All the Light We Cannot See France by Hanna, Paige, Juliana, Jeanie, Caroline, and Tristan
Pre-WWII France
The Aftermath of WWI on France ● Northeastern section of France was in destroyed ● France fell into economic ruin ● Wealth gap grew larger between the wealthy and the mid and lower classes ● Farmers found themselves with destroyed lands and went unemployed ● 7% of the population was either dead or incapacitated
The State of France ● France and Russia were no longer were friends ● Collapse of the League of Nations ● Fear of unchecked power
A Weakened State ● France’s military mindset towards defense ● Conservative politics ● Germany’s population of men of fighting age was close to 2-1 against France
Life in post-WWI France ● Many families found themselves jobless and homeless ● People’s political view changed quickly ● Fear of security ● Lack of faith in Government
SAINT-MALO
Home of the Corsaires • Privateer: A private person authorized by government to attack foreign vessels and keep them as prizes. • Statue of Robert Surcouf, a Malouin privateer.
Notable People • Jacques Cartier, claimed what is now French Canada. • François-René de Chateaubriand, considered founder of romanticism in French literature.
Grand Bé • Location of the tomb of Chateaubriand.
Petit Bé • A small fort designed to protect Saint-Malo from British and Dutch fleets in 1667.
Fort National • Built to protect Saint-Malo’s port.
Fort de la Conchée • Built by Sébastien Vauban, Marshal of France and foremost military engineer.
Tour Solidor • A keep with 3 towers used to control access to the River Rance in the 1300s. • A museum honoring Breton sailors.
Saint Malo - 1944
-Radio- -&- -Sea of Flames-
-Inspiration behind the use of radio in the novel-
-The Role of Radio in Wartime France- ● tool to immense political power ● 1936, 4 million French citizens possessed a radio in their homes ● 3 main stations: Tour-Eiffel, Paris-PTT, and Radio Paris ● Radio Londres
-Radio Londres- ● broadcast from London ● features a programme every evening: Les Français parlent aux Français (the French speak to the French) ● influential platform for music ● first broadcast was by Charles de Gaulle, ends with iconic line: ‘Whatever happens, the flame of the French Resistance must not be extinguished, and will not be extinguished.’
-Professor Henri LeBlanc- “Consider a single piece glowing in your family’s stove. See it, childen? That chunk of coal was once a green plant, a fern or reed that lived one million years ago, or maybe two million, or maybe one hundred million. Can you imagine one hundred million years?...”
-Sea of flames- BTW : In addition to the war and the radio, the Sea of Flames, a potentially cursed diamond, has a hand in connecting the two main characters’ stories. What inspired you to add a mythical gemstone to a World War II story? AD: When I was in Paris reading about the invasion of 1940, most of the stuff you find is about the evacuation of cultural treasures — taking paintings and things out of the Louvre. My interest was what was in the Natural History Museum, with all of those valuables that are often too heavy to move. I read about this amethyst kept at The British Museum, which was a supposedly cursed gemstone called the Delhi Sapphire. There are all kinds of fables about it being cursed and returned to its owner after he threw it into the Thames. And some people today are still convinced of this curse. So I invented the Sea of Flames, and I worried it might be a little obvious as a narrative vehicle in the book, but I also thought it would be interesting to give it to a blind girl — someone who might be immune to its visual charms. I’m always interested in how I behave around little valuable things. What is it about us that covets these things, finds beauty in them? And isn’t it arbitrary that we decided diamonds are so valuable in the first place?
-Delhi Purple Sapphire- ● During the bloody Indian Mutiny of 1857, a Bengal cavalryman stole a purple gemstone from the a sacred temple of Indra, from the Hindu god of weather and war ● The soldier, a Colonel W. Ferris brought the purple amethyst back to England ● coincide with an unfortunate downturn in his health and financial fortunes.
