Love and War in the Pyrenees: A Story of Courage, Fear and Hope, 1939-1944

by Rosemary Bailey

What was life like for the French living in the Pyrenees, a route to freedom for refugees during WWII? A British journalist who settled in the area sought answers about the real role of the Resistance, the level of collaboration, the local concentration camps, and the treatment of Jews and other refugees. While much remains hidden, a portrait of human heroism and cruelty comes to light.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, France, World War II, War, Spain

340 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2008

About the author

Rosemary Bailey is an award-winning travel writer and journalist, born in Halifax, Yorkshire. She has been based in the French Pyrenees for many years, and has written a trilogy of books about a region she has grown to love and know intimately.

Reviews

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rosemary Bailey previously wrote one of those "I bought a charming ruin in France and renovated it with the help of my eccentric and oh-so-French neighbours" books, which I haven't read (by the time Peter Mayle had finished with that genre there were already at least two too many). This one is the result of someone giving her a bundle of letters between the husband and wife who owned the house (a former monastery) during WWII, but it's about much more than that -- it's basically a potted history of the Pyrénées Orientales during the war, based on letters, research, and interviews.

Bailey is passionate about where she lives and clearly learned a lot while writing the book, but unfortunately failed to be selective enough -- she basically put everything in, a mixture of anecdote, straightforward historical narrative, and speculation. She does her best to organise it into themed chapters, but this tends to mean that the hundreds of characters become a blur because you meet someone in one chapter and then lose them until a few chapters later, by which time you've forgotten who they are.

But I would still highly recommend reading it, because it covers history you are unlikely to find elsewhere unless you are a specialist. It's the 70th anniversary of the Retirada this year, when half a million Spanish refugees poured over the Pyrenees into France, most of them via the Albères at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. The story of how the French state treated them both then and during the war is an utter disgrace, and has been brushed under the carpet for decades. Herded into concentration camps (yes, they were called that, whatever anyone says now) with other "undesirables" (communists and Jews for example, including those who had actually fled to France from Germany, Austria and elsewhere), they starved, died of TB and other diseases because of the unhygienic conditions, carried out forced labour, or, if Jewish, were handily rounded up by the Vichy government and shipped off to Germany -- no prizes for guessing what happened to them there. In 1995, Jacques Chirac was the first President to admit that this behaviour was "unworthy of France, home of the rights of man". I already knew this because of where I live (some of my neighbours arrived here from Spain in 1939) but most French people don't.

This book was also a good complement to Lucy Wadham's The Secret Life of France, prompting further reflection on French culture. Wadham (who also has a chapter on the war) says that while the British rather enjoy triumphing over privation, employing their ingenuity to make the best of very little, and hence had a "good war", the French are more concerned with Beauty and Pleasure, so war, defeat, and occupation don't suit them at all. An over-simplification, but there is evidence for this view in this book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a lot about the Spanish Civil War and the French Resistance but this book had a great deal of new information for me, most of it terribly horrific, including more than I've ever read about the conditions of French concentration camps (no, the French called them transit camps but this book makes it clear that in many ways - like starving people to death) they were concentration camps. The author follows many "characters" including refugees from Spain across the Pyrenees to France (where to say they were NOT welcomed is an understatement) to people trying to get away from France in the other directions. She has looked at archives and personal papers and met with survivors to tell their stories. One of her conclusions is that many people - all very elderly now, or their descendents - have never talked about their experiences. And some people have, of course, changed their stories to be more "politically correct." But others are glad to, finally, have a chance to talk about the past. The author's descriptions of the countryside and the towns is also exquisite.

[Yvonne Desa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be very informative. I was not aware that the French had concentration camps. World war 11 was horrible enough but I hadn't known the struggle for the people living in that area. The author described the conditions the people lived under. I was a little disappointed that she took the story line into so many directions and lost the love story I thought was the purpose of writing the book. I have tried to read another one of her books, Living in a Postcard" and bailed early. Very disappointing.

