One Day in France: Tragedy and Betrayal in an Occupied Village

Description

April 6, 1944. A detachment of German soldiers arrive in a rural French town, hunting down resistance fighters, many of whom are hiding in the region. More than sixty years later, the villagers clearly remember the day when four peasants from a nearby village were taken hostage and shot as an example to others. But do they remember the whole story? Jean-Marie Borzeix sets out to investigate the events of Holy Thursday 1944, and to reveal the hidden truths of that fateful day. He uncovers the story of a mysterious 'fifth man' shot alongside the resisters and eventually unravels a trail which leads him to Paris, Israel and into the darkest corners of the Holocaust in France. A captivating story, the events of this day in a small, entirely typical, town illuminate the true impact of World War II in France.

Jean-Marie Borzeix is a journalist, writer and broadcaster. He began his career as a reporter writing for Combat and the Quotidien de Paris before becoming editor-in-chief of Nouvelles Litteraires and literary editor for Editions du Seuil. From 1984 to 1997 he was Director of France Culture radio station. Gay McAuley is Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway College, University of London, UK and Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Performance Studies, University of Sydney, Australia.