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    Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War
    Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War
    Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War
    Audiobook11 hours

    Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War

    Written by Agnes Humbert and Barbara Mellor

    Narrated by Joyce Bean

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Agnes Humbert was an art historian in Paris during the German occupation in 1940. Though she might well have weathered the oppressive regime, Humbert was stirred to action by the atrocities she witnessed. In an act of astonishing bravery, she joined forces with several colleagues to form an organized resistance-very likely the first such group to fight back against the occupation. (In fact, their newsletter, Resistance, gave the French Resistance its name.)

    In the throes of their struggle for freedom, the members of Humbert's group were betrayed to the Gestapo; Humbert herself was imprisoned. In immediate, electrifying detail, Humbert describes her time in prison; her deportation to Germany, where for more than two years she endured a string of brutal labor camps; and the horror of discovering that seven of her friends were executed by a firing squad. But through the direst of conditions and ill health in the labor camps, Humbert retains hope for herself, for her friends, and for humanity.

    Originally published in France in 1946, the book was soon forgotten and is now translated into English for the first time. Resistance is more than a firsthand account of wartime France; it is the work of a brave, witty, and forceful woman, a true believer who refused to go quietly.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 29, 2008
    ISBN9781400178339
    Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War
    Author

    Agnes Humbert

    Agnès Humbert was a distinguished art historian and a member of the Museé de l'Homme group in the French Resistance. She survived the war and died in Valmondois, France, in 1963.

