Siamo ormai a tre generazioni di distanza dalla guerra partigiana del 1943-45, e certi eventi di quegli anni hanno perso in parte la loro carica emozionale. In questi decenni è stato compiuto (e ancora si compie) un imprescindibile lavoro di ricerca storica, che ha documentato con cura le battaglie e le vite dei protagonisti di allora, e ha analizzato nel dettaglio gli elenchi degli assassinati e dei torturati, e l'orribile computo dei drammi umani, spesso descritto con linguaggio asettico nei documenti della burocrazia. Oggi è importante che, per non dimenticare, si levi su quelle vicende anche una voce autoriale, in grado di legare i fatti storici in un filo narrativo coinvolgente e cristallino. È ciò che fa Caroline Moorehead in questo libro, un'opera completa, capace di ricreare l'atmosfera di paura e di dolore, ma anche in grado di rendere la spinta ideale provata da molte donne coraggiose, determinate ad agire e rischiare per il bene della loro comunità. Pagina dopo pagina, leggiamo senza fiato la storia delle quattro protagoniste - Ada Gobetti, Bianca Guidetti Serra, Frida Malan e Silvia Pons -, partigiane emblematiche di un intero movimento di donne altruiste, forti e motivate, che animarono azioni di ribellione collettiva, sfidando la guerra, la paura e i pregiudizi. In questo racconto, attento e delicato, troviamo testimonianze che riescono a commuovere e a ispirare, e restano impresse a lungo, grazie alla penna felice dell'autrice. Attraverso lo sguardo e l'esempio di queste protagoniste in lotta contro il nazifascismo,La casa in montagna ci restituisce una memor

A BOLD AND DANGEROUS FAMILY - MOOREHEAD CAROLINE - Random UK

Giugno 1940: l'esercito tedesco entra a Parigi e Hitler visita la Ville Lumière. I francesi assistono impotenti al campeggiare della svastica sui monumenti più importanti della città. E ben presto il regime mostra il suo volto più nero. Iniziano le discriminazioni contro gli ebrei, le torture ai patrioti che resistono, il furto delle principali ricchezze nazionali a beneficio dello sforzo bellico della Wehrmacht, con l'appoggio dei collaborazionisti di Vichy. Ma alcune donne coraggiose alzano la testa: Danielle Casanova, Betty Langlois, Maï Politzer, Charlotte Delbo, Georgette Rostaing, Simone Sampaix, Viva Nenni (figlia del noto politico italiano) e tante altre, di qualunque classe sociale. Trasportano messaggi, proteggono i ribelli, aiutano a passare la linea di confine, nascondono gli ebrei e ingannano i nazisti. Sono pronte a tutto, anche alla lotta armata e a correre ogni pericolo, perfino a morire, per un ideale superiore di libertà e giustizia. Giugno 1943: 230 di loro vengono catturate dalla Gestapo e deportate su un treno diretto ai campi di sterminio. Conosceranno l'orrore di Auschwitz e di altri terribili lager. Ma a tornare a casa saranno solo in 49. Questa è la loro storia. Una storia fatta di coraggio, solidarietà, forza e amicizia.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller A Train in Winter comes the absorbing story of a French village that helped save thousands hunted by the Gestapo during World War II—told in full for the first time.

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village of scattered houses high in the mountains of the Ardèche, one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Eastern France. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of this tiny mountain village and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, freemasons, communists, OSS and SOE agents, and Jews. Many of those they protected were orphaned children and babies whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.

With unprecedented access to newly opened archives in France, Britain, and Germany, and interviews with some of the villagers from the period who are still alive, Caroline Moorehead paints an inspiring portrait of courage and determination: of what was accomplished when a small group of people banded together to oppose their Nazi occupiers. A thrilling and atmospheric tale of silence and complicity, Village of Secrets reveals how every one of the inhabitants of Chambon remained silent in a country infamous for collaboration. Yet it is also a story about mythmaking, and the fallibility of memory.

A major contribution to WWII history, illustrated with black-and-white photos, Village of Secrets sets the record straight about the events in Chambon, and pays tribute to a group of heroic individuals, most of them women, for whom saving others became more important than their own lives.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller A Train in Winter comes the absorbing story of a French village that helped save thousands hunted by the Gestapo during World War II—told in full for the first time.

Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village of scattered houses high in the mountains of the Ardèche, one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Eastern France. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of this tiny mountain village and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, freemasons, communists, OSS and SOE agents, and Jews. Many of those they protected were orphaned children and babies whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.

With unprecedented access to newly opened archives in France, Britain, and Germany, and interviews with some of the villagers from the period who are still alive, Caroline Moorehead paints an inspiring portrait of courage and determination: of what was accomplished when a small group of people banded together to oppose their Nazi occupiers. A thrilling and atmospheric tale of silence and complicity, Village of Secrets reveals how every one of the inhabitants of Chambon remained silent in a country infamous for collaboration. Yet it is also a story about mythmaking, and the fallibility of memory.

