An Uncertain Hour: The French, the Germans, the Jews, the Barbie Trial, and the City of Lyon, 1940-1945

Two themes dominate this wide-ranging look at the 1940 German invasion and subsequent occupation of France: that nation's vulnerability, and the deportation of French Jews to Nazi concentration camps. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Morgan also explores the attempts of the Vichy government to work out a compromise with the German authorities; recounts the destruction of the maquis stronghold at Vercor; and describes the activities of Klaus Barbie during and after the war. Chief SS officer in Lyon, France, he was extradited from Bolivia in 1983, tried in Lyon in '87 for crimes against humanity and is presently serving a 20-year sentence in France. Morgan's account of Barbie's role in the deportation program is detailed, and shows how the Germans, in their attempt to eradicate Jewry, adopted a corporate model complete with production goals, a system by which human tragedy was converted to logistical tasks. The book is based on depositions and documents collected for the Barbie trial. Morgan (ne Sanche de Gramont), who was living in France in 1940, includes material on the fate of his relatives during the Occupation. Illustrated. (Jan.)