Jean Israël Jean Israël ( 1913 - 1995 ) was a heroic French Air Force pilot during the Second World War , and a key subject in the non - fiction literary work " Flight to Arras " ( " Pilote de guerre " ) written by Antoine de Saint - Exupéry . In 1940 during the Battle of France , Israël , a French Jew , was called up to service in the same reconnaissance wing in which Antoine de Saint - Exupéry would serve . Israël was shot down and presumed killed during a fierce aerial engagement , but in fact parachuted to safety and was quickly captured by the Germans . He was sent to a German prisoner - of - war camp in Lübeck , where he remained for the duration of the war until the camp ' s inmates were freed by the Allies . Biography . Israël met Antoine de Saint - Exupéry in December 1939 after both were assigned to Reconnaissance Group 2 / 33 which was then flying from a farm field at La Hache Orconte in Champagne - Ardenne . Israël had been a civilian engineer before being called up to serve in the reserves at the start of the Second World War . He had earlier studied at the French Air Force schools in Ambérieu , and then Avord in 1936 . When Saint - Exupéry joined the 2 / 33 Group in December 1939 he befriended several airmen including Francois Laux , Captain Moreau , Hochede Dutertre and Israël . The Jewish pilot had a " big very red and very Jewish nose " , as Saint - Exupéry wrote in his work multiple times for reinforcement , in order to denounce the vitriolic antisemitism that the author despised . During a daring mission on May 22 , 1940 , Israël ' s plane was shot down and he was soon captured by the Germans . The author ' s book , " Pilote de guerre " , was published in Paris in November 1942 by Editions Gallimard . The collaborationist press , which were allied with the Nazis , despised the book . They initially censored the book and finally it and Saint - Exupéry ' s other works were banned by the occupation authorities . When the book was first published , Jean Israël was in a prisoner of war camp in Lübeck , Silesia . This is where he learned of the storm of controversy aroused in France by the mention of his courage in " Pilote de guerre " , a copy of which was smuggled into the prison camp . In 1944 , Israël began his fifth year of captivity in the prison camp when he learned of the death of Antoine de Saint - Exupéry . Israël later became a Colonel in the French Air Force , and also served as the chief pilot of Air Algérie . The director Robert Enrico created the TV movie " Saint - Exupéry : The Last Mission " in 1996 , for French television ( broadcast on France 3 ) . The role of Jean Israël was played by the Arsene Jiroyan . " Pilote de guerre " . His friend Saint - Exupéry described him as one of the heroes in " Pilote de guerre " ( " Flight to Arras " ) , published in 1942 , which made Israël one of France ' s most famous Jewish pilots . In Saint - Exupéry ' s award - winning book we find a passage : in 1939 , war was declared and Saint - Exupéry joined the 2 / 33 Group along with his friends Laux , Gavoille , Israël and Hocheder , and two officers , Dutertre and Moreau . In their improvised airfield they shared a shack covered with corrugated iron . Saint - Exupéry ' s book , " Flight to Arras " used the name of his friend Jean Israël to denounce Nazi anti - Semitism . In the space of two pages of this book , the author mentioned the nose of his Jewish compatriot 14 times . Israël actually had quite an ordinary nose , according to one of Saint - Exupéry ' s biographers . The book met with antisemitic hostility among some French as Saint - Exupéry graphically described the heroic deeds of the Jewish member of his squadron . The book was available only illegally in France after it was banned by the collaborationist Vichy authorities to avoid embarrassment to their Nazi occupiers . Israël learned of the book when a copy of it bearing a false cover was smuggled into his prison , and appreciated the message from his friend Saint - Exupéry . At the beginning of Israël ' s fifth and final year in prison camp he learned on the evening of August 9 , 1944 of the in - flight loss of Saint - Exupéry , which upset him greatly .