Good Reading

Hi Tony. I recently read a great book about the Nazi occupation of France called When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 by Ronald Rosbottom. The book has a chapter about the French Resistance and other chapters reference the Resistance as well.

I saw on Twitter today that Rosbottom is appearing at Kramerbooks in DC tonight. Washingtonites, attention!!

A book I love about the German occupation of France is "Suite Francaise" by
Irene Nemirovsky. Loved, loved, loved it. So moving and thought provoking and I was left wondering what I would have done.

I am just reading this book: Hitler's Europe Ablaze - Occupation, Resistance, and Rebellion During World War II
It was edited by Philip Cooke & Ben H. Shepherd. It is a nonfiction book. Each occupied country in Europe has a different author. Informative reading for those who are interested in this part of history

I just finished reading the Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. Fiction about two sisters in France during WW11. Loved it!

I have mentioned it before, but All the Light We Cannot See is fabulous (IMHO). It does touch on the resistance of the French in St. Malo among other things.

I'm not sure it's still in print, but, "Is Paris Burning?" is a fascinating read.

I just started reading "Prague Winter" by former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. It's the story of her childhood in Prague, her family's escape to London when she was about 12, and her discovery in later life that her family was Jewish. It's beautifully written and includes not only her family's story but interweaves it with the history of the Czech Republic including WW2 and the Velvet Revolution. An excellent read so far!

@ Tony on "...how many of the French people were turned in by other French people." According to the historian Walter Laqueur in "Europe since Hitler" (1970), the vengeance after 1944 wreaked upon people actually guilty of that or abetted, or were complicit in such actions was the worst in western Europe.

Recall the scene in "Adieu, les enfants" (famous French film), where this old guy (Jewish) insists on taking the seat he has always done in this restaurant, the pro-Nazi French police are going to arrest him, thus causing a noisy scene until a Luftwaffe officer tells them to pipe down with the noise. That intervention saves the old guy momentarily since the police yielded.

A recent read for me was "Berlin at War" by Roger Moorhouse. It's about everyday life during WWII in the city of Berlin so it naturally discussed the subject of neighbors, family, friends who turned each other in. Some out of revenge for past petty injustices, some for money but many to help save their own families. It begs the question, what would you/I have done under those horrific circumstances?

Fred, I suspect you mean Au revoir les enfants, the wonderful Loius Malle film. There are so many great films on this topic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_revoir_les_enfants

Thanks for giving me info on some great reads. I loaded 6 books on my nook last night. That should keep me busy for many weeks. I read what I can find but many of my reads come from others that have interest in the same history. If you have not read "The Wolves At The Door", it is really a good true story of an American woman who served as a spy and resistance helper for both the British and the US in France during the war. War always changes people in so many ways but the stories of how so many worked and gave info to the Germans is hard to understand when so many went to their deaths rather than ever give any information out.

Any other book info that anyone has I would appreciate a post.

Outwitting the Gestapo by Lucie Aubrac is a great book.

@...Dave....oops, sorry about that. You're right. That was the sad film I was referring to...exactly.

Just finished Ken Follet's "Fall of the Giants", first of his Century Trilogy. The historic fiction covers the pre to post " Great War" (WW1) period of the last century. It's an interesting insight into how the European nations blundered their way into the Great War that cost the bligerants so many lives. And the ending segment covering the vindictive repreations that set the stage for Hitler's rise.

Riding through small villages in north eastern Germany, I saw too many monuments remembering these little village's WW1 dead. Villages with 10 or 20 houses had monument with 20 or 30 names.

Bob Dylan got it in "Blowing in the Wind".

I'm almost done with "Fall of the Giants" and I have to say I'm a little underwhelmed. I'm OK with "lite" history/historical fiction. This just seemed a little too light on history, and formulaic. It wasn't awful, but I doubt I'll read the rest of the trilogy. It has fueled my interest in WWI, and I think I'll read "Lusitania" by Erik Larson next, or one of the other listed in this thread. Well, first I think I'll read a fun, fast moving book. This has felt like a bit of a slog. Time for some Elmore Leonard!

Yep, I agree: Lite History, not quite the same as a better understanding.
Oh well, what's on Twitter.

