The Lisbon Route: Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe

As Weber notes, the Lisbon route is largely forgotten as anything more than Ilsa's destination in Casablanca. But the route offered thousands of refugees a path from Nazi-held Europe to neutral Portugal and from there to America. Weber, professor emeritus of American studies at Notre Dame (News of Paris), assembles vignettes into each stand-alone chapter, creating contrast between the breathless escape of pilots such as Chuck Yeager (who crossed the Pyrenees with the help of the Resistance after his plane was downed in France) and easier journeys by Man Ray, Virgil Thomson (who arrived by train), and the duke and duchess of Windsor, (they fled France by car with a diplomatic escort). As the primary city offering air and sea passage to England and the United States, once quiet Lisbon attracted a mixture of wealthy expatriates, desperate intellectuals, and other refugees, along with spies, creating a colorful collage of luxury hotels, and brothels whose prostitutes were paid to spy; Ian Fleming came as a member of British naval intelligence. Weber provides a rich if sober microcosm of one segment of WWII's substantial displaced population. (Apr.)