens, that of the SS overlooking a large forest. In case…
This December 2, the opportunity is there. Hungarian Nazis invade Katalin. Gitta gives the order to all the workers to flee, which they will do… under the leadership of the Germans who protect them, grenade in hand, holding their Hungarian counterparts in awe.
Only a few women will refuse to leave, including Hanna and Lili. They will be deported to Ravensbrück and will die, in abominable conditions, in February 1945, in a cattle car transporting them to another camp in southern Germany. Gitta will never recover from their disappearance, but she will continue on her way, will suffer the communist dictatorship before being able to emigrate to France. The Talking with Angels will be published in 1976. For having saved most of the women and children of Katalin, she will be honored with the title of righteous among the nations in 2012, twenty years after “his ascent to heaven”.

Francoise Maupin