Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War by Agnes Humbert

Aug 04, 2011

Xiaomin Zu rated it

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An amazing book! One of my Dhamma friend talked about this book. I did not wanna read it at first, purely because I do not think I am interested in literature at all. But the historical importance of book is something I could not ignore. So I decided to take a look and I did not regret my decision.
I only hope that someone in China who endured similar struggles under the Japanese invasion during the WII would write down their memoires and have the history available to us.
It is very uplifting to ...more

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Dec 10, 2010

Callie rated it

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You can't have any self pity after reading a book like this. I felt guilty reading it in my comfy bed piled with quilts while I munched cookies...Agnes is a prisoner of war during WWII and basically a slave laborer for the Germans. It was a riveting read and she is quite an extraordinary person. She never loses her sense of humor or of hope and she continues to find joy in good people and to help them in small ways even as she herself is dealing with the most extreme circumstances, cold, hunger,...more

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Sep 27, 2009

Stephen rated it

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Shelves: first-reads

Having recently read Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise about life in Occupied France, I was intrigued to come across this astonishing journal by a woman who joined the Resistance (indeed helped found one of the earliest groups in Paris), was captured, and survived four years in French prison and Nazi slave labor camps. Her journal is first person, present tense, and, except for the years in prison, written at the time, as the events occurred. This gives it an immediacy and authenticity both pow...more

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Dec 01, 2010

F.R. rated it

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Agnès Humbert’s story is a remarkable one. A middle-aged Parisian academic who – by her own admission – had lived a lot of her life through books, but who nevertheless found steel in her soul when the Germans invaded in 1940. Joining up with like-minded friends and acquaintances, all inspired by speeches by the exiled Charles de Gaulle, she worked within Paris to drive forward a resistance and keep the notion of a Free France constantly in French citizen’s minds. However, that is only the first ...moreAgnès Humbert’s story is a remarkable one. A middle-aged Parisian academic who – by her own admission – had lived a lot of her life through books, but who nevertheless found steel in her soul when the Germans invaded in 1940. Joining up with like-minded friends and acquaintances, all inspired by speeches by the exiled Charles de Gaulle, she worked within Paris to drive forward a resistance and keep the notion of a Free France constantly in French citizen’s minds. However, that is only the first part of this memoir, as Humbert and her cohorts were soon betrayed and she spent the rest of the war in dank prisons and then working as a slave labourer for the Nazis. The descriptions of what she and her fellow prisoners went through remain incredibly harrowing, but Humbert refused to allow her spirit to buckle – and it’s that resistance these pages chronicle.

Deep down in the British psyche there’s still a grudge towards the French at how easily they surrendered in The Second World War, so it’s refreshing and illuminating to read a first-hand account of the anger which flared up in Paris. Yes, there were people more than happy to collaborate with the invaders and with the new Vichy government, but there were others – right from the start – determined to disrupt the machine. Whether that was just sticking up banners for de Gaulle in toilets or other public places, or typing “Vive le général de Gaulle!” on banknotes (as no one could afford to throw away a banknote, so they’d have to be passed hand to hand) or more ambitiously starting an anti-Nazi newspaper, these were people who took great risks for what they believed.

But it wasn’t just the politically engaged Humbert met. One of the truly interesting things about the book though is how when Humbert was imprisoned, many of the other inmates were German. Women of the Fatherland who’d committed, in some cases, quite meaningless crimes but were given of years of hard labour in consequence. And even though they were members of Aryan race, they were not spared the cruelty of their captors. As that’s the conclusion Humbert reaches, that there was no shared ideology in Nazism, it just allowed certain Germans to give into their lowest impulses and hurt, humiliate and even kill other people.

Humbert herself was beaten, starved of food, water and medical treatment, and had her hand dipped in acid. And yet when recalling these dreadful moments, she is able to insert in moments of humour which show how well her spirit survived. Here she is on the moment her captors told her she was now a grandmother, but – for no reason other than spite – rudely refused to answer any of her follow-up questions: “What a peculiar sort of woman I must be. Not satisfied with knowing that I am a grandmother, I also have to know the sex of my grandchild, his name and whether my daughter-in-law is well. Doubtless German grandmothers are much less curious!”