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    • 5/5
      Agnès Humbert was born in 1894 to a French soldier and an English expatriate mother. In 1916, at age twenty-one, she married George Sabbagh, an Egyptian-born artist who served in the British army during World War I. Both became pupils of the Symbolist painter Maurice Denis. Her sons Jean and Pierre were born in 1917 and 1918, but by 1934, Humbert and Sabbagh were divorced. Humbert, who had been trained as a watercolorist, went on to study art history at the Ecole du Louvre, where she also earned two postgraduate diplomas in philosophy and ethnography. Having established a solid reputation as an art historian, she joined the staff of Musée des Artes et Traditions Populaires. True to her leftist and militant anti-fascist beliefs, she was a staunch supporter of the Popular Front and a teacher at the Université ouvrière (worker's university). Her professional life reflected her political convictions: she collected photographic documentation of the strikes of 1936 and traveled to Russia in 1939 to study Soviet cultural life. When World War II broke out, she was forty-three years old and had two grown sons. (Biographical information from Julien Blanc's Afterword.)Personal politics aside, Humbert does not fit the image we often have of a "resistance" fighter. She was not a young romantic. She was sympathetic to communism but she wasn't a revolutionary. Under the German occupation, she wasn't desperate and could have remained in her position if she just kept her head down. But the humiliation of defeat and invasion, and an ensuing sense of restlessness urging her *just to do something*, drove her and several fellow intellectuals to come together and form what became one of the primary foundations of the famed French Resistance. Humbert distributed anti-Nazi propaganda, edited an anti-Nazi broadsheet, and participated in nascent intelligence-gathering operations. But a Gestapo double agent betrayed the group, and she was arrested in March of 1941. She spent a year in a notorious Nazi-controlled French prison, faced a sham trial, and was subsequently deported to Germany to serve as an industrial slave laborer."Résistance: A Woman's Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France," first published in 1946 but only just now appearing in English (to be released tomorrow, September 23, 2009, by Bloomsbury Books) recounts, in present-tense diary form, Agnès Humbert's nearly five years in Nazi captivity. Though she was never held in an actual death/concentration camp (i.e. Auschwitz, Dachau), the conditions she endured may well have matched what many Jewish inmates experienced. Close, constant, and unprotected contact with acid and chemical vapor destroyed the prisoners' hands and clothing, caused spells of blindness, and ravaged their lungs. Hygiene was nonexistent, from overflowing sop buckets to underwear unwashed for weeks. Beatings were frequent. The winter cold was relentless, air raids were a constant threat, and the scant food was barely edible. Humbert was also briefly held at Allendorf, a sub-camp of Buchenwald, where she observed prisoners abandoned in cells with only the dead for company.Still, throughout her ordeal, Humbert never lost her sense of humor, her pride, her principles, or her strength and ability to seek support and fraternity even when humanity seemed to be at its worst. Her voice is vivid and unwavering: a blend of irreverence, wry wit, and the occasional drift into intellectual contemplation. It is this latter quality that gives the narrative its unique voice. As Julien Blanc discusses in the Afterword, "'Résistance' juxtaposes two distinct types of writing - the raw spontaneity of diary entries and the more considered reflections from memory - corresponding to two distinct time frames. . . It is this hybrid structure, combining two literary genres that are usually quite distinct, that makes 'Résistance' unique among such memoirs." (For example, Humbert at one point shifts from a detailed description of the dangerous work performed by the prisoners in the textile factory to an ironic exposition on the eternal obedience and trustworthiness of the machine.) In that respect, "Résistance" also differs from every Holocaust memoir I've read. In his introduction to Jakov Lind's "Landscape in Concrete," a "Catch-22"-like novel about an overly obedient oaf of a German soldier, Joshua Cohen states that if the Holocaust might be regarded as the culmination or perfection of European industrial society, then so too has Holocaust literature largely exhibited "a perfection of European culture: Accounts of the tragedy have almost always been technically sterile, stylistically orderly, factual. Classical. Apollonian, to a fault." Humbert, though detailed and precise in her recollections, does not simply recite the facts as they happened, as Elie Wiesel did in "Night." "Résistance" is ultimately as much about Humbert herself as it is about what happened to the Third Reich's political prisoners. Although her participation in the actual Resistance occupies only about 50 out of 270 pages, the remainder of the book is concerned with alternative forms of resistance: emotional, psychological, and even surreptitiously physical. The reader is both immersed in the horrific Nazi penal system and in the mind of a singular individual. Humbert's innate spirit and personality dominate the narrative as much as external events do."Résistance: A Woman's Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France" is both a powerful work and a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in WWII/the Holocuast or simply history in general. It also has strong feminist appeal, not only in the figure of Agnès Humbert herself (who went on to hunt Nazis for the liberating American military), but also in the fact that, according Julian Blanc, women have been glaringly absent from many chronicles of the French Resistance, appearing only in obligatory, generalized odes to the abstract "woman of the Resistance." (Women as one-dimensional symbols instead of as three-dimensional human beings . . . grrrr, I hate that!) It is a true-life memoir with all the appeal of a fictional novel: it is suspenseful, fast-paced, vivid and descriptive, with a cast of memorable "characters." In other words: a great choice even for those who don't usually read non-fiction. Strongly recommended.(One thing I did find troubling, though, was Humbert's apparent sympathy for the Soviet Union. Judging by both Résistance and biographical information I also read, Humbert seems to have glossed over the atrocities committed by Stalin, who ended up killing more people than Hitler. At one point, for instance, she laments the arrival of young, innocent Ukrainian girls, recalling "the girls that I saw in the collective farms around Kiev in 1939, singing from sheer joie de vivre, and now here they are shackled in slavery." For the full story of these so-called "collective farms" in Ukraine, look up the Holodomor.)
    • 5/5
