Leonor Adriana Rosado-Bonewitz was born in Mexico and educated in Mexico, England, Canada and the U.S. where she resides. She majored in French with a minor in Spanish and has worked in the field of translation for over 45 years. Prior to founding her own translation and cross-cultural communications company she worked for the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C.
Adriana spent the Summer of 1975 studying in La Rochelle and 40 years later she returned. When she read the story of Meyer and Schirlitz, she became so moved and inspired by their courage that in 2020 she embarked on the project of translating the book from French to English to welcome a greater number of readers to this inspiring history.
The Best of Enemies: Meyer and Schirlitz: Saving La Rochelle. September 1944–May 1945
After the Allied D-Day landings in June 1944, Paris was liberated in late August, and the rest of France was freed in the following weeks. However, two pockets of German occupation in Royan and La Rochelle, both cities along the Atlantic coast, remained occupied for several months more.
Blocking access to Bordeaux, the city of Royan would end in martyrdom under a carpet of Allied bombs on January 5, 1945. But the fortress of La Rochelle, with its port, submarine base, and German garrison of 14,000 soldiers guarding the historic city and its 30,000 civilians, would later be delivered intact to Allied forces by its occupier.
By what perilous negotiations were two enemy officers able to avoid disaster in the besieged city? Two men of honor, French Commander Hubert Meyer and German Admiral Ernst Schirlitz, strove to see beyond the war toward reconciliation and the reconstruction of Europe.
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