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Books : Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-44
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Rating: 
- Intelligent and readable
I spend a lot of time in France and have long wanted to learn about the German occupation of World War II, but it's still an exquisitely sensitive subject in France. It took me some time to unearth this book, which is I think the only one in English aimed at the general reader. It is a real find.
Ian Ousby writes about people and human experience as much as events. He spares us the turgid pages of maps and military minutiae that so often make WWII history books a chore and instead tackles some challenging questions head-on. What was it like for the French? And for the Germans? How did the French face the dilemma that any government aiming to defy the Nazis must be a government in exile, whereas an administration choosing to stay in France with its suffering people must be both a compromise and a perilous dalliance with the invader?
Ousby deals impressively with these issues and leads us further into the strange terrain of Occupation, illuminating for instance the vital role of language and symbols. He explains the subtleties of the words and phrases (some still in use) that the French coined to deal with their new existence, and he reveals a paradox: only through silence could most Frenchmen defy the occupier; but beneath the silence there must be communication - an underground current of words, slogans, tracts and literature. A new generation of writers and thinkers grew out of this twilight world, among them Camus and Sartre, and it's easy to forget that the weapon of choice for the vast majority of résistants was the pamphlet rather than the bomb.
As for the symbol, the powerful part that it played had been lost on me, whether the swastika that desecrated the Eiffel Tower, the star that the Vichy regime forced its French Jews to wear, or indeed the V-sign. (According to Ousby, the V-sign was a German symbol appropriated by Churchill and turned against the Nazis. But doesn't legend have it that it originated as the defiant gesture of the English archers at Agincourt who taunted their French foe for threatening to amputate the digits used to draw a bowstring?)
The great strength of this book is that it is unflinching. While Ousby shows sensitivity and empathy, he tells it how it was. Evil was done. Cowards and bullies had their day. Betrayal was rife, and recrimination gripped France not just for the years of Occupation, but for decades thereafter.
This is not entirely an ugly story, though. Ousby charts first the retreat underground and overseas of the champions of French decency and courage, but then the eventual triumph of this great nation over an intolerable ordeal. This was a victory - if a tarnished victory - over subjugation and brutality; a drawing of the poison of betrayal; and the birth of a new society whose pains of labour still resonate across Europe.
Rating: - Occupation
Excellent book which is relative and informative.
As a mature A-level French student I bought this book and several others. This book is vastly superior to any other that I have read on this subject. It is very well written (apart from my pet hate of the American 'z' instead of 's' in e.g. authorise) and very informative This book lacks the portention often associated with so-called academic works but gives the reader a real insight as to what life was really like under occupation.
I especially like the constant use of pertinent cultural references and the excellent reference section at the back of this book.
Overall an excellent and enthralling book.
Rating:
- An Interesting Insight
This book delivers an amazing insight into what must have been a terrifying ordeal for the people of France in the Second World War. Ian Ousby is able to create a picture of the different aspects of the occupation and the different attitudes towards it.
I had no idea that such collaboration by the Vichy government took place. Being ignorant of the facts before I read the book, I was relieved to find out that Ian Ousby explains the situation without spelling it out. A powerful book full of facts that I would recommend to anyone, with or without historical knowledge.
Rating: - generally excellent
As a history student with a particular interest in French history, I would recommend this book to anyone with either an academic or simple curiosity of Occupied France as a simple and informative read. Well worth the effort.
Rating: - An excellent primer
Required background reading for anybody who (like me) is captivated by Alan Furst's "World At Night" and "Red Gold" thrillers set in wartime France.
- Intelligent and readableI spend a lot of time in France and have long wanted to learn about the German occupation of World War II, but it's still an exquisitely sensitive subject in France. It took me some time to unearth this book, which is I think the only one in English aimed at the general reader. It is a real find.
Ian Ousby writes about people and human experience as much as events. He spares us the turgid pages of maps and military minutiae that so often make WWII history books a chore and instead tackles some challenging questions head-on. What was it like for the French? And for the Germans? How did the French face the dilemma that any government aiming to defy the Nazis must be a government in exile, whereas an administration choosing to stay in France with its suffering people must be both a compromise and a perilous dalliance with the invader?
Ousby deals impressively with these issues and leads us further into the strange terrain of Occupation, illuminating for instance the vital role of language and symbols. He explains the subtleties of the words and phrases (some still in use) that the French coined to deal with their new existence, and he reveals a paradox: only through silence could most Frenchmen defy the occupier; but beneath the silence there must be communication - an underground current of words, slogans, tracts and literature. A new generation of writers and thinkers grew out of this twilight world, among them Camus and Sartre, and it's easy to forget that the weapon of choice for the vast majority of résistants was the pamphlet rather than the bomb.
As for the symbol, the powerful part that it played had been lost on me, whether the swastika that desecrated the Eiffel Tower, the star that the Vichy regime forced its French Jews to wear, or indeed the V-sign. (According to Ousby, the V-sign was a German symbol appropriated by Churchill and turned against the Nazis. But doesn't legend have it that it originated as the defiant gesture of the English archers at Agincourt who taunted their French foe for threatening to amputate the digits used to draw a bowstring?)
The great strength of this book is that it is unflinching. While Ousby shows sensitivity and empathy, he tells it how it was. Evil was done. Cowards and bullies had their day. Betrayal was rife, and recrimination gripped France not just for the years of Occupation, but for decades thereafter.
This is not entirely an ugly story, though. Ousby charts first the retreat underground and overseas of the champions of French decency and courage, but then the eventual triumph of this great nation over an intolerable ordeal. This was a victory - if a tarnished victory - over subjugation and brutality; a drawing of the poison of betrayal; and the birth of a new society whose pains of labour still resonate across Europe.
Rating:
- OccupationExcellent book which is relative and informative.
As a mature A-level French student I bought this book and several others. This book is vastly superior to any other that I have read on this subject. It is very well written (apart from my pet hate of the American 'z' instead of 's' in e.g. authorise) and very informative This book lacks the portention often associated with so-called academic works but gives the reader a real insight as to what life was really like under occupation.
I especially like the constant use of pertinent cultural references and the excellent reference section at the back of this book.
Overall an excellent and enthralling book.
Rating:
- An Interesting InsightThis book delivers an amazing insight into what must have been a terrifying ordeal for the people of France in the Second World War. Ian Ousby is able to create a picture of the different aspects of the occupation and the different attitudes towards it.
I had no idea that such collaboration by the Vichy government took place. Being ignorant of the facts before I read the book, I was relieved to find out that Ian Ousby explains the situation without spelling it out. A powerful book full of facts that I would recommend to anyone, with or without historical knowledge.
Rating:
- generally excellentAs a history student with a particular interest in French history, I would recommend this book to anyone with either an academic or simple curiosity of Occupied France as a simple and informative read. Well worth the effort.
Rating:
- An excellent primerRequired background reading for anybody who (like me) is captivated by Alan Furst's "World At Night" and "Red Gold" thrillers set in wartime France.