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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The French Exodus, August 7, 2007
This review is from: Fleeing Hitler: France 1940 (Hardcover)
An often overlooked result of the Nazi Blitzkrieg against France in 1940 is that the invasion, combined with the rapidly retreating French forces and flight by the French government from Paris, created chaos and confusion throughout the country. An estimated 7 million people (2 million alone from Paris), fueled by absurd propaganda stories of expected German atrocities (e.g., the Nazis were not only going to rape women but were also going to cut off the hands of children), fled the oncoming German Army. Included among these unfortunates were approximately 2 million refugees from Belgium as well as 150,000 or more from Holland and Luxembourg.
The result was a stupendous traffic jam unequalled to that point in European, if not human, history as people took flight in trucks, cars, carts, bicyles, and every other form of transportation imaginable. The situation was compounded by an oppressive summer heat, and the fact the war was still going on, e.g., the masses of refugees impeded the movement of the very troops who were trying to help them and their country (although admittedly the ranks of the refugees were not without significant numbers of deserting troops, not to mention government officials and police).
Ironically, many refugees, fleeing a predicted heavy bombing of the big cities (which did not take place), were killed by seemingly indiscriminate bombing and strafing by German planes (a feat which the Allies in turn later inflicted on German refugees many times over in 1944-45). There were also shortages of food, water, and housing as the refugees overwhelmed portions of southern and western France.
After France's defeat it is estimated that all but about a million refugees slowly returned to their homes within a year. This mass return was influenced in part by the gentlemenly demeanor the German troops displayed, at least at first, toward the occupied nation, even buying goods they needed rather than just taking what they wanted. Indeed, after reading this book it could be argued that the Germans initially treated the French better than the French treated each other as pillaging among the refugees became commonplace and entire towns were bereft of any civil authority to speak of. One very important reason for the Germans' evenhanded treatment is that they needed a docile population to run factories, etc., for the benefit of the German war machine.
There appear to be few authors (in France or elsewhere) willing to address the turmoil of this period, especially from the perspective of the women who comprised the majority of the refugees. (Notable exceptions being the diaries of Simone de Beauvoir and the recently published unfinished novel, "Suite Francaise", by Irene Nemirovsky.)
Hanna Diamond's "Fleeing Hitler" attempts to portray these trying times as civilization in France teetered on the edge of collapse. Combing through the archives of French history (which in many instances were scanty as many officials responsible for keeping records were among those who fled), uncovering personal histories and diaries, and interviewing as many survivors of this event as she still could (although their numbers were rapidly diminishing and their memories, perhaps selectively, sketchy), the book focuses on the experience of civilians involved in this great exodus.
In so doing she provides a fascinating sociological study that catalogs people's fears and deprivations during the exodus and thereafter, the downfall of the Third Republic, the establishment of Vichy France and resultant colloboration with the Nazis, and the return of many to their abandoned homes. Although not strictly a political study, the author seems to squarely put the blame for the entire event on the cabinet of the French government, which abandoned Paris without providing any means to prevent the chaos, deaths, and permanent separation of families that followed. (Also, the author oddly castigates Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" as "confusing", cynical, and lacking "ideology", although ironically the "raison d'etre" for "Fleeing Hitler" was the success of "Suite Francaise".)
Overall, the book is an important contribution to our understanding of World War II and this almost forgotten episode in French history.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Profesor Emeritus of Modern European History, September 12, 2007
This review is from: Fleeing Hitler: France 1940 (Hardcover)
Diamond, Hanna E.
Fleeing Hitler; France, 1940
Oxford, Oxford University Press
219 pp, plus endnotes, bibliography and index
ISBN 978-0-19--280618-5, May, 2007
I should note in starting my review of Prof. Diamond's excellent little book that it was Oxford University Press who sought out Prof. Diamond rather than the other way around; that in itself is striking evidence of her qualifications. She earned her DPhil (the British equivalent of the American PhD) at the University of Sussex. Her dissertation, which she successfully defended in July 1992, was entitled "Women's Experience during and after World War II in the Toulouse Area, 1939-1948;" after revising her dissertation, it was published as Women and the Second World War in France: Choices and Constraints," which was published in 1999 (New York: Longman's). She has also edited two books and made major contribution to 11 others, plus numerous journal articles. She was on the faculty of the Université de Paris X - Nanterre, the American University in Paris and has been on the faculty of the University of Bath since 1997.