      Humbert kept a journal relating events as they happened when Paris fell to the Germans in June 1940. With few men left in the civilian population, what became known as the French Resistance was organized by women. The early entries describe the shock and dismay at what is happening to her beloved city and country, when she was inspired to do something, if only to spread information. She met others with the same goal, and together they printed a newsletter titled Résistance, the first use of the word that eventually gave the name to the movement. When Humbert's activities were discovered by the Gestapo in April 1941, although they had little to go on, she was arrested and immediately imprisoned. At her trial she was given 5 years in prison and sent to a forced labour camp. From this point the book gives an account of the extraordinarily horrific experiences as a slave labourer, but written soon after her liberation in April 1945. Because this section continues in journal format, it serves to show the prolonged time of extreme, agonizing ill-treatment. During this time she maintained her resistance, sabotaging every product she worked on. After her liberation, she again kept a journal, reprinted as the final section in the book, making only the middle section written from memory. There are many outstanding features in her account, the most noted being that she retained her positive attitude, sense of humour and consideration for other prisoners. When she was liberated, the German town of Wanfried was in chaos and Humbert took a leading part in the organization of facilities, food supply, medical treatment to the townspeople, prisoners, and huge population of army personnel, many of whom behaved like hooligans. Conditions were quite different to the idea many of us might have about liberation where everyone is suddenly free, and ready to go home. She appreciated the difference between Nazis and those who were forced into the party and used the information to form a method of identifying Nazis which led to many arrests. Humbert's contribution to the war effort, resistance, and recovery was extensive and nothing short of heroic. Her book, one of the first about the war years in France and slave labour camps was published in January 1946 although not translated until 2008. The Afterword by Julien Blanc is of particular interest by filling in the details of Humbert's life, her process of writing the book and the Resistance movement. There is also an extensive appendix detailing documents on the Resistance, translator's notes, bibliography and index. A highly recommended five-star read.
    • 5/5
      Although I don't usually read this type of nonfiction, I was caught in the immediacy of this memoir, and I am delighted that I read it. The daily details of Agnes Humbert's early work in the French resistance and her subsequent years of imprisonment were told in literate and descriptive detail. I would rate this book comparable to the Diary of Anne Frank. Amazingly calm and factual, the author portrayed even the most horrific circumstances of her ordeal with precise word pictures and calm detachment. An inspiring story of courage and determination, this book deserves my highest recommendation.
    • 4/5
      A great historical book, written as a memoir, of a woman who lived during and after Germany's occupation of France. This includes her initial imprisonment and forced labor prior to the fall of the Third Reich.
    • 5/5
      Résistance, Agnès Humbert’s journal and memoir, is a haunting and heart-wrenching account of her experiences during the occupation of France throughout the Second World War.The first two chapters are presented in journal form, recorded by the author almost on a daily basis. The larger section of the book is comprised of her memoir written just after the war ended. Both segments recount the many men and women that Agnès Humbert knew and met and who joined her in the underground movement that helped define France during the war years. The courage shown by her and others is remarkable. They seemed to share an unshaken faith that it was only a matter of time before they were once more able to live without fear of persecution. There is plenty of anger and bitterness: “The Germans are a spineless lot on the whole, lacking any ability to reason things through or view them with a critical spirit; and they suffer from a total and absolute lack of initiative, inculcated by their educational system down the centuries.” This comment, made at the end of the war, is in response to Agnès stepping in to help when the native Germans did nothing to support other Germans with among other things, medical help. It’s not politically correct, but for the mores of 1945, coming at the end of a brutal war, it was probably considered mild. However in other instances within the book, the author gives credit to Germans for unexpected kindnesses. When a Nazi judge sentenced some of her fellow resistance fighters at trial, he went to considerable trouble to later plead for leniency for them, saying they behaved honorably and more. Agnès was at the time encouraged by his honest and respectful behaviour towards the prisoners and afterwards, during his own war criminal hearing, she wrote a moving testimonial supporting him. In another notable statement that would not be looked favourably on in present-day societal norms Agnès criticizes polish prisoners of war for their behaviour once they were granted freedom in 1945. Throughout the book, her feelings for the enemy seemed to be scorn for the many but genuine affection for the few. I’ve only read one other book that touched on the French resistance – The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin. While that book does have some parallels to Résistance – obviously the topic, but also both are based on actual events with the main characters being real (as opposed to fictitious) women - Resistance is the more true to life work, simply because it’s written by the person who lived the events.Occasionally the narrative jumps around and individuals are introduced but then not mentioned for some time making it difficult to keep track of the connections between Agnes and her friends. However, this is a minor criticism given the circumstances under which this book was written and especially so since several tools are provided to alleviate this issue at the back of the book: an afterword explains some of the methods and motivations of the author; an appendix which includes documents and transcripts from the war and which are pertinent to the book; a bibliography and an index, both of which are extremely helpful in identifying notables within the book.I can recommend this book not just as an enjoyable read – it’s much more than that. It’s a history lesson that teaches the fortunate what could still happen given the right circumstances.
    • 5/5
      Originally published in 1946, Agnes Humbert's journal became the most quoted source on the early days of French Resistance. Though being quoted frequently the book soon became obsolete and obscure obtainable only by academia. Republished in France in 2004, the book was finally translated into English this year, 2008.The first and last sections of the book are taken directly from Ms. Humbert's day to day diary. Here we are told of her experiences as the Germans occupy France and how she and her colleagues started the first outright resistance to the occupation. We are also told the day to day reflections of the days after France were liberated and the part she played in helping to separate the chafe from the wheat where the German citizens were concerned.The bulk of the journal was written almost immediately after the war and while not being an actual day to day journal it is a very closely remembered memoir of her German trial and sentencing as a political prisoner sent to Hard Labour camps and prisons, starting in France and eventually moving to Germany. This is a fabulous book, full of atrocities and monstrous behaviour by human beings but also shows the determination of one woman and those who surround her of keeping their dignity and holding their heads high as they are degraded each and every day.