-Edward Heron-Allen- “This stone is trebly accursed and is stained with blood, and the dishonour of everyone who has ever owned it.” “My advice to him or her is to cast it into the sea. I am forbidden by the Rosicrucian Oath to do this, or I would have done it long ago.”
WWII in France
Being Blind “What is blindness? Where there should be a wall, her hands find nothing. Where there should be nothing, a table leg gouges her shin. Cars growl in the streets; leaves whisper in the sky; blood rustles through her inner ears. In the stairwell, in the kitchen, even beside her bed, grown-up voices speak of despair.” (Doerr 34) Carved Wooden Maps *Wooden maps are precise calculations to allow for accuracy in navigation *Modern day usage began in 1983, uses laser printers Braille *Braille first created in 1824 *Originated from military code called Night Writing *arrangement of raised dots to distinguish letters
Being Blind in WWII July 14, 1933: “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases” -Third Reich used propaganda to call them “Useless Eaters” and “life unworthy of life” October 1939: Hitler instates the Euthanasia program -Systematically killing members of society deemed “unworthy of life”
Life in France During WWII “When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?” Economy: *Almost 2 Million French laborers in POWs *Cash payments to Germany *Food supply exploited, 80% controlled by Germany *International trade blocked
French Occupation of Germany *Extreme hunger -rationing largely unsuccessful -predominant in cities, countryside villages better off *Shortage of oils and fuel *Many regulations and censorships *75,000 citizens killed, 550,000 tons of bombs dropped *49 concentration camps *French Resistance groups led to massacres of French citizens
PROPAGANDA IN WWII
DEFINITION & CAUSE Governments sometimes use propaganda against their enemy during wartime in order to raise their own country’s morale and to justify and sustain the legitimacy of the efforts. In the case of France and Germany during WWII, pro-German posters were produced by German occupying forces, the French resistance produced posters to raise the French soldier’s morale, and anti- Nazi posters scattered France. Propaganda was printed both for the audience of one’s own population, as well as for the enemy.
FRENCH-GERMAN WWII MEDIA PROPAGANDA ● Both the German and the French sides recruited native speakers to broadcast radio messages to the opposition in the hopes of spreading disinformation and discontent. ● On July 29th, 1939, French Prime Minister Daladier set out to co-ordinate and organize all the media propaganda produced and broadcasted by the government.
IMPORTANCE OF FRENCH RADIO ● At the time of WWII, France had a central transmitting station that composed 20 different stations under the title Radio Paris . Radio Paris could be heard everywhere in France. ● Many French towns also ran ad-funded local stations, which countries like Germany and Great Britain did not have. ● The German station that could be heard in France consisted of pro-Nazi Frenchmen who emphasized Hitler’s efforts to “keep peace” and “protect the world from war”.
A JUNE 6 1940 BROADCAST “Frenchman, in order to supply the deficiency of our government, oppose this war organized by the Jews, led by the Jews” - Broadcast by Awakening of France , a German-run French station
LES PARISIENS SOUS L’OCCUPATION ● Les Parisiens Sous L’occupation is a collection of photographs by wartime photographer Andre Zucca. ● German propaganda magazine Signal ordered Zucca to capture subjectified photos of happy civilians in order to “prove that the city was thriving under German rule” ● Only known color photographs of the time
German Occupation and the Bombing of France
Battle of France ● between May 10, 1940 until June 25, 1940 ● Germany overwhelmed and ended resistance from French forces ○ German occupants travelled around Maginot Line and entered Paris
German Occupation ● France surrendered by signing the Franco-German Armistice ● Armistice signed in the same railway car in Compiegne Forest where Germany surrendered to France after the first World War ○ Pétain signed on June 22, 1940 ■ Pétain is a controversial figure ○ enacted on June 25, 1940 ○ divided France by Northern-Western region a southern France ● the regions of France were divided by German occupants and the French ● Germans occupied France within six weeks ● by 1942, Germans occupied all of France
Compiegne Forest Saint Malo ● Vichy occupied in 1942
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