Based on her work to date, she is an extremely promising young scholar.
Much has been written on the tragic French military disaster of May - June 1940 as well as on the neo-Nazi/Fascist Vichy Government, late June 1940 through the liberation of Paris on August 22, 1944. But until now, nothing (that I know of) has been written on the flight of millions of Frenchmen from Paris and other parts of the interior.
The French Government had plans in place to accept and relocate refugees from Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the departments of northern France (eg, the Nord). But, since the Government was quite confident of victory, not even the most sketchy and tentative civilian evacuation plans were drawn up; thus, no specific cites in the interior for refugees from specific cities and towns were designated, nor were evacuation by specific and specially designated routes with refueling, rest, and food stops arranged for a possible civilian exodus. Likewise, no specific retreat routes for the Armed Forces were designated. This situation was to intensify, first, civilian demoralization and confusion and, later, that of the military as well. As Prof. Diamond notes,
[Army] divisions closer to the Germans sometimes chose to keep up the battle until they had explicit orders to surrender. Soldiers who decided to carry on fighting and continue their efforts to halt the German advance found that they had to deal with the growing opposition of civilians who wanted an end to the hostilities and feared German reprisals (p. 117).
The result was that frightened, confused, and demoralized civilians soon enough found themselves mixed in with retreating military personnel. The morale and cohesion of both groups completely and totally collapsed which rendered utterly futile any French attempt at effective, determined, or effective military resistance absolutely impossible. As Prof. Diamond notes, quite correctly and appropriately,
The mass departure of the French people from their homes was predominantly
the result of the failures of government and the authorities to predict and
organize for the war... They failed to improvise or put the needs of those they
were theoretically serving above their personal concerns, and this was to have
disastrous consequences. (p. 197).
In conclusion and at least in my opinion, this is simply a first-rate little book, well conceived, researched, and written. Further, it answers in a most satisfactory manner what had heretofore been an ignored period in French military and civilian life, the period September 1939 through late June 1940. It may be read by itself to fill that mysterious lacuna or, and perhaps better, in connection the recently discovered novel written between 1940 and 1942 by the well known French Jewess author Irène Némerovsky. Arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz where she was murdered in 1942, Suite française , trans., Sandra Smith (New York, Vintage International, 2006) which, on its appearance first in France and then the United Kingdom and the United States was met with rave reviews and is cited in her bibliography by Prof. Diamond.
Associate Professor (emeritus) Eric Arnold
The University of Denver
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fleeing Hitler, December 2, 2007
This review is from: Fleeing Hitler: France 1940 (Hardcover)
I originally bought Fleeing Hitler for a family member, who as a child took part in the Parisian "Exodus" in the summer of 1940 as Hitler advanced at Blitzkrieg speed into France. I honestly didn't think a book about civilians fleeing would be very interesting, it's such a seemingly minor, and for many embarrassing event in World War II history; but I was soon hooked after reading the first few pages. Not only did the Exodus directly shape the course of the war, 'Fleeing Hitler' is hugely educational, entertaining, and even relevant today.
Diamond unfolds the events with liberal use of direct quotes from about a dozen people who left excellent accounts, published and private. The first few chapters describe the build-up to war, invasion, the "phony war" and finally the Exodus itself. Diamond has a novelists sense of building a story so that by the time the Nazi's invade you feel ready to flee along with everyone else. Then there is an excellent history of how and why the French government split into the Vichy government and the government in exile - this has always been a confusing for me, but now I understand it was largely in direct consequence of the Exodus.
'Fleeing Hitler' can be enjoyed on many levels, from WWII history of a largely forgotten and unknown but major event, to personal stories of survival, to general lessons about evacuations and what happens when a modern western industrial society breaks down.
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