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Resistance is the journal of Agnes Humbert, a resident of Paris who writes of the German occupation of Paris. She was forty-three at the time and her first instinct was flight. She left Paris but returned a few weeks later. She and a friend formed one of the first resistance cells in Paris, which was unfortunately betrayed in 1941. Her colleagues were executed and she was deported to Germany and spent years as a slave labourer.This felt like I was peeking over her shoulder and reading her diary. I received a first hand look at what a French woman felt and did when she saw her country fall. She personally did not surrender, she both fought and suffered to help free her country. Her years in Germany as a forced labourer were truly horrifying and stand as a testament to the degree of human suffering the Nazis inflicted on others.Translated by Barbara Mellor this book is the story of one woman’s war. Some of the small details caused joy such as her seeing a Stefan Zweig book in the bookseller’s window one day but when she went back later, it had been removed and included on the list of banned books yet the bookseller slipped her a copy anyway. Of course other details of her years of suffering were difficult to read about but Agnes Humbert was a remarkable woman with a zest for living and courage to spare.
    • 4/5
      Great opportunity to learn about the Resistance and the treatment of the French under the Nazis. Incredible story very well written. Got a little long and repetitive but that was what happened to her!
    • 3/5
      This is the translation of a diary kept by a French woman who was a political prisoner during WW2. She was sent to Germany and spent 4 years in forced work camp/prison. Another amazing account of human endurance and perserverance in such horrid conditions. It really is a wonder how humans can treat other humans so unhumanly. A good read if you are interested in WW2 history and the human spirit.
    • 5/5
      An incredible book, based on the diaries and recollections of Agnes Humbert, one of the earliest to establish the French Resistance in WWII after the German invasion. Agnes was an artist and ethnologist working in a Parisian museum who was determined not to be cowed by the Germans and to fight back any way she could. She was arrested in 1941 and sentenced to five years hard labour in Germany. Agnes' personality shines through an experience which would have broken lesser characters, such were the horrendous conditions under which she lived and worked. She, along with other female political and German criminal prisoners were "employed" in a rayon factory near Dusseldorf under horrific and dangerous conditions and it is a miracle she survived. Finally the factory was bombed by the allies and she ended up a prisoner in Wansfried, Hesse, where she was released by the American army and immediately went to work helping them root out Nazis, but all the while expressing sympathy with those Germans who suffered under the Nazis and didn't actively support them.
    • 5/5
      This is the first thing I have read about the French Resistance other than a fictionalized short account.  I am also ignorant regarding French history, so - grain of salt recommended.  However,  I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in that topic or the topic of resistance in general.The first section of the book is a journal kept by Humbert during her experience as a founder of one of the first groups of the Resistance.  The second section is in journal format but written after her experience in French and German jails and labor camps after being convicted of aiding and abetting the enemy (of Germany, during the occupation).  Of course she was unable to keep a journal during that time.  She returns to her immediate journalling when freed from the labor camps, for the third section, before her return to Paris.There are about 40 pages in the Afterword by Julien Blanc, explaining the very interesting process of vetting the journals.  How do we know they are real, how do we know they were indeed written by Humbert, etc.  How do we know the things Humbert wrote were true?  The description of this process alone is with reading for those of us unfamiliar with this process.An extensive Appendix is included listing many documents about the Resistance and relating them to Humbert's writing.For me, it is this combination of journal, memoir, explanation of primary vs. secondary sources that makes this a five star book.  Without that, it would have been four.  This combination gives us an interesting and detailed story in combination with historical documentation and a fascinating read.Humbert is an interesting figure, educated, cultured and financially able to sit out the war in another safer place.  However, those very privileges seem to have given her the knowledge, health and love of country that caused her to make the choice to stay in occupied France and fight.  I was at first disappointed to find the initial section about the Resistance to be so short, but learned that Humbert's Resistance continued throughout her prison time and on into her Nazi hunting activities.  The initial resistance was a lot about forming the structure of her cell and connecting with and educating others.  Humbert seemed to have astute awareness of where individuals were in their own process of politicization and how to work with people where they were, with what they were willing to do.  Many initial activities were educational involving the design and placement of posters, publishing propaganda, using political graffiti, etc. many things necessary at the beginning of a movement that seem to some to be rather innocuous (as some would say of today's Occupy movement activities).  Only five months of these activities were enough to convince the Nazis however, that this movement was trouble.Humbert's times in prison and labor camps were also works of resistance.  For example her refusal to stand when a German entered her cell - when she heard them coming she stood up before they got there so as not to be seen as obedient.  There were many small examples of this behavior which I see as things she was able to do, as small as they were, that kept not only her own passion up but those of her cohorts.  In the labor camps her resistance to contributing to the war effort took place as sabotaging what ever products she was working on.  EVERY product.One of the best parts of the book for me personally was learning about the liberation experience.  This was not presented as a movie experience with the hero rushing in, but rather the slow, real process involving keeping life going during this time of reorganization.  Humbert was both compassionate and fiery in her pursuit of war criminals and the rebuilding of the town.  She began her hunt by speaking with German pastor's wives in the areas where she went, asking them to tell her who had been forced into the Nazi party unwillingly and helped prisoners in secret, so that she could help protect them.  Then she questioned those people and got more and more information that led to many arrests.  For me, this last section was especially enlightening.Fascinating book - excellent and important read - five stars. 
    • 5/5
      I have read quite a few memoirs about living under the Nazi regime in World War II, but up until last year I hadn’t heard of this book, Resistance. Started as a journal, Agnes Humbert documented her thoughts about the Nazis entering Paris and her rebellious activities as one of the first members of the French Resistance. She wrote the journal in present tense, and kept the journal format even when writing the latter parts of the book (after she was liberated from a Nazi work prison).