Only the opening section of the book, before Humbert is captured, is an actual diary. When she was a prisoner it would have been almost impossible to do (and a risk not worth taking if she was caught). As such most of the book is written in the immediate aftermath of the war, however her anger at the various injustices and humiliations she and her fellow prisoners suffered is still sharp and painful . There are a few odd mistakes (America enters the war a month earlier than it should) and it does have an idealised view of Stalin’s Russia that was commonplace amongst the left in the thirties and forties, but this is a powerful, unremitting, compassionate and inspiring memoir.(less)

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Feb 14, 2009

Jonathan rated it

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Agnes Humbert was a distinguished art professor. After France quickly fell, she became one of the earliest members of the resistance movement. As the Germans controlled all of the major forms of media, the Resistance pamplet was written by her resistance cell. It provided General Charles De Gaulle's messages and sought to shed light on the true, German occupation. After only a few months, Agnes was arrested.
There was a long trial for most of the members of Agnes' resistance cell, but t...more

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Oct 05, 2010

Peter rated it

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Shelves: world-war-ii, read-in-2010, memoir

Agnes Humbert was a selfless patriot who wanted to do something to help France during the Nazi occupation. She ended up serving as a slave laborer for five or so years for her contribution to the Resistance. Patriotism sometimes seems to get some bad press these days, as though it is somehow naive or laughable to express any kind of patriotic thought. But it is people like Agnes Humbert who made a contribution, however small, to rid the world of the evil of Fascism. As she says towards the e...more

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Sep 29, 2009

Lisa rated it

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Shelves: 2009

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 t...moreAgnes 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.

(less)

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Sep 24, 2009

Scott rated it

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Just give yourself time to get through the beginning of Agnes Humbert's Resistance. Since it is Humbert's diary, it starts right in the middle of her life. There is no need for her to describe all the people in her life since she already knows them. This makes it a little confusing at first, trying to figure out who everybody is and what they are doing with their Resistance news letter. However, by the time Humbert gets arrested it is clear who each person is in her life, and her story seems...more

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Aug 23, 2011

Ann Canann rated it

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Shelves: memoir

This is an important book, well written and compelling. At a time when fewer than 50% of women worked, 46-year-old Agnes Humbert, was a distinguished art historian in Paris when WWII broke out. “Resistance” is her memoir . In the captivating first part from the summer of 1940 until her arrest in April 1941 she shares her nearly daily diary of life in Paris as a resistance worker during the capitulation and occupation of France. She was a feisty, kind, and brave intellectual who spoke many langu...more This is an important book, well written and compelling. At a time when fewer than 50% of women worked, 46-year-old Agnes Humbert, was a distinguished art historian in Paris when WWII broke out. “Resistance” is her memoir . In the captivating first part from the summer of 1940 until her arrest in April 1941 she shares her nearly daily diary of life in Paris as a resistance worker during the capitulation and occupation of France. She was a feisty, kind, and brave intellectual who spoke many languages. Her Paris resistance work takes up a quarter of the book.

Her work in the musee' de Homme put her in a place and with people central to the very inception of the French resistance movement and especially its organization and growth. Resistance,the name of the news bulletin she edited, became the name of the movement itself. There were five editions of the paper in four months with news culled from foreign media, free of propaganda. The paper solidified members of the movement and drew more into it. There is no aspect of resistance that seems to escape her in her unremitting struggle against the Nazi oppression, from helping escapees to feeding information to the English. She paid their debts with money that had “viva De Gaulle”written on them and put them into circulation,

It is her horrifying life as a prisoner that takes up the bulk of the book in the middle seven chapters, after the betrayal of her group to the Gestapo. At first she is imprisoned by the French Police. It is their cruelty I found most shocking. The highest percentage of French prisoners-of-war executed were protestants. They were charged with being heretics, non-Catholic. The seven men in Humbert's museum group were shot, and the three women given five year terms in labor camps. After France it was on to Germany, to begin her five year sentence. These female political prisoners were thrown in with whores, thieves and even murderesses. Learning what rayon does to the women who make it made me hate the fabric. Hunger was constant, but only part of the hideous prison life. Even living under inhuman conditions, Agnes did not lose her optimism, hope, sense of humor, or generosity of spirit.

In the final chapter,10, Hunting the Nazis she returns seamlessly from memoir to diary when after four years of harsh imprisonment she is liberated in June 1945 by the Americans, for whom she went to work as an organizer and translator. She set up soup kitchens, managed the prisoners-of-war, hunted Nazis separating the good from the bad, and then helped start the denazification process. In June1945 she returned, at last, to Paris and began writing. In January of 1946 this book was finished and published. It was finally translated into English in 2008. She continued to write art books and live with her son, a television personality, for the rest of her life. She survived the war, but never fully recovered her health. She died in France nineteen years after the war, aged sixty-nine.(less)

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Dec 20, 2009

Bridgit rated it

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Shelves: winter-2009-10-challenge, memoir, historical, wwii, first-reads, translations

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 newspaper...more

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Sep 22, 2009

Raymond rated it

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Fifty or sixty million people were killed in World War II. There never will be an end to uncovering horrible, mesmerizing reports from that universal conflict. France has known Agnes Humbert’s remarkable work, “Resistance,” for six decades; it was published in English only in 2008. Here are accounts most Americans never have seen: Paris as the Nazis occupy the city, the first stirrings of the French Resistance in Paris, the trials Nazis still conducted for political prisoners, the sentences to w...more

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Jan 15, 2012

Tami rated it

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Shelves: nonfiction-history

A uniquely written portrayal from one of the early French Resistance founders/members. Agnes Humbert's account of the earliest days of resistance in Paris is documented directly from a journal she maintained for several months in 1939, until she was captured and sentenced to 5 years of hard labour. While not "young" (she was in her early 40's, she survived unbearable conditions while imprisoned as a political prisoner in both France and Germany throughout the remainder of the war. R...more

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Jun 14, 2011

Noran Miss Pumkin marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, wwii

if i can get a copy on the us cheaply. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/new...

wAS GOING THROUGH MY WISHLIST AND SAW MY NOTE-I just ordered this .

