In October 1943, Leo Bretholz was taken with thirteen other men to the Toulouse train station en route to the Atlantic coast to build fortifications. At this layover, he spent hours to bend the bars, then climbed out of the train window and escaped into the city of Toulouse. In Toulouse his friend Manfred sent a third set of false papers, this time under the name "Max Henri Lefevre". Bretholz joined the Jewish Resistance Group "Compagnons De France", known as ""La Sixieme"", so he could travel freely throughout France. He was assigned to Limoges, a city in south-central France. On May 8, 1944, his hernia ruptured and he collapsed on a Limoges park bench and was sent by a passerby to a hospital, where he had surgery. After spending seventeen days in the hospital, he returned for his dressings to be changed. Finally, Bretholz rejoined the underground movement, and remained in Limoges until departing on a ship for New York on January 19, 1947.