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Villa Air-Bel: World War II, escape, and a house in Marseille

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Average Rating
Publisher:
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Pub. Date:
2009
Language:
English
Description
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 André Breton, Max Ernst, Victor Serge, Marc Chagall, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, Remedios Varo, Benjamin Péret, and scores of other cultural elite denounced as enemies of the Third Reich, fear and uncertainty define daily life. One wrong glance, one misplaced confidence, could mean arrest, deportation, and death. Their only salvation is the Villa Air-Bel, a château outside Marseille where a group of young people will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive. Financed by the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private American relief organization, unlikely heroes-feisty graduate student Miriam Davenport, Harvard-educated classical scholar Varian Fry, beautiful and compelling heiress Mary Jayne Gold, and brilliant young Socialist and survivor of the Battle of Dunkerque Danny Bénédite and his British wife, Theo-cajole, outwit, and use every means possible to stave off the Nazis and newly installed Vichy government officials circling closer with each passing day. The château was a vibrant artistic salon, home to lively debates and clandestine affairs, to Sunday art auctions and subversive surrealist games. Relationships within the house were tense and arguments were common, but the will to survive kept the covert operation under wraps. Beyond the château's luscious façade war raged, yet hope reverberated within its halls. With the aid of their young rescuers, this diverse intelligentsia-intense, brilliant, and utterly terrified-was able to survive one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century. Villa Air-Bel is a powerfully told, meticulously researched true story. Rosemary Sullivan explores the diaries, memoirs, and letters of the individuals involved while uncovering their private worlds and the web of relationships they developed. Filled with suspense, drama, and intrigue, Villa Air-Bel is an excellent work of narrative nonfiction that delves into a fascinating albeit hidden saga in our recent history.
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ISBN:
9780060732509
9780061856891
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID889f5802-85b5-e21b-0578-1e00d296918c
Grouping Titlevilla air bel world war ii escape and a house in marseille
Grouping Authorrosemary sullivan
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2023-09-24 02:35:52AM
Last Indexed2023-09-23 02:26:47AM

Solr Fields

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0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Sullivan, Rosemary
author2-role
hoopla digital
author_display
Sullivan, Rosemary
display_description
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 André Breton, Max Ernst, Victor Serge, Marc Chagall, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, Remedios Varo, Benjamin Péret, and scores of other cultural elite denounced as enemies of the Third Reich, fear and uncertainty define daily life. One wrong glance, one misplaced confidence, could mean arrest, deportation, and death. Their only salvation is the Villa Air-Bel, a château outside Marseille where a group of young people will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them alive. Financed by the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private American relief organization, unlikely heroes-feisty graduate student Miriam Davenport, Harvard-educated classical scholar Varian Fry, beautiful and compelling heiress Mary Jayne Gold, and brilliant young Socialist and survivor of the Battle of Dunkerque Danny Bénédite and his British wife, Theo-cajole, outwit, and use every means possible to stave off the Nazis and newly installed Vichy government officials circling closer with each passing day. The château was a vibrant artistic salon, home to lively debates and clandestine affairs, to Sunday art auctions and subversive surrealist games. Relationships within the house were tense and arguments were common, but the will to survive kept the covert operation under wraps. Beyond the château's luscious façade war raged, yet hope reverberated within its halls. With the aid of their young rescuers, this diverse intelligentsia-intense, brilliant, and utterly terrified-was able to survive one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century. Villa Air-Bel is a powerfully told, meticulously researched true story. Rosemary Sullivan explores the diaries, memoirs, and letters of the individuals involved while uncovering their private worlds and the web of relationships they developed. Filled with suspense, drama, and intrigue, Villa Air-Bel is an excellent work of narrative nonfiction that delves into a fascinating albeit hidden saga in our recent history.
format_catalog
eBook
format_category_catalog
eBook
id
889f5802-85b5-e21b-0578-1e00d296918c
isbn
9780060732509
9780061856891
last_indexed
2023-09-23T09:26:47.447Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9780060732509
publishDate
2006
2009
publisher
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Artists -- Homes and haunts -- France -- Marseille
Electronic books
Emergency Rescue Committee -- History
Escapes -- France -- Marseille
France -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945
Fry, Varian, -- 1907-1967
Intellectuals -- Homes and haunts -- France -- Marseille
Marseille (France) -- History
Rescues -- France -- Marseille
Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust -- Biography
Villa Air-Bel (Marseille, France)
World War, 1939-1945 -- France -- Marseille
World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue -- France
World War, 1939-1945 -- Refugees -- France
title_display
Villa Air-Bel : World War II, escape, and a house in Marseille
title_full
Villa Air-Bel : World War II, escape, and a house in Marseille / Rosemary Sullivan
Villa Air-Bel : World War II, escape, and a house in Marseille [electronic resource] / Rosemary Sullivan
Villa Air-Bel World War II, Escape, and a House in Marseille
title_short
Villa Air-Bel
title_sub
World War II, escape, and a house in Marseille
topic_facet
Artists
Electronic books
Escapes
Fry, Varian
History
Homes and haunts
Intellectuals
Jews
Nonfiction
Refugees
Rescue
Rescues
Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust
World War, 1939-1945

Solr Details Tables

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overdrive:ec86d83e-26a0-461f-a92d-47ddbaf8d3b7-2Online OverDrive CollectionOnline OverDriveeBookeBook2falsetrueOverDriveAvailable Online

record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
ils:.b17993003BookBooks1st edEnglishHarperCollinsc2006xv, 476 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
hoopla:MWT15395838eBookeBookEnglishHarperCollins Publishers20091 online resource
overdrive:ec86d83e-26a0-461f-a92d-47ddbaf8d3b7eBookeBookEnglishHarperCollins2009

scoping_details_catalog

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