A major contribution to WWII history, illustrated with black-and-white photos, Village of Secrets sets the record straight about the events in Chambon, and pays tribute to a group of heroic individuals, most of them women, for whom saving others became more important than their own lives.

Combines original sources, archival research, and personal interviews to relate the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were captured and imprisoned by the Gestapo outside of Paris before being transported to Auschwitz.

Combines original sources, archival research, and personal interviews to relate the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were captured and imprisoned by the Gestapo outside of Paris before being transported to Auschwitz.

Combines original sources, archival research, and personal interviews to relate the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were captured and imprisoned by the Gestapo outside of Paris before being transported to Auschwitz.

Combines original sources, archival research, and personal interviews to relate the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were captured and imprisoned by the Gestapo outside of Paris before being transported to Auschwitz.

They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, secreted Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of fifteen; the eldest, a farmer?s wife in her sixties.

Eventually, the Gestapo hunted down 230 women active in the French Resistance and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, profession, and class, as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.

In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.

A Train in Winter draws on interviews and deep archival research to uncover a dark chapter of history that offers an inspiring portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and survival?and of the remarkable, enduring power of female friendship.

Martha Gellhorn was one of the first—and most widely read—female war correspondents of the twentieth century. She is best known for her fearless reporting in Europe before and during WWII and for her brief marriage to Ernest Hemingway, but she was also an acclaimed novelist.

Her canvases were the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; the Great Terror; America at the time of Washington and Jefferson; Paris under the Directoire and then under Napoleon; Regency London; the battle of Waterloo; and, for the last years of her life, the Italian ducal courts. She witnessed firsthand the demise of the French monarchy, the wave of the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, and the precipitous rise and fall of Napoleon. Lucie Dillon—a daughter of French and British nobility known in France by her married name, Lucie de la Tour du Pin—was the chronicler of her age.

In this compelling biography, Caroline Moorehead illuminates the extraordinary life and remarkable achievements of this strong, witty, elegant, opinionated, and dynamic woman who survived personal tragedy and the devastation wrought by momentous historic events.

Her canvases were the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; the Great Terror; America at the time of Washington and Jefferson; Paris under the Directoire and then under Napoleon; Regency London; the battle of Waterloo; and, for the last years of her life, the Italian ducal courts. Like Saint-Simon at Versailles, Samuel Pepys during the Great Fire of London, or the Goncourt brothers in nineteenth-century France, Lucie Dillon—a daughter of French and British nobility known in France by her married name, Lucie de la Tour du Pin—was the chronicler of her age.

La Rochefoucauld called her "a cultural jewel." The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire favored her for his dinner companion in Paris. Napoleon requested she attend Josephine. Her friends included Talleyrand, Madame de StaËl, Chateaubriand, Lafayette, and the Duke of Wellington, with whom she played as a child. She witnessed firsthand the demise of the French monarchy, the wave of Revolution and the Reign of Terror, and the precipitous rise and fall of Napoleon. She spent two years as an ÉmigrÉ in the newly independent United States (on a farm in Albany) but was also a familiar of Regency London. A shrewd, determined woman in a turbulent age of men, Lucie de la Tour du Pin watched, listened, reflected—and wrote it all down, mixing politics and court intrigue, social observation and the realities of everyday existence, to offer a fascinating chronicle of her era.

In this compelling biography, Caroline Moorehead illuminates the extraordinary life and remarkable achievements of this strong, witty, elegant, opinionated, and dynamic woman who survived personal tragedy, including the loss of six children, and periods of extreme danger, exile, poverty, and illness. Meticulously researched, brilliantly written, and vastly entertaining, Moorehead's chronicle of Lucie's life is an incomparable social history of her times.

Published to commemorate the 150 years since the idea for the Red Cross was born at the Battle of Solferino in Italy, Humanity in War traces the history of the largest humanitarian organization in the world through its remarkable photographic archive.
Part of an international campaign, these iconic images serve to document the realities of war and the effectiveness of the now omnipresent Red Cross. They reveal and promote what can be achieved when aid to the suffering is given without discrimination.
They are also a history of the evolution of photography itself. Ranging from the very first days of photography - the American Civil War, for instance - to the work of modern-day photographers and photojournalists including James Nachtwey, Sebastian Salgado, Eric Bouvier, and Nick Danziger, the images speak for themselves and are reproduced in exceptional quality.

Two sisters, one beautiful, one plain, return unmarried from their adventures to their parents' hotel on the mountain, where they are caught up in a scandalous relations with an African official and an English botanist. Meanwhile, a heartbroken woman tries to escape the memory of her son's death on a doomed holiday by the sea.