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Bezig met laden... In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germanydoor Thomas Childers
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. 4220 In the Shadows of War An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany, by Thomas Childers (read 20 Oct 2006) This is a 2003 book about Roy Allen, an American pilot shot down over Occupied France on June 14, 1944. The account of the downing of the plane, the pilot's hiding with French resistors, his betrayal when he sought to escape back to Allied lines, his time in Buchenwald, and his eventual liberation in April 1945 makes for a riveting and attention-holding story. The story is well-researched and reads like a novel. Allen died in 1991 and his son got the author interested in doing this amazing account of his father's life in 1944 and 1945. I don't think I have ever read a book quite like it. The account of the Buchenwald time is harrowing and it is hard to see how Allen survived. This is a very good book, and tells a true story with vividity and care. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
A "masterful example of nonfiction brought to life"* --the harrowing account of an aviator's World War II journey and the two people who helped him along the way In a small village in France during the fateful summer of 1944, three disparate lives converged in an unlikely secret alliance. Just after D-Day, Colette Florin hid downed American bomber pilot Roy Allen in her rooms above the tiny girls' school where she taught. While concealing him, she was drawn deeper into the clandestine world of the regional underground. There she met the local leader of the Resistance: Pierre Mulsant, a young Frenchman trained by the British secret service who had parachuted into France in the spring of 1944. Drawn from extensive interviews, letters, and archival documents in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, In the Shadows of War follows the fateful twists and turns of Allen's journey from rural France to Paris, capture by the Gestapo, imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and then a POW camp, and eventual liberation. It is an unforgettable, profoundly moving human drama of love and courage and sacrifice. *The Washington Post Book World Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)940.5344History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- World War II Europe FranceLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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who was in hiding. Allen had injured his back during the parachute jump out of his plane and, despite the extreme danger, Florin had the local doctor come treat it. The allies had landed in Normandy so all Allen really had to do was wait for their arrival. By this time he was on the Florin farm, well-liked by the family, and reasonably safe. He insisted on trying to escape to Spain. The network got him to Paris where again the back injury put the entire network at risk. They called in two different doctors to attempt a diagnosis for the extreme back pain and very high fever.
Delivered into the hands of the Gestapo by some infiltrators of the resistance network, Allen was imprisoned first near Paris, and then, as the Allies got closer, was transferred by train to a concentration camp in the east. The conditions were horrific and Childers describes them with great empathy and detail. Nothing like being strafed by your own side.
Allen’s suffering in the concentration camp at the hands of the SS was horrific. Childers has gone to great lengths to be as accurate as possible, citing numerous interviews and documents, but the experiences of Pierre, who helped Allen get to Paris, clearly must have necessitated some invention of thought and deed, as he was executed at Buchenwald before the end of the war. He explains his technique and the basis for it in the postscript; it’s only a short chapter in the larger story of Allen but feels slightly out of place.
But I quibble. Childers, author of Wings of Morning, an excellent book from which Stephen Ambrose plagiarized,* has written an exciting and richly detailed account of the dangers and value of being in the French resistance as well as the horrors faced by those in concentration camps.
When this book was written Allen's wife was still alive and living near Philadelphia. She and Colette became fast friends after the war and still maintain cordial and frequent contact.
For more on the plagiarism see http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/738lfddv.asp
and http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/27/0227ambrose.htmld ( )