Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille
3.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
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.
Read more from Rosemary Sullivan
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGender Violence, 3rd Edition: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMermaids and Ikons: A Greek Summer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Labyrinth Of Desire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Villa Air-Bel
Related ebooks
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Bestseller of 1919 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Historical Novel) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Historical Novel - A WW1 Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: A World War I Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Los Cuatro Jinettes del Apocalipsis, Bilingual Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quickening of Alec Ross Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Comfort on a Chilly Night: Can an old flame be rekindled? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSonia Delaunay: Artist of the Lost Generation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Killers 06: Death Village Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDialogue with Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pansies' Revenge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape from the Nazis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Villa Désirée: 'He had arranged it all for her'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSilent Surrender Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Charterhouse of Parma: Historical Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCarnival Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLe Journal: Angela Fournier, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Short Story Collection: 'The horror of what they daily saw round them'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chartreuse of Parma (new classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World Before Her Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Brush with the Enemy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Charterhouse of Parma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Basque Poppies: Survival Under the Swastika Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrossing the City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings30 Suspense and Thriller Masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Holocaust For You
The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If the Allies Had Fallen: Sixty Alternate Scenarios of World War II Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Choice: Embrace the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and His Due: How Jordan Peterson Plagiarizes Adolf Hitler, Volume One Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Summary and Analysis of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Banality of Evil: N.A. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swingtime for Hitler: Goebbels’s Jazzmen, Tokyo Rose, and Propaganda That Carries a Tune Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Hunters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary and Analysis of Man's Search for Meaning: Based on the Book by Victor E. Frankl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazis Knew My Name: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Courage in Auschwitz Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Delayed Life: The True Story of the Librarian of Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All But My Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eva: A Novel of the Holocaust Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Villa Air-Bel
18 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.