Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille
3.5/5
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About this ebook
“Rosemary Sullivan goes beyond the confines of Air-Bel to tell a fuller story of France during the tense years from 1933 to 1941. . . . A moving tale of great sacrifice in tumultuous times.” — Publishers Weekly
Paris 1940. Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery, and scores of other cultural elite denounced as enemies of the conquering Third Reich, live in daily fear of arrest, deportation, and death. Their only salvation is the Villa Air-Bel, a chateau outside Marseille where a group of young people, financed by a private American relief organization, will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive. In Villa Air-Bel, Rosemary Sullivan sheds light on this suspenseful, dramatic, and intriguing story, introducing the brave men and women who use every means possible to stave off the Nazis and the Vichy officials, and goes inside the chateau’s walls to uncover the private worlds and the web of relationships its remarkable inhabitants developed.
Rosemary Sullivan
ROSEMARY SULLIVAN, the author of fifteen books, is best known for her recent biography Stalin’s Daughter. Published in twenty-three countries, it won the Biographers International Organization Plutarch Award and was a finalist for the PEN /Bograd Weld Award for Biography and the National Books Critics Circle Award. Her book Villa Air-Bel was awarded the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem Award in Holocaust History. She is a professor emeritus at the university of Toronto and has lectured in Canada, the U.S., Europe, India, and Latin America.
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Reviews for Villa Air-Bel
19 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rosemary Sullivan writes an intriguing account of the elite artists of France who become refugees during its World War II occupation. Sullivan sets the stage of France before and after its occupation and follows the lives of several notable artists and writers including Andre Breton and Victor Serge who become refugees wanted by the Germans for their "subversive" and "anti-German" work. Sullivan very successfully depicts a France that has become a frightening shell of its former self. In this France, artists and refugees have no way to support themselves and take care to sit near the back exit of cafes to be able to escape those who would arrest them simply for voicing their opinions through their art, an activity that had at one time been encouraged in France.Sullivan then tells the story of Varian Fry who arrives in France on behalf of the Emergency Rescue Committee to rescue the many talented artists that have become refugees. In Fry, the refugees find a source of help and someone to trust. Fry assembles a team of a variety of people from all walks of life who willingly risk their lives to help refugees escape France. Their willingness to help is contrasted sharply with the difficulties they face in persuading the United States and other countries to grant the refugees even something so small as a transit visa, let alone a visitor’s visa, both of which would enable them to escape the dangers of France. Surprisingly, the actual Villa Air-Bel makes a relatively short appearance but plays a large role in the book. It is a mansion of considerable proportions purchased by the staff of the Emergency Rescue Committee to house a few of its members as well as a few of its clients. The result is a safe, if temporary, refuge from war-time France. The Villa Air-Bel stands in marked contrast to France outside it. Inside, the inhabitants come to life resuming their art, throwing parties, and enjoying wandering the grounds. It is here, as they pick up some semblance of their past lives, that the reader can really appreciate how vibrant this community of artists was and see how much they had lost in the occupation of France.Sullivan has created a book of history that reads like a novel. She brings to life the historical figures which she focuses on and merely by telling their stories faithfully gives you a reason to hope that the Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee will succeed in saving them from repressive war-time France. This is a remarkable tale of people who put their lives on the line to save others and the effect it had upon them as well as the people who they saved.