The Shameful Peace: How French Artists and Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation

by Frederic Spotts

The German occupation of France from 1940 to 1945 presented wrenching challenges for the nation’s artists and intellectuals. Some were able to flee the country; those who remained—including Gide and Céline, Picasso and Matisse, Cortot and Messiaen, and Cocteau and Gabin—responded in various ways. This fascinating book is the first to provide a full account of how France’s artistic leaders coped under the crushing German presence. Some became heroes, others villains; most were simply survivors. Filled with anecdotes about the artists, composers, writers, filmmakers, and actors who lived through the years of occupation, the book illuminates the disconcerting experience of life and work within a cultural prison. Frederic Spotts uncovers Hitler’s plan to pacify the French through an active cultural life, and examines the unexpected vibrancy of opera, ballet, painting, theater, and film in both the Occupied and Vichy Zones. In view of the longer-term goal to supplant French with German culture, Spotts offers moving insight into the predicament of French artists as they fought to preserve their country’s cultural and national identity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, France, Art, European History, War, World War II

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2009

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spotts does not wish to re-litigate who is and who isn't a collaborator. For him, any contact short of rebellion by a Frenchman with a Nazi was collaboration. I'm okay with that. But in a wonderful concluding chapter, the author notes the unfairness of government collaborators going unpunished while artists paid severely, even with their lives.

The author seemed to struggle in the beginning with structure, pretentiousness and style. He has a habit, for example, of writing, "He it was who..." The chapters became arranged by art form: writing, painters, musicians, theater and film. And in those divisions, Spotts tells wonderful anecdotes and quick, pertinent bios. In particular, Spotts delivers on Gide, Celine, Cocteau, Picasso and Matisse. Sartre and Camus were less fully fleshed out. I would have liked more on Messiaen, for whom Spotts gives no more than could be found on an album's linear notes. Yet, there were numerous artists that I didn't really know that Spotts certainly brought to life. Very thought-provoking and, overall, well told.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very much a "person by person" account of artists (by artistic category) in Nazi-occupied France. Told with a journalist's sense of detail and narrative movement, the book works as a general consideration of the role of artists and intellectuals in a society that is at war with a brutal foreign power and, as a result, with itself. The moral choices made seem largely dictated by individual personalities in this story. That often leaves the broader social and cultural forces that help shape those choices with a secondary status in the book. In that sense, then, the book becomes largely - maybe a little too much of - a catalog of the good actors and those who acted badly, some of whom get their just punishments and other who don't. By presenting the story that way, of course, the personal responsibility of particular individuals seems too frequently to overshadow any collective sense of responsibility. That seems to me somewhat dangerous in historical analysis because it could easily lead to too many differentiating their own particular behaviors, activities, roles from these so-called bad actors and permit us as a society to delude ourselves that most of us play only an insignificant and therefore largely blameless role in events and our own history.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read this book ten years ago in 2015 I noted that it was brilliant and insightful and that memory still holds. I find that the challenges and complexities of any country or culture being occupied and dominated by another fascinating because of the choices which are forced upon the occupied. When the publisher's synopsis says:

"This fascinating book is the first to provide a full account of how France’s artistic leaders coped under the crushing German presence."

it is merely stating fact because the responses of France's artists were as different as that of every other segment of French society. Some were heroes, others villains; most were simply survivors. How to measure the right degree of co-operation against resistance is never as clear when you are dealing with it on a day to day basis. We know the Nazis lose, they didn't. It is easy to spot the monsters like Louis Darquier 'de Pellepoix' but how do you weigh the acts, works and words of the rest? Frederic Spotts brilliant examines both the compromises and heroics of those who remained and to survive. For too long those who were fortunate enough not to be occupied felt easy assuming that they would have behaved well and that there would have been no problem in recognising what action was behaving well (although set in the Netherlands I strongly recommend reading 'The Assault' by Harry Mulisch to understand how impossible that can be).

An absolute essential read if you are interested in WWII or the history of France.

