Volume One Available Now!
The False War & Vichy, 1940-1944
BRING OCCUPIED PARIS TO LIFE
(without obtaining a ration card to survive)
Come walk in the footsteps of the men, women, and children who lived, worked, and died in Nazi-occupied Paris. Your walks will take you to buildings, places, and sites that were significant to the Nazis, French Resistance, Free French, the British, and most important, the citizens of Paris.
“Stew blends the dark history of buildings in Paris that are associated with the infamous deeds of the Gestapo with contrasting insights into the bravery of the French people, who, at great risk to themselves and their families, secretly resisted the German Occupation.”
⏤Squadron Leader Stanley Booker, MBE, RAF (Ret.), Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Member: KLB Club
Our new book, Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? A Walking Tour of Nazi-Occupied Paris, is also available for sale direct from Stew and Yooper Publications.
The price of the book is $24.95. All books sold directly will be autographed with a personal message.
If you would like to own and read our new book, please contact Sandy directly at sandy.ross@yooperpublications.com. Your review of the book on Amazon would be greatly appreciated (click here).
Although World War II and the German occupation of Paris occurred more than 75 years ago, these historical events are still fresh in our minds. France spent almost 40 years denying its role in the collaboration with the Nazis and in particular, the arrests and deportations of the French Jewish population. While the German occupation of Paris started out rather benignly in June 1940, within two years the city and its citizens were firmly in the grip of the tightening Nazi vise.
CONTENTS
WALK ONE (Vichy France)
Louis Darquier de Pellepoix to the Kommandantur du Groß -Paris
WALK TWO (PARIS BY NIGHT)
Cabaret le Shéhérazade to the Milice Headquarters
WALK THREE (SOLDIERS ON LEAVE)
Montmartre: UGIF to the Moulin Rouge
MÉTRO WALKS (OTHER SITES TO VISIT)
Your first walk in the historic district includes a former brothel, the approved bookstore for German soldiers, the Hôtel le Meurice (where they left a bullet hole in the sign above the entrance), and the site of the former Kommandantur du Groß-Paris, or Commander of Greater Paris near Le Palais Garnier. You will stop at the Hôtel Ritz where Coco Chanel lived with her lover, senior Abwehr intelligence officer, Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage (“Spatz”). Was Chanel a Nazi collaborator or spy?
The second walk, “Paris by Night,” takes you to the site of the former premier Paris nightclub, Cabaret le Shéhérazade, the building where the infamous brothel, Le One-Two-Two, was located, and the former headquarters of the dreaded Milice, Vichy’s paramilitary group.
Walk Three, “Soldiers on Leave,” ends up in the Montmartre district with visits to several Wehrmacht Soldatenheims (i.e., soldier’s clubs), the legendary Moulin Rouge, and the historic restaurant, Á la Mère Catherine.
Our Métro Walks include a trip to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, headquarters for Oberbefehlshaber West, where you will visit the bunkers built for the Wehrmacht commander-in-chief in the west. Another trip outside Paris takes you to Champigny-sur-Marne where the Musée de la Résistance nationale, or National Museum of Resistance is located. Situated in the fourth district, just a short walk from the Seine, is the Mémorial de la Shoah, a memorial to the Holocaust victims.
Testimonials
“An invaluable guide to a host of little-known locations and facts about wartime occupied Paris. Not just for the historian, this book will allow anyone to view this beautiful city of light in the shadows of enemy occupation.”
⏤Paul McCue
Historian, lecturer, and author of SAS Operation Bulbasket: Behind the Lines in Occupied France 1944
“Guidebooks are usually described as informative, sometimes entertaining and Stew Ross’ newest work is both. It is also more⏤it evokes a difficult and frightening time in the history of the City of Light. The detailed descriptions of sites such as the Vél’ d’Hiv’ or Gestapo headquarters as well as the home of glamorous traitors such as Coco Chanel reminds us of the choices people made during those years. Even more interesting is how Paris did its best to remain a capital of pleasure as nightclubs and cabarets remained open to the mainly German audience.”
⏤Cynthia Bisson, PhD
Professor of History, Belmont University
French Resistant Expert
“Another outstanding, well-researched, and presented book by Stew Ross. It gives a detailed guided walking tour full of facts about the activities of the Gestapo during their occupation of Paris during World War II. I highly recommend this book to everyone who has an interest in what life was like during the Nazi occupation in France.”
⏤Richard H.F. Neave
Member of Paris-based Libre Résistance SOE “F” section and author of SOE: A Life in the Shadows”
“Maybe I’ll protect it; maybe I won’t. It’s up to me.”
Adolf Hitler
(to Albert Speer on the fate of Paris sometime during their three-hour tour of Paris on the morning of 28 June 1940)
Available Soon:
Round-ups & Executions, 1940-1944
Volume Two will be available in 2024.
Deportations & Liberation, 1940-1944
Volume Three will be available in 2025.
Electronic publication versions: Each walk stop address contains a Google Maps link. Multiple links are included to web-sites for additional information on the sites. We understand how confusing the e-book market can be. Before you purchase the e-book version of this book, please click on Amazon’s buy button. You will see the various devices that support this book. Although Amazon lists “Paperwhite” as a supported device, we have found it is not. A good rule of thumb for a successful download is to use Kindle Fire devices or the Kindle app.
Walks Through History
Copyright © 2021-2024 Stew Ross
