And the show went on: cultural life in Nazi-occupied Paris

Abstract

In June 1940, Paris fell and the city's lights went out. The world's cultural capital had become the Nazis' greatest prize. Following its cultural tradition from the century before - having given birth to major artistic movements like Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism - Paris remained home to the greatest artists, writers and composers, from Joyce to Picasso. After the invasion of France many artists fled and those still in Paris had to survive: Matisse kept out of view but Picasso could not avoid Nazi visitors. A few, like Beckett, joined the Resistance. Some were arrested and died in German hands. Others entertained the enemy. Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf sang, the dancing girls returned, the opera and theatres reopened, the movie cameras rolled, galleries sold paintings looted from Jewish families, pro-German writers and their rivals fought in print. Told through the experiences of renowned creative figures and witnesses of the times, And the Show Went On provides the authoritative account of how Paris's artistic world lived through the German Occupation. From the desperation of defeat to the heights of creativity this is a moving history of survival, collaboration and resistance.