      Her account of her experiences as a political prisoner, first in France and later in Germany, gives a different perspective of the Nazi war machine. Most Holocaust memoirs that I’ve read have been about Jews who were persecuted, went into hiding/tried to flee the country, and then were sent to concentration camps. Even in the French prison the Nazis did not treat the inmates in a humane manner, but life in the German prison camps made the French prisons seem posh.

      Agnes and her fellow political prisoners were housed with criminals of all sorts in the German work camps, and were forced to work under hideous conditions with meager rations. In other words, the prison work camps were very similar to the concentration camps, but without the gas chambers and crematoriums. What amazed me was the variety of ways that people can create to inflict torture and pain on other humans. The capacity that mankind has for cruelty is astonishing. I am also surprised when reading books like this, at how much the human body can survive. Thank goodness there are also members of mankind with an alternately extreme capacity for mercy and compassion.

      One quote that stood out to me was about the necessity of war in the face of tyranny, and the horror of all of the death that war brings:

      Watching all this, I feel my heart and mind split in two. One half of my heart aches for all this misery, weeps for all this destruction. But then I tell myself for the hundredth, perhaps the thousandth time, that this is the only way that we can destroy the monster. . . . In the struggle between barbarism and civilization killing is a necessary and unavoidable evil. Civilization has to use the weapons of barbarism in order to prevail. That is the great tragedy. Page 194

      As far as the reading experience itself, the first twenty pages or so are pretty dry, as she documents the movements and activities of the Resistance group. After that her story drew me in with descriptions of the inside of a Nazi prison cell, a court trial of Resistance members, and prison work at a rayon factory.

      In regard to her documentation of the early French Resistance, it is mentioned in the afterword that she wrote down the real names of those involved in her journal. While this is considered valuable to historians (because other Resistance members didn’t use real names in documentation) it also seemed very reckless on her part. Had the Nazis found her journal they would have easily been able to locate and arrest the others with whom she worked.