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Jan 16, 2012

Hilary Hicklin rated it

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Shelves: biographies-read, history, french-literature

Agnes Humbert, an educated, cultivated woman already in her forties when the Germans occupied Paris, was quick to join one of the earliest Resistance movements in France. Inevitably perhaps the members of the group were caught and tried for “assisting the enemy”. The men were shot and Humbert escaped with her life and a prison sentence carried out first in France and then following deportation, at a viscose factory in Germany where , because of handling liquid viscose and acid without any protec...more

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Feb 03, 2012

Julie rated it

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I did not so much read this book, as I devoured it. The journal style -- first and last parts apparently taken from the author's actual daily journal -- simply sucks you in. You can feel the tension build. Though she could not carry on with a journal during her time in the labor camps, the author's recall of detail still makes it feel like she recorded her thoughts on the day of the events throughout the entire book.

But ultimately it's not about the labor camps and the unspeakable de...more

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Oct 01, 2009

Trina rated it

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Agnes Humbert and a few colleagues formed a group within the French Resistance to the German Occupation. This was such a compelling story written by a truly courageous woman. Her account of all the horrible events and the strength she showed through all she endured was amazing. Ms. Humbert was sentenced to slave labor imprisonment as a result of her affiliation with the resistance party. However, she still found a way to retain hope and find some joy during her imprisonment. She never once gave ...more

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Dec 31, 2010

Teresa rated it

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Shelves: audio

When World War II began, Agnès Humbert was an art historian at the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris. The war, however, turned her into an underground journalist for the French Resistance. This work, in turn, led to her imprisonment by the Nazis and years of slave labor at a rayon factory in Krefelt, Germany. Through it all, Humbert stuck to her convictions that resistance was absolutely the right thing to do, and after the war, she became an essential player in the effor...more

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Feb 12, 2011

Alisa Tazioli rated it

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Shelves: history, women-rule

Moving story, it is the journal of a young woman working as an art historian and living in Paris in 1940 when it is occupied by the Germans. Fearing for the future of her country, and restless at the idea of doing nothing about it, she becomes involved with a small group of people who create a newsletter, Resistance, which become synonymous with the anti-war movement. The group was betrayed to the Gestapo, and her and her colleagues were arrested and sent to prison and labor camps in Germany. ...more

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Nov 14, 2009

Kathryn rated it

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Shelves: biography-and-memoir, history, first-reads

One always seems to hear the French Resistance spoken of with such romanticism--but this is the first thing I've ever read by a member of the Resistance. Part of Agnes Humbert's memoir was written during the early months of the Occupation and the Resistance, before she and her group were betrayed and arrested by the Nazis. The rest was written right after the war, so there is a compelling immediacy to the whole story. And it is an amazing story of idealism, courage, and endurance. When Humbert w...more

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Dec 20, 2009

Pamela rated it

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Shelves: first-reads

WOW. Bar-none one of the most compelling reads this year for me. I have been reading about the circumstances of WWII this year from many points of view purely by accident. This book by far exceeds the others. Perhaps it is because I find Agnes to be a testament to the strength of women. Also because most of literature on the subject of the Holocaust seems to be written by men, about men and about only the experiences OF men. This memoir reminded me of the story of Corrie Ten Boom from Haar...more

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Jul 24, 2009

Ryan Mishap rated it

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Shelves: personal-writing, history

