Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28494 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Observer (Paperback of the Week)
A "brilliant and disturbing" book

The Guardian, April 14, 2007
"the portrait she paints of France under occupation is invaluable"

Sunday Times (Culture)
"The moral squalor of his life is powerfully revealed in this
unforgettable biography."

Customer Reviews

Timely - and a "must read"
I bought this book a year ago after hearing the author interviewed on the radio, and finally got around to reading it in the last couple of weeks. It's a big book in so many ways. The early chapters are packed with detail and require concentration, but the work is rewarded on so many levels. The intimacy of the story draws the reader in, the portraits of the real life people are absolutely compelling, and the research is minute and painstaking. The tale of how liars and fantasists came to hold high office, how inept collaborationists ran Vichy France through the war, and how the result was death and persecution on an enormous scale, provides a pertinent warning in this age when the far right is re-emerging across Europe and rewriting its past. Finally, this is the best written use of the English language I have read for a long time. Please read it and learn the lessons. I can't recommend it highly enough.

An extraordinary story.
Louis Darquier was an extraordinarily unattractive character who rose to high office in France in the late 1930s and 1940s. His main qualification was an obsessional hatred of the Jews who, he believed, were undermining French life and culture. He inevitably came into his own when France was defeated by Germany and he rose to high office by virtue of his obsession. He had few redeeming features. He was personally violent and very dishonest. Perhaps the best that could be said is that he was incompetent and this reduced the amount of damage that he could inflict.
This is not a pleasant story but it is well told and provides a first rate insight into France in the mid 20th century. If one wonders how many Frenchmen could become complicit with the Nazis at that time the book provides at least part of the answer - sadly there were people like Darquier.
Well worth reading if you are interested in mid-20th century France, Nazism or human wickedness.

An often ignored part of history...
I am an avid WWII reader and knew of the Vichy governments crimes but nothing of this scale and tyranny. Louis Darquier was such an immense villain that it took the Nazi atrocities to cover up and take the spot light off his own crimes. It is not often mentioned that it may have been the Nazi's and Hitler setting the rules but other people were giving the orders.
This book is very detailed and thorough and will go down as the text to read on this subject. Some of the stories are so surreal you will find yourself wondering how it took place, if anyone needed proof of if it was justified to go to war then this is it.
Throughout the book it jumps between years which was at some points hard to follow but other than that it was a very good book and worth a read.