When Paris Went Dark
The City of Light under German Occupation, 1940-1944
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
About this listen
The spellbinding and revealing chronicle of Nazi-occupied Paris.
On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Subsequently, an eerie sense of normalcy settled over the City of Light. Many Parisians keenly adapted themselves to the situation - even allied themselves with their Nazi overlords. At the same time, amidst this darkening gloom of German ruthlessness, shortages, and curfews, a resistance arose. Parisians of all stripes-Jews, immigrants, adolescents, communists, rightists, cultural icons such as Colette, de Beauvoir, Camus and Sartre, as well as police officers, teachers, students, and store owners-rallied around a little known French military officer, Charles de Gaulle.
When Paris Went Dark evokes with stunning precision the detail of daily life in a city under occupation, and the brave people who fought against the darkness. Relying on a range of resources - memoirs, diaries, letters, archives, interviews, personal histories, flyers and posters, fiction, photographs, film and historical studies - Rosbottom has forged a groundbreaking audiobook that will forever influence how we understand those dark years in the City of Light.
©2014 Ronald C. Rosbottom (P)2014 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust - and features over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period.
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Where are the photos?
- By Cassandra on 01-17-22
By: Harald Jähner, and others
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The German War
- A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945; Citizens and Soldiers
- By: Nicholas Stargardt
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years? In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials - personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence - to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people to vivid life.
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Great read for history buffs
- By marykk on 05-12-16
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Defying Hitler
- The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule
- By: Gordon Thomas, Greg Lewis
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 22 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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An enthralling story that vividly resurrects the web of everyday Germans who resisted Nazi rule.
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The Righteous Few
- By Linda on 05-19-19
By: Gordon Thomas, and others
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A Woman of No Importance
- The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
- By: Sonia Purnell
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and - despite her prosthetic leg - helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.
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Maybe it’s the narrator?
- By Andrea on 09-18-19
By: Sonia Purnell
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The Devil's Diary
- Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
- By: Robert K. Wittman, David Kinney
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil's Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler's "chief social philosopher", Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich's genocidal crusade.
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Fresh perspective on terrible events.
- By Sparkly on 04-20-16
By: Robert K. Wittman, and others
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Spies of No Country
- Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel
- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel's existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk....
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Absolutely brilliant
- By David Mane on 06-23-19
By: Matti Friedman
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Last Hope Island
- Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Kimberly Farr
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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A groundbreaking account of how Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to reclaim their continent from Hitler, from the New York Times best-selling author of Citizens of London and Those Angry Days.
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Not What I Expected--More What I Needed to Know
- By DanD on 06-25-17
By: Lynne Olson
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Fractured Lands
- How the Arab World Came Apart
- By: Scott Anderson
- Narrated by: Scott Anderson
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011 a series of antigovernment uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa in what would become known as the Arab Spring. Few could predict that these convulsions, initially hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy, would give way to brutal civil war, the terrors of the Islamic State, and a global refugee crisis. But, as New York Times best-selling author Scott Anderson shows, the seeds of catastrophe had been sown long before. In this gripping account, Anderson examines the myriad complex causes of the region's profound unraveling.
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Timely and a must to listen to!
- By becky robbins on 05-05-17
By: Scott Anderson
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Operation Nemesis
- The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide
- By: Eric Bogosian
- Narrated by: Eric Bogosian
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1921 a small group of self-appointed patriots set out to avenge the deaths of almost one million victims of the Armenian Genocide. They named their operation Nemesis after the Greek goddess of retribution. Over several years the men tracked down and assassinated former Turkish leaders. The story of this secret operation has never been fully told until now.
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Avenging Turkish Denial with Reason
- By PKsweets on 05-12-15
By: Eric Bogosian
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Midnight at the Pera Palace
- The Birth of Modern Istanbul
- By: Charles King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul - an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city - people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims.
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INTERESTING SUBJECT - CONFUSED WRITING
- By The Louligan on 01-18-15
By: Charles King
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The Rape of Nanking
- By: Iris Chang
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.
