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"World War, 1939-1945 Underground movements France Biography."
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The Paris girl : the young woman who outwitted the Nazis and became a WWII hero
Written by her own daughter, this biography chronicles the astonishing courage Andrée Griotteray, a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Paris who would become a hero of the French Resistance through her harrowing work as an underground intelligence courier.
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A Portrait of Pacifists
This biography tells the story of André and Magda Trocmé, two individuals who made nonviolence a way of life. During World War II, the southern French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its surrounding villages became a center where Jews and others in flight from Nazi roundups could be hidden or led abroad, and where children with parents in concentration camps could be nurtured and educated. The Trocmés' courage during World War II has been well documented in books and film, yet the full arc of their lives—the impulse that led them to devote themselves to nonviolence and their extensive work in the decades following the war—has never been compiled into a full-length biography.
Based on the Trocmés' unpublished memoirs, interviews, and the author's research, the book details the couple's role in the history of pacifism before, during, and after the war. Unsworth traces their mission of building peace by nonviolence throughout Europe to Morocco, Algeria, Japan, Vietnam, and the United States. Analyzing the political and religious complexities of the pacifist movement, the author underscores the Trocmés' deeply personal commitment. Regardless of which nation was condoning violence, shaping international relations, or pressing for peace, and regardless of whose theology dominated the pulpits, both André and Magda remained driven by conscience to make nonviolence the hallmark of their life's work.
eBook
Teenage Resistance Fighter
\"A history book that reads like a novel, this testimony comes from one of the last living eyewitnesses\" of the Nazi occupation of France (Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Correspondent).
September 5, 1944
The Americans are approaching; we follow their progress impatiently on the radio, by intercepting messages reserved for the commandos. They cannot be beaten now. But it is up to us to do the impossible to speed up the progression of the bulk of their troops, to facilitate the advance of their spearhead, and, above all, to prevent the Germans from withdrawing to the Rhine in good order, with all their equipment.
How many human lives will we manage to save?
Hubert Verneret was a fourteen-year-old schoolboy in Burgundy when the Nazis invaded Poland and fifteen when France fell. A Boy Scout, he helped refugees and the gendarmerie, moved wounded soldiers, and dug out bodies after air raids. Throughout, he kept a diary recording his actions, thoughts, and feelings as French troops retreated and Germans arrived.
In 1944, at nineteen, he decided to join the local maquis resistance fighters, operating from a hidden base in the forest. Though constantly in danger, he found himself frustrated, as he felt fated never to fight the Germans directly, never to take a prisoner. As the Allies approached, the maquisards worked to upset and weaken the retreating Germans to aid the Allied advance. Hubert details the joy with which the maquisards were welcomed in local villages when the fighting ended. Only as he listened to the speech given as the maquisards disbanded did he understand that his part in the war, while perhaps not heroic as that played by others, was still important in gaining the victory.
Years later, Hubert interviewed local maquisards to understand more about maquis history; their words and excerpts from the diary of a local civilian during the German retreat provide context to Hubert's youthful testimony. This first English edition of Hubert's diary retains the original prefaces by Col. Buckmaster, chief of the French section of the SOE, and Col. d'Escrienne, aide de camp to Gen. de Gaulle.
eBook
The saboteur : the aristocrat who became France's most daring anti-Nazi commando
\"A scion of one of the most storied families in France, Robert de La Rochefoucald was raised in magnificent chateaux and educated in Europe's finest schools. When the Nazis invaded and imprisoned his father, La Rochefoucald escaped to England and learned the dark arts of anarchy and combat--cracking safes and planting bombs and killing with his bare hands--from the officers of Special Operations Executive, the collection of British spies, beloved by Winston Churchill, who altered the war in Europe with tactics that earned it notoriety as the \"ministry of ungentlemanly warfare.\" With his newfound skills, La Rochefoucauld returned to France and organized resistance cells, blew up fortified compounds and munitions factories, interfered with Germans' war-time missions, and executed Nazi officers. Caught by the Germans, La Rochefoucald withstood months of torture without cracking, and escaped his own death sentence, not once but twice.\"-- Front jacket flap.
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An American Heroine in the French Resistance
This fascinating book tells the remarkable story of an ordinary American woman's heroism in the French Resistance. Virginia Roush fell in love with Philippe d'Albert-Lake during a visit to France in 1936; they married soon after. In 1943, they both joined the Resistance, where Virginia put her life in jeopardy as she sheltered downed airmen and later survived a Nazi prison camp. After the war, she stayed in France with Philippe, and was awarded the Lgion d'Honneur and the Medal of Honor. She died in 1997.Judy Barrett Litoff brings together two rare documents-Virginia's diary of wartime France until her capture in 1944 and her prison memoir written immediately after the war. Masterfully edited, they convey the compassion and toughness of a nearly forgotten heroine as they provide an invaluable record of the workings of the Resistance by one of the very few American women who participated in it.An indelible portrait of extraordinary strength of character . . . [D'Albert-Lake] is sombre, reflective, and attentive to every detail.-The New Yorker A sharply etched and moving story of love, companionship, commitment, and sacrifice. . . . This beautifully edited diary and memoir throw an original light on the French Resistance.-Robert Gildea, author of Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation, 1940-1945 At once a stunning self-portrait and dramatic narrative of a valorous young American woman . . . an exciting and gripping story, one of the best of the many wartime tales.-Walter CronkiteAn enthralling tale which brims with brave airmen and plucky heroines.-David Kirby, St. Petersburg Times
eBook
The art of resistance : my four years in the French underground : a memoir
\"An unforgettable World War II memoir set in Nazi-occupied France and filled with romance and adventure: a former Eastern European Jew remembers his flight from the Holocaust and his extraordinary four years in the French underground. Justus Rosenberg, now 98, has taught literature at Bard College for the past fifty years\"--Provided by publisher.
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The Honor of Living
Geneviève de Gaulle and Germaine Tillion, two exceptional intellectuals and resistance figures met during WWII in a barrack of the concentration camp of Ravensbrück, Germany. Through exclusive archives, testimonies, and their own writings we discover a segment of history, from 1940 to 1998, in which both played a key role.
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A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
\"The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent command across France: \"She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.\" This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization dubbed Churchill's \"ministry of ungentlemanly warfare,\" and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France. Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine, Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful, influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the \"Madonna of the Resistance,\" coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had \"more lives to save,\" she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic panache, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war\"-- Provided by publisher.
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The lady is a spy : Virginia Hall, World War II hero of the French resistance
\"When Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Virginia Hall was traveling in Europe. Which was dangerous enough, but as fighting erupted across the continent, instead of returning home, she headed to France. In a country divided between freedom and fascism, Virginia was determined to do her part for the Allies. An ordinary woman from Baltimore, Maryland, she dove into the action, first joining a French ambulance unit and later becoming an undercover agent for both the British Special Operations Executive and the US Office of Strategic Services. Working as a spy in the intelligence network, she made her way to Vichy, coordinating Resistance movements, assisting in the sabotage of Nazis, and rescuing downed Allied soldiers. She passed in plain sight of the enemy, and soon found herself being hunted by the Gestapo. But Virginia cleverly evaded discovery and death, often through bold feats and daring escapes. Her covert operations, efforts with the Resistance, and risky work as a wireless telegraph operator greatly contributed to the Allies' eventual win\"-- Provided by publisher.
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