Ex-journalist tells war story through eyes of Americans under Nazi rule

"Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation," by Charles Glass (Penguin Press, $33)

Physician Sumner Jackson was a hero in the traditional and most basic sense - a person who selflessly commits life-saving acts for others with little regard for his own safety or well-being. He is one of a number of remarkable Americans highlighted in Charles Glass' fascinating history, "Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation."

Nearly 30,000 Americans lived in or near Paris before the Second World War, some memorable names being Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Josephine Baker. When war broke out in September 1939, at least 5,000 ignored U.S. Ambassador William Bullitt's advice to leave, bound there by ties of family, employment or, in a great many instances, love for the city.

They remained even after Hitler's forces marched into the city in June 1940; the United States was still neutral, after all. By the time the United States and Germany declared war on each other in December 1941, approximately 2,000 Americans - artists, intellectuals, musicians, businessmen - were left.

Glass, a former journalist and author of several other books, has written a lively account of the moral and political quandaries - to cooperate, collaborate or resist? - and increasing privations of living under German occupation. He skillfully uses memoirs, diaries, letters, documents and official records to draw a picture of expatriates caught in a mesh of deceit, bravery, self-sacrifice and fear, and place them in the context of diplomacy and the wider war.

A surprising number of Americans remained uninterned for most of the occupation. The author concentrates on a handful of people and their associations, including Sylvia Beach, owner of the bookstore Shakespeare & Company, which she was determined to keep open while aiding Jewish friends and resistance fighters.

It would be hard to overstate the courage of Jackson, chief surgeon at the American Hospital, or that of his wife and teenage son. Besides keeping a vital medical facility operating and out of German control for four long years, he and his family frequently risked execution for enabling the escape of scores of downed Allied airmen and passing on information about the enemy.

The American Hospital and American Library figure prominently throughout "Americans in Paris." Count Aldebert de Chambrun, born in America of French parents and a direct descendant of Marquis de Lafayette, labored mightily to keep the hospital functioning. His wife, Countess Clara Longworth de Chambrun, born in Cincinnati and sister to Theodore Roosevelt's son-in-law Nicholas Longworth, administered the library. Neither was an easy task.

The Jacksons were arrested only weeks before the liberation of Paris; father and son were sent to slave-labor camps. There is enough suspense in their stories that you should be left to discover their fates yourself, but they were not uniformly happy.