And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-occupied Paris

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Description

In June 1940, Paris fell to the Nazis who made the world's cultural capital their favourite entertainment ground.
Music halls and cabarets thrived during the occupation, providing plenty of work for actors, singers and musicians - except for Jews. The likes of Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf, who had entertained the French troops, now unabashedly provided amusement to the Germans.
After the invasion of France, those artists still in Paris had to find ways to survive. Although Matisse and others kept out of view, Picasso could not avoid Nazi visitors. A few, like Beckett, joined the Resistance. Some were arrested and died in German hands. Others entertained the enemy. The theatres reopened, the movie cameras rolled, galleries sold paintings looted from Jewish families, pro-German writers and their rivals fought in print.
Told through the experiences of renowned creative figures and witnesses of the times, And the Show Went On is an authoritative account of how Paris's artistic world lived through the Occupation, both of those who suffered Nazi oppression and those who prospered through collaboration.

Reviews

'A superbly fair-minded, well-researched, well-written and nuanced investigation into the greyest of all the moral grey areas of twentieth century history'Andrew Roberts

'Fascinating... elaborate characters leap off almost ever page. A serious piece of scholarship, but one that reads like a novel'Observer

'Underpinned by meticulous research built on the premise that intellectuals have special responsibilities, especially in difficult times, and [Alan Riding] skilfully engages with the complexities of the period he neither falls into moral relativism nor indulges in accusatory finger-pointing' TLS

'Certainly one of the finest works of serious popular history'The Washington Post

'Nazi-occupied Paris is brought to life in this meticulous chronicle of writers, dancers, filmmakers, theatrical producers and others'The New Yorker

Author Bio

Alan Riding trained as an economist and lawyer before joining Reuters, the Financial Times and then The New York Times, reporting from Mexico, Brazil, Rome and finally Paris for twelve years as European Cultural Correspondent.