A forty three year old intellectual who long supported left causes and taught classes at the Worker's University, Agnes couldn't quietly submit when the Nazis took over Paris in 1940. With her co-workers at the museum where she worked, some friends and contacts from other avenues, they formed one of the first resistance groups. At first, they concentrated on leaflets and a paper--Resistance--but soon moved on to help British servicemen escape and pass on information about German installatio...more A forty three year old intellectual who long supported left causes and taught classes at the Worker's University, Agnes couldn't quietly submit when the Nazis took over Paris in 1940. With her co-workers at the museum where she worked, some friends and contacts from other avenues, they formed one of the first resistance groups. At first, they concentrated on leaflets and a paper--Resistance--but soon moved on to help British servicemen escape and pass on information about German installations.
They were all caught quickly, and, after a year in jail, the trial resulted in a death sentence for seven of her male comrades and five years forced labor for her.
Written in the present tense--the first, shortest section is actually her personal journal, and she carries on this style throughout the rest of the book--there is an immediency that most history books can't match (which is why I like to read memoirs or autobiographies for history--this came out in 1946, less than a year after Germany's defeat and her return home). Agnes is sarcastic, defiant, worried about her comrades and family, supportive of others, and unwilling to submit mentally even as the harsh work and conditions wear down her body.
When the Nazis are on the verge of defeat and the Americans are coming, Agnes and Madeline--two French political prisoners--organize the town of Wanfried--just think, she says, two days ago we were slave labourers, and today we are ordering Germans around and they meekly obey--to keep everyone fed, in health, and safe from looting by released prisoners and Nazis hiding out in the woods.
Remarkable, really, and recommended.

I'm fascinated by resistance to occupations. We go about our daily lives, most of us living under and in a destructive culture of occupation--yet, since it did not come from outside (seemingly) nor with tanks and missiles, we go along to get along even as our spirits are crushed or subsumed under the culture, nature is resource extracted to death, and inequality at home isn't solved by spreading destruction abroad. Derrick Jensen, among others, has pointed out that if aliens invaded and did this to us we would most likely revolt.
I don't think we would as most of us do not now. It is one thing to have a regime like the Nazis invade your country. It is quite another to be in that country when the regime comes to power.(less)

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Nov 09, 2008

Chris rated it

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Shelves: history, ww-ii, letters-memoirs-trials, france

Humbert's diary really is riveting. Humbert was a founding member of a resistance group in France during occupation by the Nazis in WWII. Her diary describes not only the fall of France and founding a resistance group, but her imprisonment once she is caught and imprisoned. The bulk of the diary, in fact, describes her imprisonment and her experiences at work camps. The book itself presents a view that isn't too often seen in America. Some details that stand out are the reasons while some ...more

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Jan 17, 2010

Loralee rated it

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Really bittersweet account of this woman's decision to help start the French underground during WWII (she typed "Long Live Charles de Gaulle) on every banknote that passed through her hands, her almost immediate capture, and her several years of imprisonment, including tortuous labor in a nylon factory. She kept her wry wit and spirit of defiance throughout. This book, published shortly after WWII ended, is part diary and part memoir.

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Dec 28, 2009

Nathan rated it

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Shelves: history, franklin-library

A serious and sensitive personal account of imprisonment under the Nazis. Humbert is not a writer, but she's not expected to be. She is a keen observer, a strong woman and an ardent patriot, and these qualities give her book its character. Unfortunately, the character marks only sections of the book; much of it is quotidian and uninteresting, the action (through no fault of Humbert's) slack and tiresome. Still, utterly unique for it's viewpoint, and fairly readable.

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Nov 21, 2009

Nicole rated it

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Shelves: history-teachers-unite, goodreads-giveaway

This book is amazing. I was lucky enough to receive it as a Goodreads Giveaway and boy am I glad to have won this treasure. The author of this diary was Agnes, a powerful voice against Hitler and fascism who worked hard in the French Resistance (and is credited to giving the establishment it's name) until she was arrested early in 1941 and kept prisoner at various slave labor camps throughout France and Germany. Her story is one of tragedy and perseverance and by far one of the best I've read. S...more

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Jun 25, 2009

Georgene rated it

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At first I had a hard time following who all the people were, but once Agnes was arrested and sent to various prisons, this book was very hard to put down. The journal format makes you feel like you are there with her. The author remembers many details of what happened to her. Her attitude of resistance and her courage and humor are almost unbelievable, considering the suffering she endured.

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Aug 04, 2011

Brittany added it · review of another edition

Such an amazing book. I fell in love both with Agnes and her story in the first few chapters. This book is haunting in its portrayal of German slave labour, but the authors narrative makes the reader feel as if they are her best friend. Throughout her ordeal she finds humour, companionship and the courage to carry on. Wonderful book, highly recommended.

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Mar 04, 2009

Runakiko rated it

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Unbelievably graphic account of living in confinement after getting caught. Not as much on the resistence. Depressing type read as it is so horrible. This account is not of a concentration camp but confinement in a labor camp which was the fate of many women accused or remotely suspected of helping anyone but the Nazis as they occupied France.

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Apr 12, 2010

Mary Kay rated it

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A true story taken from the journals of an art historian in her 40s, who took part in the fall of Paris to the Germans. She was part of the earliest Resistence movement in France, was captured & sent to a hard labor camp in Germany for the duration of the war.

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May 27, 2011

Maureen Stanton rated it

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Th is is an actual diary of one of the early founders and activists in the French resistance during WWII. The diary was long forgotten and only recently published in English. An important historical document, but also a compelling read.

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Resistance: A Frenchwoman's Journal of the War

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