Thewanderingjew

Apparently, this is the season or year of the war heroine.  Several books have appeared about largely unsung and underappreciated female World War II resistance fighters. Suddenly, there are several lauding the accomplishments of brave and courageous women who worked at, created, or ran active resistance efforts in France. The books I have read have been filled with accurate historic events and major moments of the war, in which the women were influential in helping to turn the tide in the favor of the Allies and, possibly, even to shorten the length of the war, thereby saving thousands of lives. However, in their efforts, thousands were also recruited, betrayed and sacrificed for their valiant efforts. No good deed goes unpunished.

The current books, and this one is no exception, largely make out the women they portray to be the lord and master of the resistance movement. One would almost think that none were run by men. However, it is true that women were the least suspected to be doing such work and often got away with their clandestine behavior because of their sex. In this book and another I read, “A Woman of No Importance”, by Sonia Purnell, the women featured organized groups and recruited the necessary agents to wage battles for the resistance effort. Virginia Hall, of the United States, worked for the British SOE and in this one, Marie Madeleine Fourcade, a Frenchwoman, organized them for MI6. Her network seemed to have a greater scope than Hall’s. However, both organizations were under the British umbrella and when SOE collapsed, I was sad to learn that the members of MI6 cheered their demise. It seemed a foolhardy thing to do, to be happy that resistance fighters working to end the war had been murdered or compromised, necessitating the end of the organization.

Having read many books about the experiences of men in war, I was surprised to learn of how involved and courageous some women were, without gaining any true acclaim for their actions. The men of the day believed they were better suited to housekeeping. I also found that the author explained many of the events and circumstances described, emotionally, rather than militarily or intellectually. I believe that the women should have been described as most men were, as steady and sure footed, emotionally very stable. In the end, both books seemed to portray their male survivors as weaker than the women. They were described as having been devastated by their experiences and never returning to their former selves or stature. I found it distracting to read about how the women had to hold back their tears or had to control their rage or were haunted by guilt wondering if men would take orders from them. I did not believe that the emotional aspect was pertinent to the overall presentation of their valiant efforts. I couldn’t quite pair the reactions described with what I expected from the kinds of women who could organize and participate in such dangerous programs for the resistance, like arranging escapes, supplies, sabotage of all kinds, gathering weapons, cash, arranging message transfers, radio transmissions, and more, while also donning disguises and false identities to glean information.

Madame Fourcade was very brave and made many sacrifices, quite virtuously, even abandoning her family for years for the cause of French freedom. She supported the effort of the allies and communicated with and followed the directions of well known generals, like Eisenhower. However, in the author’s description, or perhaps from the narrator’s reading, I got the impression that some of the decisions Fourcade made seemed based on emotion rather than careful thought and almost caused her own capture and quite possibly the capture, torture and deaths of others. In total, however, more of her decisions saved lives, than took them. Marie Madeleine Fourcade set up resistance groups, organized agents and recruited resisters. Fourcade was the head of a program called Alliance, the forerunner of which was the Crusade. It is believed that the men and women she worked with shortened the length of the war. She worked largely in the free French zone which was controlled by the Vichy government. Soon, however, it came under the complete control of the Germans and Hitler. Her job grew evermore dangerous.  She was running the largest network of spies.

I did learn several facts from the book. I had not realized that the United States supported the Vichy government and tried to get Marshall Petain to switch sides and support the Allies before D Day. He refused. I also, unrealistically, did not realize that spy organizations and resistance groups competed with each other, although I suppose it was a natural consequence of the shortage of, and yet need for, necessary supplies, recognition and information.

I found the narrator, a good reader, but inappropriate for this audio. She was over involved in its presentation. She over emoted and practically became a character instead of the reader. She was distracting and her interpretation was cloying at times and water boiled faster than she read. She actually turned me off the book, and if I did not want to read it for a group in which I participate, I would have given it up. I have listened to other books with this reader and she does well. Perhaps she should stick to fiction. Non fiction lends itself to less of an interpretation and more of a straightforward presentation. She overshadowed the story by trying to create too much feeling and interest. The subject matter in non fiction should be interesting enough.

There were many similarities in the books I read about with female heroines of WWII. Like Virginia Hall, Fourcade had a disability which would preclude her from certain branches of the service although it might not prevent her from performing admirably. Fourcade had a congenital hip disability and Hall had a false leg. Both were in their thirties and had no visible husband when they joined the service. Both organized resistance efforts. Both understood the necessity of the resistance effort to help the allies and both have been praised for their effort which has been attributed to shortening the war. However, Hall was more private and preferred to remain unsung, wishing her fellow fighters to be given awards, while Fourcade seemed to appreciate the medals she accrued. Both worked to thwart the efforts of Marshall Petain in Vichy and stop Hitler’s march across Europe. Both believed that women were not afforded enough recognition and actively worked to gain their recognition. Often they were unsuccessful. It was a time when women were believed to be better off in the kitchen and needed to know their place. Both books points out the uphill battle women faced for equal rights.