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

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The book gives a very different overall perspective on an era which I thought I knew a lot about, but there was plenty more for me to learn here.

LES PARISIENNES, Paris - Gros-Caillou - Updated 2023 LES PARISIENNES, Paris - Gros-Caillou - Updated 2023

So many voices clamour to be heard that I initially found it quite difficult to concentrate on their stories. In The Critic Gerald Jacobs described Sebba's reconstruction of the trial as “gripping” and went on to say “Anne Sebba has given Ethel Rosenberg a towering memorial”. Les Parisiennes are a beautiful and very elegant collection of rag dolls, easily recognisable by their stylish outfits, smiley faces and velour hair.Les Parisiennes is a fascinating book which seeks to overturn many of the gender-based assumptions made about Second World War Paris.

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

The book proceeds year by year, and individual stories disappear, to be picked up again a few chapters later. She read history at King's College London (1969–72) and, after a brief spell at the BBC World Service in Bush House, joined Reuters as a graduate trainee, working in London and Rome, from 1972 to 1978. It isn’t about the armies or the rescuers (or at least just the rescuers), it is about a group that during many wars is simply seen as something to possess. 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.

Sebba's books have been translated into several languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Czech and Chinese.

Les Parisiens – Paris - a MICHELIN Guide Restaurant Les Parisiens – Paris - a MICHELIN Guide Restaurant

Just don’t expect a penetrating historical analysis of causes and effects For me it was an excellent companion read to Sebastian Faulks’ recent novel “Paris Echo”, whose lead character pursues the history of women in Paris during the German Occupation. 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. He looked at me as if I came from a different planet – that if I could use the word ‘choice’, I clearly had not understood.All of the stories are heart-breaking and over and over I asked myself, what would I do, would I be able to survive some of the horrors , how would I protect my child? I think the best way to utilize this book would be to dissect each character and which pages their story is told.

Les Parisiennes - Moulin Roty Les Parisiennes - Moulin Roty

What was often surprising was the naivety of some women, like the Jewish woman who believed herself immune to the deportations because she belonged to a well-connected riding club. Anne Sebba has put together the stories of the famous, infamous and the many women who are barely remembered from this period and illuminates the complexity of living with the enemy, the nightmare of the camps and the fear of the enemy within. And the case of Edith Piaf, who drew complaints for aiding the Nazi propaganda efforts with performances at detention centers, but who used the group photos with the prisoners to create fake identity papers for many of them.

The absence of men from the city, many of whom had left to fight, meant that it was often women who had to make day-to-day decisions on how to respond to the occupiers. Sebba is alive to the nuances and complexities of the time, and while she strives to remain non-judgmental, is also clear about the fact that everyone had moral choices to be made.