Bought from the Los Osos Library book sale today.

Wow. What a story. I have read many different books about WWII, fiction and non, including one autobiography by a specific young Frenchwoman who helped many Jewish children in France. This memoir - part journal, part memoir, expands on that theme. It is the story of Agnes Humbert, who helped form and worked in the French Resistance, risking her life many times and landing in prison because of her efforts. In prison she was surrounded by others also in the resistance and there are startling movie-like incidents that take place there. Why isn't this a major motion picture?

It was first published in France in 1946. It contained a copy of her diary up to a certain date, and after that her memories of what happened, written after the war. There are many questions about her original diary, which it is certain she did maintain, and about what may have been left out of it in the publication. The facts in the book have been verified as much as is possible and there are details about the persons listed in the book at the end.

It was a sensation in 1946 but for some reason did not get published in the US until 2008, long after her death. I for one would love to see a film made of it. It reveals just how the resistance tended to work in a day-to-day fashion, something many of us want to know.

Inside the box.