      I highly recommend Resistance to those who like World War II memoirs, and to anyone who wants to learn more about the formation of the French Resistance and the conditions of political prisoners under the Nazis.
    • 4/5
      I am recommending this book to anyone interested in the political agitators that sought to fight the Nazis. I consider it one of the better books written on the subject. It begins and ends with transcripts of the author‘s diary entries. The first date from June 1940 to April 1941, ending two days before the author’s interrogation by the Gestapo. The final diary transcripts date from April 1945, four years later, after American liberation. The intervening section was written immediately after the war. It covers her imprisonment, trial, deportation to Germany and life as a slave worker, classified as a political criminal. The book was first published in 1946 and it was one of the first of its kind. Its immediacy, the author’s candor and rambunctious spirit shine throughout. This is a remarkable book. The author has something vital to tell us and she does it with precision, candor, spirit and humor. Humor in a book detailing the life in labor camps? Yes, biting humor! Humor, when the situation is as bad as it is, almost hurts.I get back from the factory after a truly grueling night, prostrated with exhaustion. I am going to sleep like a log, I know. But then I see my bunk is already occupied. I start to make a fuss, but a plaintive voice beneath my blankets soon pulls me up short: ‘Oh please, please, don’t be angry. I haven’t got lice and I haven’t made your bed dirty. ‘I discover this is the new regulation. For lack of space, the day shift and the night shift will take turns to sleep in the same bunks. From now on we will find our bunks already warmed for us. How delightful. (page 151)I marked line after line that I wanted to quote, but I simply cannot put them all here. One example will have to suffice.Agnès Humbert (Oct 12, 1894 – Sept 19, 1963) was a mature woman of forty-six at the date of her first diary entries. She had a solid political background. An art historian, she is articulate, well-educated, committed and passionate. As a member of the fledgling French Resistance, as one with vivid war experiences of life in labor camps and as one there in the confusion of the war’s aftermath, she describes it all, simply and powerfully. She experienced it all, and she has a remarkable writing ability. All parts are written in the first person present tense. This was one of the most difficult war books I have ever read, difficult simply because she makes it so very real and she makes the reader care. Completed April 19, 2013
    • 5/5
      A remarkable account,very harrowing to read in part. The writer is quite outstanding because although having suffered unbelievable horrors at the hands of the Germans, she still manages to inject humor in the most unexpected places. The first part of the book is a daily diary, and therefore a primary source of information; the middle(and main) section was written immediately after the defeat of Germany, so it is still an immediate account.For any student of WW11 this should be part of the research.
    • 4/5
      Agnes Humbert's Resistance is the story of her life as France is occupied by Germans in World War II, her arrest for her underground activities, and her life after liberation. A section of the book is devoted to each of these three periods. However, although Humbert wrote the entire book in diary form, only the first third, recounting the occupation of Paris, is taking from her journal. The rest are reconstructions and are more accurately described as memoir, rather than a day to day accounting of events. Still, Humbert was a gifted writer, and her description of the fall of Paris and the populace's evacuation en masse paralleled the first "movement" of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise which, although fiction, was also written almost as the events were happening. Her keen eye for detail renders her story all the more poignant, although one sometimes wonders how she was able to retain all of names and descriptions, despite years of not having her diary. Still, if one reads this as a memoir, rather than a diary, it is an elegant and valuable addition to the literature of World War II France and the citizens who lived through it.
    • 4/5
      This book is not for the faint of heart. While it's not particularly graphic, it's still greatly depressing.This book is written by a French woman who actually spent time in German labor camps during WWII. It's hard to read about the pain and torture that these people had to go through.It's an important historical piece and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the WWII era. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone looking for a quick lighthearted read. Agnes's words will stay with you long after you've put the book down.
    • 4/5
      Book was very empowering and very interesting. Although it was confusing at times, I thought it was very informative. Will recommend this to others and friends.
    • 4/5
      I have read a decent amount of WWII fiction and a marginal amount of non-fiction and memoirs. For the most part, they have been war/fighting based or centered on a concentration camp victim. I think this is the first time I have ever read about the Nazi labor camps as opposed to the concentration camps. Reading this true story, even this long after WWII, was both enlightening and heartbreaking. Agnes Humbert tells her story as she helps lead one of France's first resistance newspapers and the subsequent trials she goes through as she is arrested and detained first in French camps and then later in German labor camps. The suffering she and other political (and criminal) prisoners went through was unimaginable. And yet through it all, she maintained an admirable sense of humor and lightheartedness that both made it easier to stomach her tale and served to ensure that her and her companions were able to survive to see the next morning. I definitely recommend this read, especially to WWII enthusiasts and people who are interested in reading a truly inspirational story from a real life patriot and hero.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book tremendously but this does not mean I had a hard time getting through some sections. I am interested in WWII so this book was right up my alley. I did find that I would get so wrapped up in the book that I needed to keep a "fluffy" book on hand to switch between to help alleviate the mood. I would very much recommend this book to others.
    • 4/5
      This book was not what I expected. I think that this may be partially because the the title Resistance led me to expect more about the resistance movement in France in general, and not as much the story of a woman's personal resistance, not only of the occupiers of her homeland, but of imprisonment, despair and hate.The book spans nearly 5 years, of which only 10 months are spent as part of the active resistance movement. Those months are also at the very formation of that movement, so the work done, while vastly influential, is not as directly powerful as that which came later. I was quite surprised that the vast majority of this book is a chronicle of the author's time in prison and serving as forced-labor in Germany.The personality of Humbert shines through this book on every page, even at her lowest moments she has an energy that is almost palpable on the page. Yet her descriptions of the horrors she is witness to, and victim of, are almost dispassionate in their honesty.Although this book was not what I expected, I'm glad to have read it.
    • 5/5
      Agnes Humbert was an art historian turned member of the Resistance after Paris fell to the Germans in June, 1940. She, her family and much of the population of Paris fled the city as the Germans approached. Scenes of horror unfolded as she walked with masses of people from Paris to south of Limoges. Her account of her journey is immediate and heartrending.Humbert was languishing in the countryside and sinking into despair when she heard a broadcast by General de Gaulle exhorting the French soldiers and people to rally round him and carry on the struggle. She wrote of her reaction: “A feeling I thought had died forever stirs within me: hope.” Humbert was further buoyed by radio broadcasts recounting that the people of Paris were tearing down German posters as quickly as they were posted. The people of Paris were rebelling! She waded through the bureaucracy to obtain the papers that allowed her to return to Paris in August, 1940. Thus began her journal and memoir of her life as a member of the French Resistance and political prisoner subjected to forced labour in German prisons.The book is two parts journal and one part memoir. Until two days before her arrest on April 15, 1941, Humbert maintained a journal. After she was liberated from the German prison in April, 1945, her journal commenced again. The story she told of the time in between was from memory. It was vivid. Journal and memoir—throughout, the reader feels the author’s sense of humor, sense of the absurd, and courage. One gains an acute understanding of the strength of conviction of Humbert and of her fellows, and further, of the risks they undertook both before and after their arrests. The reader will cringe at the descriptions of the abuse and deprivation Humbert suffered while in prison, and cheer her efforts to sabotage the enemy’s war efforts in the small ways that were available to her.I will not soon forget this book; it is incredible to me that it was published in 1946 but not published in translation until 2008. I have only one other comment and that is about the translation. I believe the spirit of the book and the language of the book were accurately translated, so I am being a bit picky to say that the voice of the author does not come through as a French voice. The French have a certain way of expressing themselves that is different from the way we English speakers do. I would like to read it in French to see if it is just that much better.
