Marianne in Chains: Everyday Life in the French Heartland Under the German Occupation

I sense that Robert Gildea likes to be slightly provocative and from his introduction seems to enjoy the fact that his book is seen as controversial in France. Marianne in Chains, which won the highly prestigious Wolfson Prize, reveals an eye for interesting detail and the kind of bottom-up history which asks questions about how people experienced daily life during times of occupation. He is particularly fascinated about how people tried to continue to enjoy themselves despite the German presence- the attempts to keep activities such as hunting or clandestine dancing going. Ultimately he provides a more negative vision of French behaviour than is offered by someone like Rod Kedward- so this book can usefully be read alongside Kedward's 'Occupied France: Resistance and Collaboration'.

I just finished reading Marianne in Chains. As a former SOE agent assigned to the Licensee network in the Nièvre region I must compliment Professor Gildea on his research and presentation of the situation in the upper Loire region during WWII.During my short assignment in the center of France I heard a lot more criticism of the Allies than about the Germans, who according to most people behaved quite well. Particularily after the bombing of Neuvy sur Loire by the US Air Force when 129 people were killed and 300 were wounded as a result of 1000 ton of bombs dropped on their small village. I was so disgusted by the behavior of my compatriots that I did not return to France for 45 years.René J. Defourneaux, Author of The Winking Fox.

In September, 1939, France and Britain declared war on Germany because of the latter`s invasion of Poland. France manned its northern and eastern defenses, the Germans manned the „Westwall", occasional artillery rounds were fired to make sure that the guns were properly trained, but for more than six months, all was quiet on the western front. Then, in early May of the following year, the Germans attacked by way of Belgium, broke through the French lines and raced to the Channel coast, giving the French government barely enough time to transfer to Bordeaux, and encircling the British Expeditionary Force in the pocket of Dunkirk (from which the latter was able to escape with acceptable losses).The French retreated in great haste and disorder, not only the army, but also the civilian population that, for decades, had been fed horror stories of what the Germans would do to them. Many just tried to get away as best they could, others, like units of the Gendarmerie, the Orléans fire brigade or other public services were ordered to do so. What with the general disorder that war brings about the result was often utter chaos, on the roads and in the towns. Eventually, France stopped fighting, and the Germans established themselves according to a pattern governed by military considerations: essentially in northern France and along the Atlantic coast, leaving the rest of the country unoccupied for the next two and a half years, until the Allied landing in North Africa forced them to secure their southern flank. Robert Gildea`s book is an account of daily life in the lower Loire valley during those difficult years.It is still a subject of historical debate to what extent the government constituted by Maréchal Pétain during the last days of the war was a legitimate entity. At the time of the events described in the book the answer depended largely on the political position of the person concerned. In any case, there was a French government and it continued to function. The German military authorities exercized a certain amount of local supervision in accordance with their needs and Berlin continually tried to align the Vichy government to her policies - often with limited success. The divisions that had plagued France in the 1930s did not melt into a united front of all patriots against the occupying force. Interests - political, economic, or historical - were far too divergent. One of the main twists was that, until Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, one year after the defeat of France, the French communists strictly toed the Moscow party line and supported strongly the German demands on the French economy. Their change of policy in mid-1941 manifested itself in numerous acts of terrorism. In the area Professor Gildea concentrates on, such an act was the assassination of the rather popular local Feldkommandant, Lieutenant-Colonel Hotz. It led, inevitably, to reprisals and the shooting of hostages. The selection of host