Villa Air-Bel: World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille

By Rosemary Sullivan

Book Overview

France, 1940. The once glittering boulevards of Paris teem with spies, collaborators, and the Gestapo now that France has fallen to Hitler's Wermacht. For Andr Breton, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Consuelo de Saint-Exup ry, and scores of other cultural elite who have been denounced as enemies of the Third Reich the fear of imminent arrest, deportation, and death defines their daily life. Their only salvation is the Villa Air-Bel, a ch teau outside Marseille where a group of young people will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive.

A powerfully told, meticulously researched true story filled with suspense, drama, and intrigue, Villa Air-Bel delves into a fascinating albeit hidden saga in our recent history. It is a remarkable account of how a diverse intelligentsia--intense, brilliant, and utterly terrified--was able to survive one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060732512
• ISBN13: 9780060732516
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Major Achievement

'Villa Air Bel' is a stunning story of endangered artists and intellectuals in pre-WW2 France. Rosemary Sullivan has masterfully juxtaposed personal histories and historical events to create an urgent and tense book. It is a riveting account of the ordeal suffered by individuals who were being hunted down by the Nazis and of the heroism of young rerscuers willing to endanger their own lives in an effort to help them escape. This book is a compelling page-turner. I couldn't put it down.