Product Description

On 1 September 1939 midnight fell on almost the whole of Europe and the reign of terror took tight hold. Against the backdrop of the military events of the Second World War and the behind-the-scenes diplomacy, Dan Frank describes vividly and eloquently the life and times of distinguished intellectuals, authors, artists, poets, native or foreign, who came to France in the whirlwind of persecutions and mobilizations. Jews, progressives, persecuted, exiles and refugees, with or without money, in endless migration during the Occupation.

On the other hand, the collaborators with the Germans or with the Vichy government face the fear too, seeking easy ways out and security within the gloomy climate, and inventing enemies and scapegoats in their endeavour to be redeemed. At the moment of major upheavals, all reactions are possible, but the most cool-headed and heroic win the game, for themselves and for the others.

Like a director, Dan Frank describes the events and sweeps us up in the maelstrom. From Paris to Marseille in the panic of the great escape, from Marseille to New York on the ships of hope, from Paris to Berlin on the trains of shame, from the deportation stations to the concentration camps of night and fog, the reader sees, astonished, dumbfounded and incredulous, the crossing of the fates of a generation whose life the tragedy of History turned into a novel.