@ Edgar...."...in northeastern Germany" connected to WW 1: Interesting! Do you remember the names of any of these places you passed through or close to which towns/cities?

Fred: Re WW1 Monuments in NE Germany.

We were on a bike tour of the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte in 2010. Route was a loop starting in Waren, going through Mueritz National Park to Neustrelitz, to Mirow, Roebel. Malchow and back to Waren.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburgische_Seenplatte_(district)

Looking through my photos, one of the lists of WW1 dead was displayed in the Dabelow Evangelical Lutheran Church. The plaque inside the church had two rows of some 20 or 30 names. I found another photo of a large boulder near or after the village of Peetsch (some where between Neustrelitz and Robel) engraved with: "im weltkriege fielen 1914-1918 fur das vaterland" followed by 11 names, 4 having the family name of "Ebel".

A number of "villages" that we bike through were in pairs with one having the prefix "Gross" followed or preceded as the case" may be, by one with a prefix of "Klein". And the "Gross" village wasn't that much bigger than the "Klein" village.

What I appreciated about seeing the war dead monuments is how wars become very personal in such small villages. The Follet historic novels do that for those of us lucky enough to only have to read about the tragedies of war. Follet puts literary human faces to all sides of the "Great War".

@ Edgar....Thanks very much for the valuable information on German memorials (Gedenksteine) on WW 1 in Mecklenburg, a lot more meanful and poignant when you read the German explanations. I must say you went through some pretty interesting terrain, very revealing in seeing the Seenplatte, Neustrelitz, etc, which proves that these sites can be found. On the way to Greifswald (the Pomerania Museum) from Berlin last year by train, I found the landscape in this area of the North German Plain intriguing and interesting, completely different from what see in the west. Neustrelitz is doable as a day trip from Berlin. In Prussian history Mecklenburg-Strelitz is well known.

Other German WW 1 memorials up north (if you're interested) I am familiar with are located in Berlin (the Invadienfriedhof), Magdeburg, Lüneburg (looks like a Ulanendenkmal), Eutin/Holstein (the Schloßgarten), also the military cemetery in Potsdam.

The "Groß" prefix to a village is found in Brandenburg too, such as Großbeeren, in the Groß-Berlin area, and Großgörschen because of their connection with 1813 events.

I just started reading "Prague Winter" by former US Secretary of
State, Madeleine Albright. It's the story of her childhood in Prague,
her family's escape to London when she was about 12, and her discovery
in later life that her family was Jewish. It's beautifully written and
includes not only her family's story but interweaves it with the
history of the Czech Republic including WW2 and the Velvet Revolution.

Interestingly Albrights dad was a high-ranking diplomat in Czechoslovakia who worked closely with Edvard Beneš in and after the war, which means he not only was a victim but also a perpetrator and at least indirectly involved in the ethnic cleansings in Czechochslovakia after the war. True stories in English about these events however are rare, but "A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans" or "Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War" are pretty good, especially if you plan to visit places like Cesky Krumlov, Karlovy Vary or Brno.

Injustice and collective punishment is always bad. But after all bad stuff which was perpetrated by Germans on people of especially Eastern Europe one should not be that surprised. I remember seeing documentary film where Hitler was welcomed by cheering crowds in Sudetenland. They wanted back to Heimat. So after the war Benes with the blessing of the Allies sent them there. It is very sad that innocent people suffered too. I agree that perpetrators of the massacres should have been punished. I do not agree that Madeleine Albright's father was a perpetrator. It was an official policy to transfer Germans to Germany (with the exception of those who were anti-nazi) and he could not change it. Anyway after the communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948 I think most of Sudeten Germans were glad they were in Germany and not in Czechoslovakia.

I remember reading a lengthy article in the New York Times ca 1991, ie early '90s in which V. Havel, the Czech president whom we can agreed enjoyed most deservedly not only the respect but the fame, veneration of the Czech population and abroad, suggested that maybe the Czechs should apologise to the Germans for the atrocities, brutality, etc inflicted on the Germans (Sudeten, Moravian, etc) during the Explusion (Vertreibung). The term "ethnic cleansing" had not been invented yet in the last years of the 1940s. Havel was merely floating this, only a suggestion. What was the reaction to him, this venerated humanitarian, in the CR for this suggestion? Very revealing.