The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground

Rosenberg, professor emeritus of literature at Bard College, recounts his remarkable journey from young Polish-Jewish student to daring French underground freedom fighter in this powerful debut memoir. As the Nazis tightened their grip on the Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) in 1937, Rosenberg’s parents sent their blue-eyed, blond, 16-year-old son to schooling and safety in Paris. Three years later, he fled south after the Nazis occupied the city. In Marseille, through an amazing “confluence of circumstances,” he met an American journalist named Varian Fry who helped artists and intellectuals escape Nazi occupation. Rosenberg’s German background, French education, and fluency in several languages allowed him to become a successful espionage agent, and he went on to work with Fry, assisting the likes of Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, Franz Werfel, and Max Ernst to escape into Spain. Rosenberg, a modest narrator, nevertheless writes thrillingly of his life—of participating in reconnaissance and guerrilla attacks; joining the 636th Tank Destroyer Battalion as interpreter and scout; and serving as supply officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration—all while dodging injury, imprisonment, and death. Rosenberg’s memoir has all the suspense of a tense spy thriller. (Jan.)