[Christopher C. Gorham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tone is sometimes light given the heavy subject of the Occupation of France. But the mild cheek works. Spotts seems to adhere to Michèle Cone’s claim that Matisse sat out the Occupation, a conclusion I find unpersuasive both there and here. Overall enjoyable, informative read.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially a catalogue of case studies. While personal choices are, of course, valid to examine, I'd have liked to see greater attention paid to broader social trends and impacts.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book on a lesser known aspect of life in France under Nazi occupation. It is more focused on Paris than anywhere else, still it does cover the cultural life in Vichy and in provinces as well. The narrative is detailed and includes many personal experiences. It does not condone collaboration, but it does condemn the excesses after liberation. Any by doing so it tried to offer a balanced picture of a very volatile and unstable time in the history of France. It is a must read for any history lover and any curious mind, who wonders what a Picasso does facing an invader.
I add my intro in Persian as well:

http://adadpay.com/2010/08/19/111-174/

درباره جنگ جهانی دوم، نهضتهای مقاومت و کشورهای اشغال شده کتابهای بسیاری نوشته شده است، اما تا بحال کمتر مورخی به زندگی روزمره فرهنگی در کشورهای تحت اشغال پرداخته است. زمانیکه ارتش آلمان فرانسه را به اشغال خود درآورد، فرانسه پاسدار فرهنگی غرب و پاریس پایتخت هنری جهان بود. شهر روشنایی پناهگاه هنرمندان و نویسندگانی از چهار گوشه جهان شده بود که در کشورهای خود جایی نداشتند و زادگاه تمام مکاتب و جنبشهای هنری مهم و مطرح قرن نوزدهم و بیستم به شمار می رفت. بدون بودن در پاریس هنرمندی شهرت جهانی پیدا نمی کرد. در زمان اشغال پیکاسو، ماتیس، سیمون دوبوار، آندره ژید، سارتر و دهها روشنفکر، فیلسوف، نویسنده و هنرمند دیگر در این شهر زندگی می کردند. “صلح شرم آور” داستان زندگی روشنفکران و هنرمندان فرانسوی در دوره اشغال فرانسه است.
زمانیکه فرانسه آتش بس را پذیرفت و تسلیم آلمان شد، جنگ فرهنگی بین دو کشور تازه آغاز شد. اشغالگر می خواست تا از فعالیتهای فرهنگی برای آرام نگه داشتن و سرگرم نگه داشتن توده مردم تحت اشغال استفاده کند و همزمان برتری فرهنگی خود را به رخ شکست خوردگان بکشد. نتیجه این سیاست ترکیبی از سانسور فرهنگی، ترور شخصیتهای فکری و تشویق فعالیتهای هنری موافق سیاستهای آلمان نازی بود. روشنفکران و هنرمندان فرانسوی سه گزینه در پیشرو داشتند: زندگی در تبعید، مقاومت و سکوت و یا همکاری با اشغالگر.
کتاب داستان آدمهاییست که در یک دنیای دگرگون شده برای بقای خودشان و فرهنگشان می کوشند. آدمهایی که همکاری با اشغالگر را بر می گزینند و آدمهایی که ترجیح می دهند کارهایشان را برای خودشان نگه دارند ولی هرگز آنها را در معرض سانسور رایش سوم قرار ندهند. و آدمهایی که مخفیانه به چاپ و نشر آثارشان می پردازند. کتاب داستان ناشرانیست که پیش از استقرار اشغالگران به خود سانسوری روی می آورند و ناشرانیکه در چاپخانه هایشان گروههای مقاومت تشکیل می دهند.
گرچه کتاب کمی ضد فرانسویست و تعریف آن از همکاری با اشغالگر گاهی بسیار آرمانگرایانه است، اما فردریک اسپاتس با دقت و وسواس به معرفی شخصیتها و کنکاش در زوایای ناشناخته زندگی فرهنگی در این دوران می پردازد. بسیاری از اطلاعات و مصاحبه های کتاب برای بار اول است که ارائه می شود. تصویری که اسپاتس ارائه می کند منحصر به زمان اشغال نیست بلکه شامل باورهای فرهنگی و پیشداوریهای جامعه فرانسه در دوره پس از اشغال هم می گردد. این تصویر همیشه زیبا نیست، اما عبرت آموز است.
خواننده می تواند آسوده خاطر باشد که کتابی خواندنی و آموزنده در پیشرو دارد