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Powerful
- By Douglas on 09-05-09
By: Iris Chang
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Paris
- After the Liberation 1944-1949
- By: Antony Beevor, Artemis Cooper
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In this brilliant synthesis of social, political, and cultural history, Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper present a vivid and compelling portrayal of the City of Lights after its liberation. Paris became the diplomatic battleground in the opening stages of the Cold War.
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Worthwhile listen
- By DanBudda on 07-27-16
By: Antony Beevor, and others
What listeners say about When Paris Went Dark
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sharie Lawless
- 12-19-23
Made it all the way through and so glad I did
I don’t often make it all the way through the audiobooks that I buy (and I buy many) but this one while a dense history has poignant stories that kept me interested throughout.
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- John Wright & Kim Hyatt
- 07-18-15
Interesting
Well done story about Paris under Nazi occupation - even for someone that's not a history buff. Seem to repeat some - same info in a different way.
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- Daniel
- 09-01-15
Compelling Account of Nazi Occupation
Would you listen to When Paris Went Dark again? Why?
I would listen to it again in a couple of years, because of its insights into an intriguing moment in history.
What did you like best about this story?
The author provides intelligent, insightful analysis of a time period that has been covered before. He brings together the insights of many historians, and adds his own astute observations.
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- Cathy
- 04-05-24
This perspective told a history that I was curious about. Fascinating.
Nothing to dislike. Excellent narrative professionally told with facts and supporting footnotes. I can only imagine how the French felt in hindsight from such a dark scar from history.
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- Mark W Smith
- 12-09-18
An informative read
"When Paris Went Dark" challenges some of the cherished myths about Germany's conquest of France and the dedication and effectiveness of "La Résistance." Per Rosbottom, a consensus has developed in recent years that France's unimaginably speedy defeat to Germany was the result of negligence and sheer incompetence. The vaunted Maginot Line, built in the 1930s, was forever to protect France from invasion by Germany. But it was obsolete only a few years after construction (if not, in fact, during construction). When Germany attacked, its tanks simply bypassed the linked pillboxes of the Maginot Line by rolling over the forest that lay to its north. Presumably, it was inconceivable to the French in the 1930s that any army could launch a successful attack by proceeding through the thick and overgrown forest.
Also, the Résistance is presented as accomplishing little against the Germans, and such resistance as there was was primarily carried out by adolescents. There were instances of valiant resistance, of course, but not the alleged street-to-street fighting by a fearless and organized opposition force that gave the Germans hell for four years. And as to the Résistance, de Gaulle is stripped of his plumage as the man who ostensibly saved France by making intermittent broadcasts on BBC Radio, from London, of encouragement to the French people. After Paris was liberated, he pushed the falsehood that French resistance fighters, assisted in their efforts by the Allied forces, had liberated Paris themselves.
Finally, the narrator is very good at reading the author's text. But he is just awful enough at pronouncing French, and when he reads quoted language, he adopts what he imagines to be the character's voice. G-r-a-t-i-n-g.
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1 person found this helpful
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- gaillardia
- 08-21-14
Good but not great
Is there anything you would change about this book?
I was expecting a book that I could not wait to listen to each time I got in my car, but I was a bit disappointed. I feel that the book lacked a personal perspective and felt too broad. Moments within it had a personal touch, but overall, it was faceless.
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9 people found this helpful
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- JANE
- 05-22-15
not a page turner
What disappointed you about When Paris Went Dark?
I expected a novel but this is written text book style, merely stating the difficulties people endured, with no characters to bring the reader empathetically into the situation. I did pick this after listening to "The Nightengale" and I guess expected something similar. For the type of book that it is, it is fine.
What do you think your next listen will be?
THE PAYING GUESTS
What three words best describe Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance?
good for this
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
It was done well for content but not an enlightening or entertaining read.
Any additional comments?
I don't know how I could have known that this book would not involve specific people or situations on a personal level.
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1 person found this helpful