Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation
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Acclaimed journalist Charlie Glass looks to the American expatriate experience of Nazi-occupied Paris to reveal a fascinating forgotten history of the greatest generation. In Americans in Paris, tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival unfold season by season, from the spring of 1940 to liberation in the summer of 1944, as renowned journalist Charles Glass tells the story of a remarkable cast of expatriates and their struggles in Nazi Paris. Before the Second World War began, approximately thirty thousand Americans lived in Paris, and when war broke out in 1939 almost five thousand remained. As citizens of a neutral nation, the Americans in Paris believed they had little to fear. They were wrong. Glass's discovery of letters, diaries, war documents, and police files reveals as never before how Americans were trapped in a web of intrigue, collaboration, and courage. Artists, writers, scientists, playboys, musicians, cultural mandarins, and ordinary businessmen-all were swept up in extraordinary circumstances and tested as few Americans before or since. Charles Bedaux, a French-born, naturalized American millionaire, determined his alliances as a businessman first, a decision that would ultimately make him an enemy to all. Countess Clara Longworth de Chambrun was torn by family ties to President Roosevelt and the Vichy government, but her fiercest loyalty was to her beloved American Library of Paris. Sylvia Beach attempted to run her famous English-language bookshop, Shakespeare & Company, while helping her Jewish friends and her colleagues in the Resistance. Dr. Sumner Jackson, wartime chief surgeon of the American Hospital in Paris, risked his life aiding Allied soldiers to escape to Britain and resisting the occupier from the first day. These stories and others come together to create a unique portrait of an eccentric, original, diverse American community. Charles Glass has written an exciting, fast-paced, and elegant account of the moral contradictions faced by Americans in Paris during France's dangerous occupation years. For four hard years, from the summer of 1940 until U.S. troops liberated Paris in August 1944, Americans were intimately caught up in the city's fate. Americans in Paris is an unforgettable tale of treachery by some, cowardice by others, and unparalleled bravery by a few. Library Journal Once upon a time, historians told stories about the brave and the cowardly, about heroes, villains, and the many whose lives lay somewhere in between. That's what Glass (former chief Middle East correspondent, ABC News; Tribes with Flags) has done in this extraordinary narrative of the lives of the nearly 5000 Americans who lived in Paris during the German occupation from June 1940 to August 1944. For Clara de Chambrun, related by marriage to FDR on one side and the Vichy premier Laval on the other, life went on much as before—dinners at Maxim's, fine wine, dresses from Schiaparelli. But Sumner Jackson, chief surgeon at the American Hospital, was at constant risk for his work with the Resistance, spiriting Allied soldiers out of Paris. Millionaire Pierre Bedaux carried on business as usual, only with Germany now. Eventually arrested by the United States and charged with treason, he killed himself rather than face public humiliation. Glass is scrupulously fair to his subjects: there are no clear-cut villains in this story (although there are some heroes). VERDICT This is outstanding popular history, well researched and told and never oversimplified. It's difficult to conceive of anyone who wouldn't enjoy this exceptional book.—David Keymer, Modesto, CA
MapsList of IllustrationsIntroduction 1Pt. 1 14 June 19401 The American Mayor of Paris 92 The Bookseller 243 The Countess from Ohio 374 All Blood Runs Red 505 Le Millionnaire americain 606 The Yankee Doctor 66Pt. 2 19407 Bookshop Row 898 Americans at Vichy 989 Back to Paris 11310 In Love with Love 12111 A French Prisoner with the Americans 13612 American Grandees 13913 Polly's Paris 14414 Rugged Individualists 15015 Germany's Confidential American Agent 159Pt. 3 194116 The Coldest Winter 16917 Time to Go? 17418 New Perils in Paris 18019 Utopia in Les Landes 18820 To Resist, to Collaborate or to Endure 19321 Enemy Aliens 204Pt. 4 194222 First Round-up 21323 The Vichy Web 22424 The Second Round-up 23925 'Inturned' 24626 Uniting Africa 26127 Americans Go to War 26828 Murphy Forgets a Friend 27529 Alone at Vittel 28030 The Bedaux Dossier 283Pt. 5 194331 Murphy versus Bedaux 29132 Sylvia's War 29833 German Agents? 30434 A Hospital at War 31035 The Adolescent Spy 31436 Clara under Suspicion 31837 Calumnies 325Pt. 6 194438 The Trial of Citizen Bedaux 33539 The Underground Railway 34140 Conspiracies 34741 Springtime in Paris 35042 The Maquis to Arms! 35843 Resistants Unmasked 36344 Via Dolorosa 37145 Schwarze Kappelle 37446 Slaves of the Reich 37647 One Family Now 37848 The Paris Front 38549 Tout Mourir 393Pt. 7 24-26 August 194450 Liberating the Rooftops 40751 Liberation, not Liberation 411Epilogue 413Endnotes 419Acknowledgements 491Select Bibliography 495Index 501
