Tales of heroic resistance fighters, such as Jean Moulin who was tortured to death by the Nazis in 1943, are emblematic of wartime France. But so too are the stories of un-heroic compromise and collaboration, which for some were the only real options. In an absorbing new book, Richard Vinen, a historian at King's College, London, who has made a speciality of Vichy France, focuses on the harsh times endured by ordinary French people, whether refugees on the road, captured soldiers, the huge numbers of men drafted to work in Germany or the women left behind scrabbling to feed their families.
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