| World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- France -- Biography. |
| Jews -- Poland -- Biography. |
| France -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945 |
| Autobiographies. |
| Rosenberg, Justus, 1921- |
Available:*
Library | Collection | Material Type | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Cobourg Branch | Searching... Unknown | Adult Biography | 944.081 Ros | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"Thrillingly tells the story of an Eastern European Jew's flight from the Holocaust and the years he spent fighting in the French underground." --USA Today
An American Library in Paris Book Award "Coups de Coeur" Selection
The Art of Resistance is unlike any World War II memoir before it. Its author, Justus Rosenberg, has spent the past seventy years teaching the classics of literature to American college students. Hidden within him, however, was a remarkable true story of wartime courage and romance worthy of a great novel. Here is Professor Rosenberg's elegant and gripping chronicle of his youth in Nazi-occupied Europe, when he risked everything to stand against evil.
In 1937, after witnessing a violent Nazi mob in his hometown of Danzig, a majority German city on the Baltic Sea, sixteen-year-old Justus Rosenberg was sent by his Jewish parents to Paris to finish his education in safety. Three years later, the Nazis came again, as France fell to the Germans. Alone and in danger, Justus fled Paris, heading south. A chance meeting led him to Varian Fry, an American journalist in Marseille who led a clandestine network helping thousands of men and women--including many legendary artists and intellectuals, among them Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, and Max Ernst--escape the Nazis. With his intimate understanding of French and German culture, and fluency in several languages, including English, Justus became an invaluable member of Fry's operation as a spy and scout.
After the Vichy government expelled Fry from France, Justus worked in Grenoble, recruiting young men and women for the Underground Army. For the next four years, he would be an essential component of the Resistance, relying on his wits and skills to survive several close calls with death. Once, he found himself in a Nazi internment camp, with his next stop Auschwitz--and yet Justus found an ingenious way to escape. He two years during the war gathering intelligence, surveying German installations and troop movements on the Mediterranean. Then, after the allied invasion at Normandy in 1944, Justus became a guerrilla fighter, participating in and leading commando raids to disrupt the German retreat across France.
At the end of the Second World War, Justus emigrated to America, and built a new life. For the past fifty years, he has taught literature at Bard College, shaping the inner lives of generations of students. Now he adds his own story to the library of great coming-of-age memoirs: The Art of Resistance is a powerful saga of bravery and defiance, a true-life spy thriller touched throughout by a professor's wisdom.
Author Notes
Justus Rosenberg is a professor emeritus at Bard College. In 2017, the French ambassador to the United States personally made Rosenberg Commandeur in the Lgion d'honneur.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rosenberg, professor emeritus of literature at Bard College, recounts his remarkable journey from young Polish-Jewish student to daring French underground freedom fighter in this powerful debut memoir. As the Nazis tightened their grip on the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) in 1937, Rosenberg's parents sent their blue-eyed, blond, 16-year-old son to schooling and safety in Paris. Three years later, he fled south after the Nazis occupied the city. In Marseille, through an amazing "confluence of circumstances," he met an American journalist named Varian Fry who helped artists and intellectuals escape Nazi occupation. Rosenberg's German background, French education, and fluency in several languages allowed him to become a successful espionage agent, and he went on to work with Fry, assisting the likes of Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, Franz Werfel, and Max Ernst to escape into Spain. Rosenberg, a modest narrator, nevertheless writes thrillingly of his life--of participating in reconnaissance and guerrilla attacks; joining the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion as interpreter and scout; and serving as supply officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration--all while dodging injury, imprisonment, and death. Rosenberg's memoir has all the suspense of a tense spy thriller. (Jan.)
