The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground: A Memoir

by Justus Rosenberg, Rob Shapiro (Read by)

Overview

"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. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781094105215
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

JUSTUS ROSENBERG (1921-2021) was born in Danzig (present-day Gdansk, Poland), in 1921. Graduating from the Sorbonne, in Paris, he worked with the French underground for four years and then served in the United States Army. For his wartime service, Rosenberg received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. For seventy years, he taught at American universities; most recently as professor emeritus of languages and literature at Bard College, where he was on faculty for fifty years. He is the cofounder of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation, which works to combat anti-Semitism. In 2017 the French ambassador to the United States personally made Rosenberg a Commandeur in the Légion d’Honneur, among France’s highest decorations, for his heroism during World War II.

Table of Contents

Map of Europe, 1936-1939 x

Map of Western Europe, 1940 xi

Map of Occupied France xii

Prologue 1

Part I

The Free City of Danzig (1921-1937) 5

A Pogrom German-Style (Spring 1937) 10

Preparing to Leave Danzig (Summer 1937) 23

At the Station (September 1937) 31

Berlin (September 2-12, 1937) 34

Part II

Paris (September 1937-September 3, 1939) 47

"The Phony War." (Paris, September 1939-June 1940) 65

The Debacle (Paris and Bayonne, June 1940) 73

Toulouse (June and July 1940) 90

To Marseille, in Marseille (August-September 1940) 97

Over the Pyrenees (September 11-13, 1940) 107

Walter Benjamin (Late September 1940) 113

Villa Air-Bel (November 1940-February 1941) 116

Mafia (February-June 1941) 128

Chagall (Spring 1941) 134

Max and Peggy Depart (July 1941) 135

The Expulsion of Fry; My Mountain Climbing Adventure (August-December 1941) 136

Grenoble (December 1941-August 26, 1942) 146

Part III

Internment (August 27-29, 1942) 153

Escape (September 6, 1942) 167

Underground Intelligence at Montmeyran (Autumn 1942-March 1943) 174

Manna from the Skies (November 1943-May 1944) 188

Last Days on the Farm (June 1944) 192

Becoming a Guerrilla (June 1944) 195

Haute Cuisine in the Camp (June-July 1944) 201

The Ambush (July 1944) 203

The 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion (August-October 1944) 208

The Teller Mine Incident (October 11, 1944) 219

Homecoming to Paris (December 1944-February 15, 1945) 223

Granville (February 15-March 8, 1945) 230

Unrra (April 1945-October 1945) 235

To America (October 1945-July 13, 1946) 247

Epilogue: What Happened to 251

Acknowledgments 275

Index 277

Editorial Reviews

10/28/2019

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.)

Publishers Weekly

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

"The very existence of The Art of Resistance is its most remarkable feature. But the story, too, is a good one, recounted with astonishing lucidity. It’s a picaresque tale of a teenager who survives assorted perils by dint of luck, courage and his intellectual gifts, encountering various famous people along the way." — Forward

"Rosenberg is a natural raconteur, with a pleasing conversational style. ... What shines through his engaging book is his evident desire to be helpful and responsible and his acute consciousness of how extraordinarily lucky he was." — The Times (London)

“Gripping. … Fearless. … Recalls imprisonments, escapes from confinement, and successful missions against the Nazis. … A welcome addition to the World War II memoir shelf.” — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED 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. … 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.” — Publishers Weekly

“Rosenberg provides a thrilling account of gut-wrenching wartime experiences. … Highly recommended.” — Library Journal, STARRED Review

From the Publisher

"Rosenberg is a natural raconteur, with a pleasing conversational style. ... What shines through his engaging book is his evident desire to be helpful and responsible and his acute consciousness of how extraordinarily lucky he was."

The Times (London)

"The very existence of The Art of Resistance is its most remarkable feature. But the story, too, is a good one, recounted with astonishing lucidity. It’s a picaresque tale of a teenager who survives assorted perils by dint of luck, courage and his intellectual gifts, encountering various famous people along the way."

Forward

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

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

★ 12/01/2019

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.

Library Journal

★ 2019-09-29
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.

Kirkus Reviews