[Michael Selvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Quite an opening of a very sensitive subject in France: WWII. Bailey does so with great sensitivity, authority, and plenty of first person accounts. It focuses on a region in Roussillon, an area on the eastern Spanish border. Not an area well known outside France (nor in France to an extent). There are many regional issues, but the basics apply to the entire country. She tells a great non- fiction story in the manner of Laura Hillenbrand's The Unbroken.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fine portrayal of life in a corner of Nazi-occupied France. Especially pertinent for us, since my wife and I lived 7 summers in Collioure, and saw the concentration camp nearby ... see our travel blog ... http://patandlewtravel.wordpress.com/....

[Patrick McGahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m reading this book as I’m researching escape routes across the Pyrenees in WW2 for a novel. I enjoyed the author’s writing style that dealt with many harrowing and difficult issues for the local population. The book provides many first hand accounts from local people involved in the Resistance and those fleeing from Franco, including their interment in camps. One key point being the large number of Spanish anti-faciats who were part of the Resistance. Whilst it has all the ingredients for a great book I felt it didn’t flow well and at times felt a bit disjointed. However, definitely worth a read.

[Linny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brit reporter lives in French area where we stayed, a key corner of Fr/Sp where Spanish civil war refugees fled to Fr, later refugees from Nazi Germany and Vichy Fr escaped until even that awful route over mountains was cut off. Interviewing the elders and then relatives of those people, she sheds light on that aspect of WWII, and conveys the emotional conflict, now more hidden, of people living in small towns who betrayed or aided, fought or gave up neighbors.

[Suzie Larochelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I expected. I thought the story would focus more on Pierre and Amelie. Instead it was more about so many people, so many places and so many dates that I got confused at times. There was a lot of back and forths between regions and dates. To me, it was not easy to follow or enjoyable.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Largely in-depth accounts of individual stories with lots of names and details. I found it difficult to focus and ended up skimming pages to the end. Wanted to learn more about this subject but this book probably not the best place to start.

[Florence Penrice · Rating 1 out of 5]

the author has obviously done a lot of research for this book, but, equally obviously, couldn't bear to leave any of it out. The result is a baggy book, stuffed full of interviews with people (especially silver-haired old gentlemen) that quickly became indistinguishable. The subject is interesting, but the book rambles on endlessly in a unfocussed fashion. A decent editor would have tightened it up, and a decent proof reader would have got rid of the numerous glaring errors (e.g. the inhabitants of a particular small town were so hungry that they were forced to eat 'Swedes and Jerusalem artichokes').
A better map would have been useful, plus some photographs.
Lastly, the author herself pops up periodically, buying fish in the market, taking a country walk etc. To be brutal, I'm not interested in what she gets up to in her holidays. This is supposed to be a history book, not a travelogue.

[Martinxo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book during a recent holiday in France. It's a well written and moving account of heroism and love in the Catalan Pyrenees starting from the end of the Spanish Civil War through to the liberation of France at the end of the Second World War.

Recommended to anyone who cares about history and the struggle against Fascism, particularly if you like the countryside around the Pyrennes.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

We live not that far from where this book is set so I hold my hands up to having a vested interest in reading it.
I thought it was so well researched and gave a great story. The fact that Rosemary was able to get so many people to talk to her for her research I found remarkable as few of the older people do talk about the past here.
A great book that is very worth reading.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this because it was set in an area of France I know very well. It even mentioned the villages in the Pyrenees that I have been going to for the last 25 years. Also an interesting view of the French during WW2

[Julia Stagg]

An excellent account of the turbulent years in the Pyrenees from the impact of the Spanish Civil war, through to the Second World War.

[Peter Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed account of the impact of the Retirada and WW2 on the Pyrenees Orientales.

[Stephen]

Great
things you want hear about in history class
thourghly enjoyed