Military history

Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944

Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944

When the German army marched into Paris on June 14, 1940, approximately 5,000 Americans remained in Paris. They had refused or been unable to leave for many different reasons; their actions during the course of the German occupation would prove to be just as varied. Glass interweaves the experiences of some of the individuals who belonged to this unique colony of American expatriates living in Paris. Among the stories highlighted are those of Charles Bedaux, an American millionaire determined to carry on with his business affairs as usual; Sylvia Beach, owner of the famous English-language bookstore Shakespeare & Company; Clara Longworth de Chambrun, patroness of the American Library in Paris and distantly related to FDR; and Dr. Sumner Jackson, the American Hospital’s chief surgeon. These fascinating tales reflect the complicated network of choices—passive compromise, outright collaboration, patient retreat, and active resistance—that existed for Americans caught in the German web.

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE - 14 June 1940

Chapter 1. The American Mayor of Paris

Chapter 2. The Bookseller

Chapter 3. The Countess from Ohio

Chapter 4. All Blood Runs Red

Chapter 5. Le Millionnaire américain

Chapter 6. The Yankee Doctor

PART TWO - 1940

Chapter 7. Bookshop Row

Chapter 8. Americans at Vichy

Chapter 9. Back to Paris

Chapter 10. In Love with Love

Chapter 11. A French Prisoner with the Americans

Chapter 12. American Grandees

Chapter 13. Polly’s Paris

Chapter 14. Rugged Individualists

Chapter 15. Germany’s Confidential American Agent

PART THREE - 1941

Chapter 16. The Coldest Winter

Chapter 17. Time to Go?

Chapter 18. New Perils in Paris

Chapter 19. Utopia in Les Landes

Chapter 20. To Resist, to Collaborate or to Endure

Chapter 21. Enemy Aliens

PART FOUR - 1942

Chapter 22. First Round-up

Chapter 23. The Vichy Web

Chapter 24. The Second Round-up

Chapter 25. ‘Inturned’

Chapter 26. Uniting Africa

Chapter 27. Americans Go to War

Chapter 28. Murphy Forgets a Friend

Chapter 29. Alone at Vittel

Chapter 30. The Bedaux Dossier

PART FIVE - 1943

Chapter 31. Murphy versus Bedaux

Chapter 32. Sylvia’s War

Chapter 33. German Agents?

Chapter 34. A Hospital at War

Chapter 35. The Adolescent Spy

Chapter 36. Clara under Suspicion

Chapter 37. Calumnies

PART SIX - 1944

Chapter 38. The Trial of Citizen Bedaux

Chapter 39. The Underground Railway

Chapter 40. Conspiracies

Chapter 41. Springtime in Paris

Chapter 42. The Maquis to Arms!

Chapter 43. Résistants Unmasked

Chapter 44. Via Dolorosa

Chapter 45. Schwarze Kapelle

Chapter 46. Slaves of the Reich

Chapter 47. One Family Now

Chapter 48. The Paris Front

Chapter 49. Tout Mourir

PART SEVEN - 24–26 August 1944

Chapter 50. Liberating the Rooftops

Chapter 51. Libération, not Liberation

EPILOGUE

ENDNOTES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

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