His goal was above all else to get to England and join the fight. He was not aware of anti-Jewish discrimination until he saw Jews obliged to wear the yellow star in June 1942. As a mark of solidarity, he and a colleague went around Angouleme for a few days wearing a blue star. He walked around in public throwing anti-German pamphlets he crudely printed himself. After the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942, he sought to join the Free French Forces led by Charles de Gaulle via Spain and the southern Mediterranean Sea.