    • 5/5
      This is an utterly amazing memoir, which records, with great fidelity to daily detail, the experiences of a French Resistance heroine in Paris at the start of the occupation. She writes calmly about how she started a resistance group, which eventually grew, and joined with others before she was imprisoned and sent to forced labor. The tone is calm and factual, although there is fear and bitterness and anxiety, the author showed complete dedication to defending France against the Nazis from the day France fell. Her ingenuity at thinking of ways to do the work in the face of certain death is incredible. She shows great respect and affection for her colleagues, and was fortunate in the support of her mother and son.When she and two colleagues were creating the Resistance broadside, they kept a fire going to burn the compromising papers if caught, and pretended to be writing a play, with the scenario on the table, just in case of capture. Although she was not young, and the experiences in prison and forced labor deprived her of adequate food, clothing, and warmth, her courage never faltered. She spent less than a year in the Resistance, and four years in prison and forced labor. Many of her companions were executed, but she survived and her memoir was published in 1946. It has only recently come to light again, and was recently translated. It is hard to imagine anyone as calm, and good, and brave. and honourable as Agnes Humbert. She is a secular saint, in my eyes and joins the pantheon of the righteous with Miep Gies, Etty Hillesum, Irena Sendler. In the face of terrible evil, she stood firm and fought with all her intelligence and ability, to spread the word that the Nazis should be opposed no matter what the danger, and that de Gaulle is leading the fight.She is one of the greatest heroines I know.
    • 4/5
      This journal provides accounts of bravery and dignity in the face of the constant cruelty of Nazi Germans and their collaborators. Our generation would do well to observe their example. I am only 2/3's done as I write this review.
    • 4/5
      In the summer of 1940 Agnes Humbert watches her beloved Paris become overrun by invading Germans. She like most Parisians at the time can hardly believe what is happening and feels demoralized to see her city become a home for Nazis and their supporters. Suddenly French soldiers become the play thing of the German army and the citizens of France are subjected to new levels of humiliation. But Agnes had always been a woman of action and decides along with some of her friends and colleagues to resist in whatever way possible. Since many of them were intellectuals and had always found solace in the written word, they begin a newspaper, Resistance, which they use as an anti Nazi tool. The rapidity with which the paper is formed and takes off is almost hard to believe. Agnes and her friends seem like little children setting up a private club. But since they lack other avenues through which to protest the collapse of their society, the written word becomes their ally. Unfortunately for Agnes, she is betrayed by one of their number. She is picked up by German soldiers and after spending some time in a French jail, she is deported to Germany. It is in Germany that she faces horrors almost unimaginable. She is fed very little food, given improper clothing and despite the biting cold, her shoes can barely get her around. Brutality and inhumane treatment reign supreme. When human beings are allowed power unchecked, embrace their baser instincts and this held very true in this prison. She and the other women are forced to work in a factory that had such harmful chemicals that at one time or another almost all the women would lose their eye sight for a few days at a time. The wardresses and soldiers were for the most part cruel and harsh and would find excuses to punish the prisoners. In one incident, the wardress refuses the women water for three to four days because of some perceived offense. The women were forced to drink the water from the toilet. But despite these horrors, Agnes still manages to find points of happiness and has a biting sense of humor. Once when she had the flu, she asked the wardress for an aspirin. The wardress gives her one aspirin. Unfortunately, Agnes was not cured by the next day and when she asks the wardress for another aspirin, she is punched in the stomach and sent flying down the stairs. Her response "I spent the rest of the day reflecting on German remedies for flu". She gains a small measure of happiness from sabotaging the products she is forced to produce. The incidents of sabotage may be small but they serve as sources of strength. The book is generally very well written and keeps you engaged. It is written in the form of a journal with the first part of it written before her imprisonment. The vast majority of the book was written from memory after she had been released. One problem I had with the book was that in the beginning she mentioned so many friends and acquaintances that I lost track of who was who. A very good read.
    • 4/5
      I came across Agnés Humbert's Résistance completely by accident while browsing the "New in Hardcover" section in Barnes & Noble one day, but rarely have I been more grateful for following my instincts on an unfamiliar book and author. From the moment I picked it up this book has haunted me. Too compelling to put down, but too harrowing to read straight through without breaks to recover emotionally, reading this book became a delicious struggle between my need to continue and my desire to stop and reflect. Résistance begins with Agnés Humbert's actual journal entries from the summer of 1940 and the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Paris. She describes the conception and birth of the French Resistance from a completely new point of view, almost as if it was a game she and her friends invented to annoy the Nazis. But it is the very casual way in which she describes certain horrors that brings home to the reader the atrocities of the Nazi occupiers. Her descriptions of the bravery, strength and loyalty of her compatriots brought tears to my eyes.The later portion of the book, after Humbert's arrest, are also written in journal form, but these entries were written just after her release when the war ended. She writes "my memories are so clear that I am able to commit them to paper as they happened and in strict sequence. I remember everything as clearly as though it were written in notebooks". This portion of the book is truly an intimate look into the life of a prisoner of war, and you get the impression that as gut-wrenching as Agnés' experiences are, she actually got off somewhat easily compared to the treatment of so many other prisoners in Nazi camps.Now that I've told you how clear she is in expressing the horrors of war, I need to tell you how very hopeful Humbert's book is. Although the tears flowed freely while reading many passages, the bleakness never took over, and often my tears were tears of admiration for a woman who was oppressed in so many ways, both physical and spiritual, and yet was still able to resist in any small way she could what she knew to be evil. You could not ask for a better narrator, a better guide through the unbelievable cruelties and unexpected kindnesses of the Nazi prison camps.Humbert's journal/book covers the time period from just before the Nazi occupation of Paris to the end of the war and the American liberation of the prison camps in Germany. It is not a comprehensive view of the entirety of WWII, but it's not meant to be. It is one woman's harrowing and hopeful experience of losing her certainty in her country's leaders, but keeping her confidence in the spirit of her nation.
    • 5/5
      This is a firsthand account of a woman living in occupied Paris during WWII who was a member of the French resistance. She was eventually arrested, imprisoned and then deported to Germany to work in a labor camp where she continued to act as a strong, supportive presence to other women prisoners and fought the Nazis as best she could by sabotaging her work whenever possible. What surprised me most about this story (which is beautifully told) was how Humbert's wit and spirited humor stayed with her even through some of her darkest moments. It was truly a riveting read, and all of it was true!
    • 4/5
      highly readable account of her grim wartime experiences as a slave laborer in Germany
    • 4/5
