The Mother Who Defied the Reich: The Untold Story of One Family's Resistance in Occupied France

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Rezul -- The University Press of Kansas announces the publication of The Mother Who Defied the Reich: The Untold Story of One Family's Resistance in Occupied France by James Lander, the remarkable story of Henriette de Bosmelet, a sixty-year-old French widow who refused to abandon her ancestral home when German forces seized her château in Normandy in June 1940. Rather than flee, Henriette remained at Château de Bosmelet and waged a quiet but determined campaign of resistance from within her own home. Her defiance continued throughout the occupation until German authorities forcibly removed her, first to prison in Rouen and later into exile in Paris, where she remained until liberation.

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But Henriette's story is only one chapter in an extraordinary family saga. Her son Pierre, a lieutenant in the French Colonial Army, commanded Senegalese soldiers in combat against German forces in France and West Africa before serving at Charles de Gaulle's London headquarters. Meanwhile, Pierre's wife, Diana, a Jewish Englishwoman, fled the château with their children to escape Nazi capture. Her desperate journey carried her from Normandy through southern France and Lisbon to New York, Hollywood, West Africa, and London, creating a remarkable global story of escape, endurance, and survival.

Drawing on previously undiscovered sources and extensive research, Lander intertwines the experiences of three members of the Bosmelet family to offer a deeply personal account of wartime France and the wider conflict. The Mother Who Defied the Reich demonstrates how the Second World War was experienced not only through armies and governments but through families forced to make extraordinary choices under extraordinary circumstances. Vivid, fast-paced, and grounded in extensive historical research, this book brings to light a previously unknown story of courage, patriotism, resistance, and the bonds of family.

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Key Features & News Angles:

• The Human Cost of Nazi Occupation: Reveals Henriette de Bosmelet's firsthand experience of displacement, imprisonment, persecution, and the destruction of her château during the German occupation and Vichy regime.
• The Threat to Jewish France: Examines Henriette's anguish as Jewish friends and members of the French elite became victims of Vichy's antisemitic policies and were deported to Auschwitz.
• A Family Divided by War: Traces the wartime experiences of Henriette's son Pierre, a French Colonial Army officer who fought German forces in France and West Africa before joining de Gaulle's London headquarters.

Learn more about the book here: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700643660/