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's been little written about artists, musicians, writers and intellectuals who lived in Paris at the time of the Nazi Occupation. Given how many books have been written about regular residents of Paris, of Occupied and Unoccupied zones in the city, the lack of written material about the individuals who had been very much a part of the cultural identity of Paris, is glaringly sparse.

Hitler himself, recognized the importance of culture and encouraged an artistic life among those in Occupied France, but an artistic life dictated by his belief in German cultural supremacy, and one subject to censorship.

After the war, the artists and members of the social elite who were known to not only have lived, traded with, entertained or partied with the Occupiers, were denounced as collaborators and held more responsible for France's defeat than her military and political figures.

But how does one define collaboration?
"Was it accepting German hospitality to visit or perform in Germany, attending a reception hosted by a German official or even just seeking German approval to publish a book, perform a play or exhibit a painting?"

And how is resistance defined?
"-fleeing the country, refusing to publish, to exhibit or to perform? Or was it just the opposite - staying to fling French culture into the face of the Occupier?"

This is a detailed study of cultural icons such as Matisse, Picasso, Henri Jeansson, Serge Lifar, Jean Cocteau, Marc Chagall and Simone de Beauvoir, and what they did to survive during this period of history, as well as a study of the strategies adopted by the Nazis to encourage if not compel cooperation by the French.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is relentless in his research for the truth behind French collaboration during the Nazi occupation. This research is difficult not only because much of the truth can take a partial viewpoint but also because the topic still remains terribly sensitive. Spotts does an excellent job looking at all possible angles for motivations behind the acts of collaboration or non-collaboration. Those familiar with French literature, politics, popular culture, etc. will, of course, enjoy this book more than those without this knowledge -- yet the intent is for a general audience, and it is suitable for such. I must make a note here, however, that the author's personality does peek through the prose at times (excitement, sarcasm, etc.) but that it is never out of place and is, indeed, quite welcome.

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat gossipy, anecdotal, the author writes with 'brio' -- and so is never dull. Though there is a section on "Sources" in the back, there are no footnotes, so it's generally impossible to check the source of the diverse material he presents. Also, he's not averse to making snide and very judgmental comments -- Spotts is quite clearly anti-fascist. My principal complaint is that the topic, which covers only artists and writers, is a bit narrow. At any rate, very worth the read.

[Payton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book overall. However, I found there was more information about writers, and artists compared to musicians. His development of French musical scenes failed to mention anything outside of well-known and accomplished artists at the time such as Edith Piaf. I wish there was more information regarding the French music scene under Nazi occupation. Although, if you are looking for information about writers and artists of the time this book has a lot of great reference material.

[Judy McCarver · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was informative, but alas so laborious to read. I just had a very very hard time getting through it. It lacked excitement. It was much more academic in nature.

[One Flew · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

As France went into shock at their rapid defeat to the German's during world war two, the artworld and intelligentsia were divided as to what to do. Some fled abroad, some continued working ignoring the occupation as best as possible, some worked with the resistance, some welcomed the Germans as the saviors of Europe and immediately collaborated. It was a strange situation, where the Germans clearly seen the French as contemporaries, as they didn't treat France as harshly as other occupied nations. Instead they tried to win the French populace over through cultural events, propaganda and a sense of life continuing as normal. Thankfully the Germans lost the war, but it left the question of what to do with those who had in a number of different ways, had collaborated with the Germans.

Two stars is a very harsh rating for this book, but it just failed to engage me. A large part of the problem was I just didn't know hardly any of the artists or writers involved (apart from the obvious ones like Piccasso), so it was difficult to connect with many of the narratives. This could be a fault on my part, but I don't know if the writer did a very job of pulling me in. Still an interesting story of a very troubled time.

