DOCTORS AT WAR:THE CLANDESTINE BATTLE AGAINST THE NAZI OCCUPATION OF FRANCE:by Ellen Hampton-2023 - From Louisiana State University Press

 This is part of my Participation in Paris in July 2023 - Hosted by Words and Peace

https://wordsandpeace.com/

The German military administration in France ended with the Liberation of France after the Normandy and Provence landings. It formally existed from May 1940 to December 1944, though most of its territory had been liberated by the Allies by the end of summer 1944.

When anti-Jewish measures intensified under the Nazi Occupation of France, a group of doctors formed a clandestine group to treat and shelter resistants, to deter deportation and to protect victims of terror. Led by the grandson of the great Louis Pasteur, the Resistance Health Service included the son of a rabbi, the son of a Protestant pastor, and the first woman to direct a French hospital department. They joined forces in Paris to outwit the Nazis, despite terrible danger. The physician founders of another resistance group, Vengeance, were among hundreds of French doctors deported to concentration camps. They went to work in camp clinics, treating and healing ill and starving prisoners with little more than their hands and their knowledge. In the final phase of the war, doctors joined the hidden forest camps of maquisards in combat, operating under parachute tents with car headlights, patching up injuries incurred in guerrilla attacks on German troops. Throughout the dark night of Nazi domination, doctors risked their lives to save others and ease the suffering of their nation. Sworn to aid and assist, most of them felt they could not have acted otherwise.           

"  History tells us where we’re going and literature tells us where we’ve been. In between lies the journey, the transitory space between experience and hope, the stories I love most. I am a PhD historian, author, editor, former professor and occasional journalist. After two non-fiction books on World War II, both born of absolute awe for those who found their way through that dark night, I am reaching back in time to the drama and romance of a historical fiction series based in medieval France, Castle and the Cross." From the author's website 

The book provides lots of data on the individual Doctors, many lost their lives.  

This is a valuable addition to the history of WW Two in France.

I was given a review copy of this book

Mel Ulm