Popular Books

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. 2010. By Robert M. Edsel. The sub-title tells it all. Exciting adventures saving the art and architecture of Europe. Made into a movie with George Clooney.

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light under German Occupation, 1940-1944. 2015. By Ronald C. Rosbottom. A fascinating story of daily life as the occupation became harder and hungrier and deadlier until Liberation.

Whims of Fortune. 1985. By Guy de Rothschild. The memoirs reveal the lonely life of this rich little Jewish boy in the early twentieth century, as well as the challenges of negotiating for his family during the Nazi occupation of France. Only about one-third of the book is relevant to Thieves of Paris, but I found the whole book fascinating.

In-Depth Scholarly Reads

The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. 1995. Lynn H. Nicholas. An in-depth study of the meticulously planned Nazi theft of cultural gold from across Europe.

Jews in France during World War II. 2001. Renée Poznanski, translated by Nathan Bracher. An authoritative, fine-granined explanation of the stages of Jewish life as oppression became more and more deadly.