[LW_Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not complete. This book is not what I’d hoped it would be. That being said, I may come back to it at a later date, more for reference than inspiration. It reads like a documentary catalogue of who, what, when and a tiny amount of why. There is no “how” to be found; which renders the book’s subtitle a little misleading. Additionally, I’m not a fan of the way it’s organized. Finally, the passive voice sentences become annoying after a while.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best cultural histories of France during the Second World War that I have read. Interesting, accurate and poignant.

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nie jestem żadną znawczynią II wojny światowej, we Francji czy gdzie indziej; owszem, kojarzę większą część nazwisk artystów, pisarzy, muzyków i intelektualistów, wzmiankowanych w książce Spottsa, ale niekoniecznie w kontekście tego, co robili podczas II wojny światowej, w Paryżu czy w Vichy czy w innym miejscu na terenie Francji.
Generalnie, Spotts deklaruje unikanie oceny, we wstępnych rozdziałach zadając skazane na brak odpowiedzi pytania, co w ogóle można było zrobić i co - w tamtych warunkach - było uczciwym wyjściem: wyjazd z kraju? ucieczka na wieś? emigracja wewnętrzna? wzbogacanie francuskiej kultury jako cichy bunt przeciw okupantom? przeżycie własne i bliskich za wszelką cenę? To nie znaczy, że zawsze od tej oceny moralnej się odżegnuje - ale stara się pokazać losy rozmaite i wybory bardzo różne, pd heroicznej walki (Jean Gabin) po pełną kolaborację z przekonania (Celine) i jednocześnie nie łączyć oceny etycznej z estetyczną (przypomina się fragment o jednym z pomniejszych malarzy, że był wybitnym członkiem Ruchu Oporu, ale znacznie mniej wybitnym twórcą).
Dla mnie jako czytelniczki, ani etyka, ani historyka, podstawowy wniosek z tej lektury jest taki: Hitler miał plan uwiedzenia Francji, by mieć z nią spokój;l ten plan się częściowo powiódł, a ludzie sztuki - cóż, większość przede wszystkim próbowała przeżyć i jakoś tam żyć, z iluzją, że żyją jak dawniej. Tylko tyle, aż tyle.

[Barbara Heisey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frederic Spotts handles the subject with circumspection, and often provides astute and tart commentary. There are few heroes and much cringe-worthy behavior.

It's an admirable study of the dubious behavior of French intellectual and artistic personalities, and their often self-serving collaboration with the Nazi occupiers.

WWII was especially hard for the French sensibility because it served as the basis for its decline as an intellectual center of gravity. It also exposed the hollow notions of artistic integrity that served as an integral part of the French character.

It was bad enough that the Nazis were good at pitting intellectuals at one another and creating an environment where conspiracy and cynicism were rampant.

But the combination of the hyper-personal, competitive, snobbish, frivolous and insular world of French intellectual culture made it easy for them to nearly co-op, supplant, and ruin what made France the premier exporter of highbrow cultural goods up to the mid-20th century.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting account of how visual artist, writers, and actors fared under the German occupation of France during WWII. Some collaborated with the Nazi party while others resisted and went into hiding. It was shocking to see how Hitler tried to control free thought and freedom of expression. In some cases, if the art met the parties "standards", it was used to promote the party. My one criticism is that I wished there was greater coverage of the visual arts. Only one chapter discusses art in depth.

[Aleksandr Voinov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Largely a book of "case studies" how different artists/intellectuals behaved, with a good measure of context thrown in. After covering every aspect of French cultural life, however, the popular singers (or "low-brow culture") got very short shrift - that part of cultural life was covered in roughly a page, which I found disappointing.

[Judilibrarian C]

A book I chose to read about occupied and unoccupied France during the Nazi occupation and the role of collaborators in this crisis time in the history of France.

[Suzy Landa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful treatise on the cultural effects of Nazism and Hitler in France in the 1930's and 1940's-very well researched-a must read if interested in this topic

[michelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never buy a CHANEL item again.