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Les Parisiennes

How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation
Feb 01, 2017TheresaAJ rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Sebba has written a comprehensive social history of Parisian women from 1939 through 1949 in three parts -- War, Liberation, and Reconstruction. From high society women to working prostitutes, the author has detailed the stories of Nazi victims, Nazi collaborators, and those between the two extremes. As Sebba writes in the final paragraph, "But surviving in occupied Paris for many women demanded some sort of choice, some sort of decision, about how they would accommodate living with the Germans. It is not for the rest of us to judge but, with imagination, we can try to understand." Maps, illustrations, extensive notes, and a bibliography detail the amount of care and work that went into this book.