Les Parisienes - Anne Sebba

A year or so ago I read this author's book on Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor which I enjoyed. Anne Sebba has a way of writing interesting and accessible history (I dislike using that word but can think of no alternative).   So I was happy to receive a copy of Les Parisienes for review.

It is hard for those of us living comfortably who have never had to face hardship, hunger or being in a perilous situation to realise just what it was like to live under an army of occupation, where the wrong word or the wrong look could put your life into danger.  Living like this over a period of several years would have reduced the most hardened of us to a nervous wreck and yet, though some cannot cope, most do and this book is a testament to the bravery of those French women who carried on with their daily lives (often on their own as their men were either dead or in the army).

There were many who fraternised, of course there were, and I find it hard to condemn those who did in order to get food on the table and look out for the welfare of their children and family, but there were some who cuddled up to the Germans with unseemly haste. One of these was Coco Chanel, the famous designed, who had a German lover and lived in comfort in the Ritz for most of the war.  Hard to forgive that.

But this book is concerned with the day to day struggles of not only the Parisian women, but those who happened to be living their when Paris was occupied. Anne Sebba mentions Agnes Humbert, an art historian became involved in an underground resistance publication and who was betrayed by a spy. Along with three others they were sentenced to hard labour for life and deported to Germany where, in various small ways, she continued to cause problems by sabotaging the work they were doing.   I read her book Resistance a few years ago and was totally overwhelmed by her bravery and sheer guts.   If, after reading this book, you would like to read more, then please do get hold of that title as well. My review is linked here

A German prosecutor is said to have remarked to Agnes Humbert "Madame, if the French army had been composed of women and not men, we Germans would never have got to Paris".   After reading this excellent book I tend to agree with him.