Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s

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What I hadn't previously understood was what a male vacuum there was in 1940s France, particularly in Paris. Why did these women decide to risk their lives in situations where many people would be tempted to stay out of trouble? It is very difficult to keep all of the characters straight and at times I had to put the book down because I was frustrated with confusion. Sleeping with the enemy was one step, but doing so with such special benefits was a big affront, though still not enough to sway many toward revolt.

Les Parisiennes by Anne Sebba | Waterstones

Sebba's books have been translated into several languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Czech and Chinese. That was a big highlight of the book for me, Sebba’s interviews with women who are still alive at the time of writing, and who look back on their wartime activities with that amazing gift of time to reflect and consider. I don’t even understand the question,” answered Jeannie Rousseau, a member of the Druids resistance network, who provided key military information on the Germans’ rocket programme to the British. Among the many remarkable portraits of famous French women displayed on the photograph pages of Anne Sebba’s Les Parisiennes are two that stand out: Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Geneviève de Gaulle.Beautifully written history of the courage of the women of Paris in the days leading up to WW2 and following through the days of the Marshall Plan. We hear what happened to all of the women we met at the end of this book and this is a compelling and intelligent read. Many reappeared throughout the years/chapters, but the narrative structure skipped around a lot and there really are a large amount of women described. How did women who survived to see the Liberation of Paris come to terms with their actions and those of others? I was also impressed with the heroism of Jenny Rousseau, a prisoner who one day refused to continue with forced labor in a munitions plant as against the Geneva Convention.

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died

Some like the heiress Béatrice Camondo or novelist Irène Némirovsky, converted to Catholicism; others like lesbian racing driver Violette Morris embraced the Nazi philosophy; only a handful, like Coco Chanel, retreated to the Ritz with a German lover. The French were no exception, and it was fascinating to read about the different ways women worked to resist the German occupation of their country. And the stories of several are told in more detail and to a greater extent, and those were easier to differentiate, obviously, but sometimes I got confused when from paragraph to paragraph the subject changed quickly, or when one subject was introduced and moved past too quickly.

Men involved in trading commodities or the black market did not always face the same punishments: they had a trial, whereas many women were judged guilty even without one. More like this Do you think the Vichy government’s attitude towards women led some to become members of the resistance?