No wonder many would inform on their neighbours, let alone Jews, for the price of a couple of square meals.Īt the same time, the elite of society, actors like Maurice Chevalier and Yves Montand and singers like Piaf, continued their life as before. Her only criticism was that not enough emphasis was given to the dreadful privations of ordinary Parisians, permanently close to starvation and under constant threat of deportation or death for the most minor infringements of a rule enforced by the Gestapo. I loaned this moving and elegant account of a man’s journey to find himself to a French neighbour in the Dordogne village where I live, whose father was not only a major landowner but also deeply involved with the Resistance. At the same time he finds love with his fashion designer mistress’ assistant, is threatened by the Resistance for his work for the Germans, and after meeting some of the long-established French Jews he has helped to save, becomes a reluctant hero. Lucien is wracked by guilt and his thoughts turn from money and advancement to vengeance. A priest persuades him to care for an orphaned Jewish boy.īut as the stakes grow higher, one of his hiding places spectacularly fails. His assistant hates him and plans betrayal.

As his profile and wealth increases, so does the danger. His success leads the wealthy industrialist who commissioned him – and who too is leading a double life – to set him up with a factory commission that involves working with a German army officer who admires architecture and art. Even today, in the countryside around Beaune, farmers blame ‘Les Juifs’ for anything from a tractor breaking down to a storm ruining the harvest.ĭespite Lucien’s fears, he accepts, needing money to maintain his lifestyle, which naturally includes a mistress – who is two-timing him with a fanatical Gestapo colonel – even though knowing anyone caught helping a Jew will be tortured and killed. He is a typical French bourgoisie: self-centred, self-important and deeply anti-Semitic – as were most of the population. Struggling architect Lucien Bernard is offered a large sum to devise unique hiding places from the Gestapo for either wealthy or important Jews. What would you risk to help a stranger? What right is worth trading your life for? The Paris Architect is an exquisitely written, vivid and suspenseful story of Paris under German occupation, with all its contradictions, opulence, desperation and fear.īelfoure’s theme is selfishness.

The paris architect by charles belfoure