However, because the Americans were not at war with Germany until December 1941, the American Library was not enemy turf to the Nazis for nearly the first 1½ years of the Paris occupation. They also did not respond well to the kind of authority a foreign power tried to exert over them and their reading materials and habits.Ĭharles’s story covers the years 1939-1944: from the beginning of WWII when the French and Germans became enemies until the occupation of Paris ended in August 1944. We learned how much they treasure their libraries, and the American Library was no exception. The French remain among the world’s most literate and avid readers. A lot of research into those years supplemented with her own imagination resulted in this extraordinary and heart-warming book. The years of Nazi occupation of Paris and their effect on the Library especially drew her interest. In 2010 Janet Skeslien Charles began working as the Programs Director at the American Library in Paris where she learned the history of this wonderful Library founded in 1920.
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