When Paris went dark
Subtitle: the City of Light under German occupation, 1940-44
By: Ronald Rosbottom
Publisher: John Murray
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 447
ISBN-13: 9781848547391
Subjects: History
Description: Describes what life was like in Paris after June 1940, when the Nazis occupied France, juxtaposing the eerie sense of normalcy felt by many Parisians with the passion of the strong resistance movement that rose around Charles de Gaulle.

On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Subsequently, an eerie sense of normalcy settled over the City of Light. Many Parisians keenly adapted themselves to the situation-even allied themselves with their Nazi overlords. At the same time, amidst this darkening gloom of German ruthlessness, shortages, and curfews, a resistance arose. Parisians of all stripes, Jews, immigrants, adolescents, communists, rightists, cultural icons such as Colette, de Beauvoir, Camus and Sartre, as well as police officers, teachers, students, and store owners-rallied around a little known French military officer, Charles de Gaulle. When Paris Went Dark evokes with stunning precision the detail of daily life in a city under occupation, and the brave people who fought against the darkness. Relying on a range of resources--memoirs, diaries, letters, archives, interviews, personal histories, flyers and posters, fiction, photographs, film and historical studies, Rosbottom has forged a groundbreaking book that will forever influence how we understand those dark years in the City of Light.
Notes: Originally published: 2014.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Chronology of the Occupation of Paris; title: Major Personalities; title: Preface; title: Introduction; title: A Nation Disintegrates; title: Waiting for Hitler; title: Minuet (1940-1941); title: City Without a Face-The Occupier's Lament; title: Narrowed Lives; title: The Dilemmas of Resistance; title: The Most Narrowed Lives-The Hunt for Jews; title: How Much Longer? (1942-1944); title: Liberation-A Whodunit; title: Angry Aftermath-Back on Paris Time; title: Is Paris Still Occupied?; title: Appendix: De Gaulle's Speech on the Liberation of Paris; title: Acknowledgments; title: Notes; title: Selected Bibliography; title: Index; title: About the Author.