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Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation
Les Parisiennes How the Women of Paris Lived Loved and Died Under Nazi Occupation Author:Anne Sebba What did it feel like to be a woman living in Paris during the years 1939-1949? These were years of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation and secrets until, finally, renewal and retribution. Even at the darkest moments, dogs and cats might be abandoned howling on the street, the swastika flies from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurks on ev... more »ery corner, but glamour was ever present. French women wore lipstick. Why?
By looking at a wide range of individuals from collaborators to resisters, actresses and prostitutes to teachers and writers, native Parisian women and those living in Paris temporarily including American women and Nazi wives, muses and mothers, housewives and mistresses, fashion and jewellery designers, nurses, journalists and spies, Anne Sebba reveals truths about basic human instincts and desires. Women are invariably those left behind in wartime, but in Paris this was particularly the case, as husbands were either fighting at the front or captured and forced to work in German factories.
It was women more than men who came face-to-face with the German conquerors on a daily basis as waitresses, shop assistants, prostitutes or merely on the metro where a German soldier had priority over seats. The German men were often charming and Parisian women, mostly, did whatever they needed to do to survive. Many of them faced life-and-death decisions every day.
But this is not just a book about war. Les Parisiennes is a book about the effects of war and, for those who survived, how they came to terms with their own behaviour and that of others. The second half of the decade can only be understood by examining the catastrophic shock of the first. Although politics lies at its heart, Les Parisiennes is an account of the lives of the people of the city and specifically, in this most feminine of cities, about its women and young girls --- including thousands who grew up fatherless.« less
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