Kirkus Review
A gripping memoir from an Eastern European Jew who fought in the French Resistance.Born in 1921, Rosenberg, who has received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star from the U.S. Army for his service in World War II, thrived within a loving Polish family into his teenage years. His residence in Danzig meant immersion in both Polish and German culture, and his parents believed that Danzig's well-integrated Jewish population would escape the rise of Hitler and his Nazi supporters. When that optimism began to crumble, the 16-year-old Rosenberg departed Danzig to study in Paris. (Nobody knew then that most of his relatives would be slaughtered in the Holocaust. Rosenberg's parents and sister survived, but the author would be separated from them until 1952.) The German invasion of France interrupted Rosenberg's studies. On his own, with dwindling cash, he decided against trying to flee the Nazi juggernaut. Instead, he found a path to joining the underground resistance against the Nazis, centered in occupied France and comprised of fighters from a variety of backgrounds, including expatriate Americans. Rosenberg offered special value as a Resistance guerrilla for multiple reasons: Given his blond hair and other physical features, he did not "look Jewish." His baby face meant that he could easily pass as a schoolboy. He spoke Polish, German, Yiddish, and English. He could subsist on meager resources during wartime hardships. He welcomed all assignments offered by Resistance commanders, and he was fearless. The narrative unfolds chronologically, in semi-diary format, and while readers will know, of course, that Rosenberg avoided death, the narrative tension is continuous, as the author recalls imprisonments, escapes from confinement, and successful missions against the Nazis. The author's writing style is crystal-clear and understated, as he wisely allows the drama to unfold from the events themselves. As the war wound down, Rosenberg was unsure about his future. Eventually, he settled in the U.S. and has taught language and literature for 70 years.A welcome addition to the World War II memoir shelf. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Originally from an upper-middle-class Jewish family in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland, and the surrounding area), Rosenberg (languages & literature, Bard Coll.) was sent to Paris in his teens to study and to escape increasing violence. Unable to join the French Army because of his Polish birth, Rosenberg eventually joined the French Underground, serving as a recruiter, intelligence operative, and guerilla fighter. He ended the war as an interrogator attached to a U.S. Army tank destroyer battalion. From there, he became a supply officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), helping to rebuild post-war Germany. At long last, he was able to return to the Sorbonne to finish his studies in literature, was offered a teaching position in the United States, and finally found out that his parents and sister--alone of the 68 members of his extended family--survived the war. VERDICT Rosenberg provides a thrilling account of gut-wrenching wartime experiences; an epilog details what happened to the major players in his life during that time. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in World War II and autobiography.--Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib.
Table of Contents
| Map Of Europe, 1936-1939 | p. x |
| Map Of Western Europe, 1940 | p. xi |
| Map Of Occupied France | p. xii |
| Prologue | p. 1 |
| Part I The Free City Of Danzig (1921-1937) | p. 5 |
| A Pogrom German-Style (Spring 1937) | p. 10 |
| Preparing To Leave Danzig (Summer 1937) | p. 23 |
| At The Station (September 1937) | p. 31 |
| Berlin (September 2-12, 1937) | p. 34 |
| Part II Paris (September I937-September 3, 1939) | p. 47 |
| "The Phony War" (Paris, September I939-June 1940) | p. 65 |
| The Debacle (Paris And Bayonne, June 1940) | p. 73 |
| Toulouse (June And July 1940) | p. 90 |
| To Marseille, In Marseille (August-September 1940) | p. 97 |
| Over The Pyrenees (September 11-13, 1940) | p. 107 |
| Walter Benjamin (Late September 1940) | p. 113 |
| Villa Air-Bel (November 194O-February 1941) | p. 116 |
| Mafia (February-June 1941) | p. 128 |
| Chagall (Spring 1941) | p. 134 |
| Max And Peggy Depart (July 1941) | p. 135 |
| The Expulsion Of Fry; My Mountain Climbing Adventure (August-December 1941) | p. 136 |
| Grenoble (December 1941-August 26, 1942) | p. 146 |
| Part III Internment (August 27-29, 1942) | p. 153 |
| Escape (September 6, 1942) | p. 167 |
| Underground Intelligence At Montmeyran (Autumn 1942-March1943) | p. 174 |
| Manna From The Skies (November 1943-May 1944) | p. 188 |
| Last Days On The Farm (June 1944) | p. 192 |
| Becoming A Guerrilla (June 1944) | p. 195 |
| Haute Cuisine In The Camp (June-July 1944) | p. 201 |
| The Ambush (July I944) | p. 203 |
| The 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion (August-October 1944) | p. 208 |
| The Teller Mine Incident (October 11, 1944) | p. 219 |
| Homecoming To Paris (December 1944-February 15, 1945) | p. 223 |
| Granville (February 15-March 8, 1945) | p. 230 |
| Unrra (April 1945-October 1945) | p. 235 |
| To America (October 1945-July 13, 1946) | p. 247 |
| Epilogue: What Happened To | p. 251 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 275 |
| Index | p. 277 |