      It is summertime in 1940 when Germany takes Paris. Soon after, Agnes Humbert bands together with a group of like-minded friends to publish Resistance - a French resistance newsletter. By the Spring of 1941 Humbert has been arrested, spends time in a French prison, and is then deported to Germany to a work camp. She suffers there until the end of the war, and while awaiting transport back to France, assists the Americans with their work in Germany.Humbert wrote Resistance in 1946 shortly after the war, the beginning and end parts taken directly from her diary, the middle portion, by necessity written from memory, yet still in a diary format. This gives the book a strong sense of immediacy. I was feeling a bit lost in the opening pages of the book, there were many names and locations that I found difficult to keep track of. The story becomes quite intense when Humbert is arrested, tried and imprisoned. What is most striking in Humbert's writing is her sense of humor, her bravery, and her feistiness. Humbert finds herself working (slaving) in a rayon factory. I didn't know a thing about the manufacturing of rayon, but have discovered that it is quite dangerous and toxic. Humbert and her fellow prisoners are not given protective gear as the paid workers are, and the prisoners are suffering from terrible wounds, temporary blindness, and clothing that is disintegrating instead of covering them. Humbert suffers so much but never loses her sense of self and compassion for others. Not only is Resistance an intensely personal story, it is an informative one as well. It was fascinating to read about the French Resistance and especially how its members were treated once imprisoned and charged. Resistance was out of print for many years, until Barbara Mellor the translator of this book, came across it and knew it was a story that transcended time. We have her to thank for bringing this story to our attention. I end with a quote from Agnes Humbert from 1943, when she is thinking about her inanimate objects waiting for her at home:I think about my books, especially: which one shall I open first when I get back? I can see my bookshelves, and the rows of my beloved books. By the time I get back I shall have quite forgotten how to read, and I'll have to start all over again by looking at picture books like a child.
    • 4/5
      Résistance is the harrowing journal and memoir of Agnès Humbert, a middle-aged art historian in Paris, and her experiences in Nazi occupied France during WWII. When Humbert first hears the rumors of an occupation, she is distraught and numb, but soon finds a strong will of opposition inside her. She begins to contact others who are like-minded and is soon embroiled in producing Résistance, a newspaper filled with propaganda, which she and her colleagues distribute anywhere and everywhere they can. Agnès meets several important contacts and knows that danger is only a heartbeat away, for if the Germans find out about her anti-Nazi sentiments and activities, she will be imprisoned. Though she knows the dangers, she continues with her work, only to be brought in for questioning regarding her activities. Following her eventual trial, Agnès is convicted and sent to prison. What ensues is the heart-breaking story of what she was subjected to after being becoming a political prisoner in France, and later Germany.The first section of this book was given over to the specifics and details of who and what her group of friends did in opposition to the German invasion. Many were implicated, yet as her journal was never found, Agnès was not the cause of any imprisonments or executions. Unfortunately, many of the people responsible for Résistance were tried and convicted anyway. I found this section to be a little dry and methodical. It almost seemed that this part of the book acted as a type of ledger of information, rather than a chronicle. Many of the people were only briefly mentioned, and I had some trouble in understanding who was who and what part they played in the opposition. While I believe that it was important to know the events that led up to her imprisonment, this section seemed a little too matter-of-fact.The majority of this book was devoted to the time that Agnès spent as a prisoner and laborer. During this time she suffered many abuses at the hands of the Germans. The tortures that she and her fellow prisoners faced in the prison were terrible, from starvation and beatings to severe confinement. Despite their atrocious treatment, the women were able to form friendships and take joy in the company of others, sharing news and small victories with each other. Many would not recant their political ideology even after being subjected to daily bouts of cruel treatment. I found it hard to believe that things could get any worse for them, but when they were moved to a German work camp, what had come before paled by comparison. In the labor camps, it was obvious that life was expendable and cheap. The overseers' attitudes went beyond the malicious and into the area of savagery. They were worked like dogs, with no care given to injuries or illness, and the living conditions and rations were pitiful. While Agnès and her fellow laborers struggled, inhaling caustic chemicals that gave them temporary blindness and suppurating ulcers, they still found ways to share political information and news among themselves. Sometimes these friendships were cut short, as their overseers didn't like their fraternization, and women would be moved to other areas of the workhouse. Agnès, nevertheless, found ingenious ways to sabotage her work, as it was the only way she could oppose the occupation from inside its confinement. She never let them break her spirit, no matter what was forced upon her. When help finally arrived in the form of American troops in April of 1945, Agnès had been imprisoned for 5 years. Despite her experiences, she immediately took charge and helped the American forces seek out fleeing Nazis and created a temporary hospital for the refugees and Germans alike. She took command of many aspects of this new civilian life, and was greatly esteemed by the Allied forces, fellow prisoners and the community.One of the most amazing thing about this book was Agnès' remarkable wit and sense of humor. No matter what horrors the day brought her, she had an amazingly beautiful spirit that enabled her to continue laughing. She never showed despair and defeat; rather a cynical cleverness in which she documented the sufferings of herself and those around her. Despite all that happened to her and her compatriots, she never let go of her beliefs and fought in the only way she knew how. Agnès never let herself sink into depression, despite her many injuries or disappointments. I very much admired her courage and strength.This story was both haunting and inspiring. Among the atrocities committed in WWII, this remains a story that is not often heard but that truly needs to be told. It may enlighten others to the fact that Jews were not the only victims of this terrible war. I found myself feeling maudlin and upset while reading this book, but I am glad that I read it. It is a terrible tale, but behind that tale lurks the spirit of of a woman who would not give up, turning a story that could only be ugly into a thing of beauty.
    • 5/5
      Résistance, Agnès Humbert’s journal and memoir, is a haunting and heart-wrenching account of her experiences during the occupation of France throughout the Second World War.The first two chapters are presented in journal form, recorded by the author almost on a daily basis. The larger section of the book is comprised of her memoir written just after the war ended. Both segments recount the many men and women that Agnès Humbert knew and met and who joined her in the underground movement that helped define France during the war years. The courage shown by her and others is remarkable. They seemed to share an unshaken faith that it was only a matter of time before they were once more able to live without fear of persecution. There is plenty of anger and bitterness: “The Germans are a spineless lot on the whole, lacking any ability to reason things through or view them with a critical spirit; and they suffer from a total and absolute lack of initiative, inculcated by their educational system down the centuries.” This comment, made at the end of the war, is in response to Agnès stepping in to help when the native Germans did nothing to support other Germans with among other things, medical help. It’s not politically correct, but for the mores of 1945, coming at the end of a brutal war, it was probably considered mild. However in other instances within the book, the author gives credit to Germans for unexpected kindnesses. When a Nazi judge sentenced some of her fellow resistance fighters at trial, he went to considerable trouble to later plead for leniency for them, saying they behaved honorably and more. Agnès was at the time encouraged by his honest and respectful behaviour towards the prisoners and afterwards, during his own war criminal hearing, she wrote a moving testimonial supporting him. In another notable statement that would not be looked favourably on in present-day societal norms Agnès criticizes polish prisoners of war for their behaviour once they were granted freedom in 1945. Throughout the book, her feelings for the enemy seemed to be scorn for the many but genuine affection for the few. I’ve only read one other book that touched on the French resistance – The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin. While that book does have some parallels to Résistance – obviously the topic, but also both are based on actual events with the main characters being real (as opposed to fictitious) women - Resistance is the more true to life work, simply because it’s written by the person who lived the events.Occasionally the narrative jumps around and individuals are introduced but then not mentioned for some time making it difficult to keep track of the connections between Agnes and her friends. However, this is a minor criticism given the circumstances under which this book was written and especially so since several tools are provided to alleviate this issue at the back of the book: an afterword explains some of the methods and motivations of the author; an appendix which includes documents and transcripts from the war and which are pertinent to the book; a bibliography and an index, both of which are extremely helpful in identifying notables within the book.I can recommend this book not just as an enjoyable read – it’s much more than that. It’s a history lesson that teaches the fortunate what could still happen given the right circumstances.