Wartime Sites in Paris 1939-1945

Paris, the City of Light, is the most popular tourist destination in Europe. Celebrated in painting, literature, film, and song, Paris never ceases to delight its millions of visitors. This book is a guide to historical sites in Paris associated with the Second World War, which official French histories call La Guerre 39-45. Understandably, the dark years of the German Occupation are a time the French prefer not to remember at all. Why should they? Would anyone expect them to put a plaque on the former Gestapo headquarters at 74, avenue Foch or 9, rue des Saussaies? As the Resistance developed, screams from the interrogation rooms kept neighbors awake at night. But these places, all described here, are harrowing reminders, often unmarked, of a time of humiliation and privation, unspeakable cruelties and brutal murders, but also of heroism and hope.