Book Review — The Paris Architect — Charles Belfoure

#bookreview #holocaust #worldwar2 #historicalfiction

Book Name: The Paris Architect
Author: Charles Belfoure
Topics: #Holocaust, #World_War_II, Safety of Jews, Architecture, Paris
Recommendation: Good.

The Paris Architect is a Historical Fiction book describing how Lucien Bernard, a Parisian architect helped save Jews by creating innovative and hard to find hiding places in Paris.

When you think about it, its quite astonishing that this is the first book I have seen that focuses on Architects or reconstruction of buildings and apartments to hide the Jews. Especially considering that it is widely acknowledged and believed that many a benevolent soul hid the Jews in their homes.

This book covers 2 things — One, the innovative use of Architectural design to not just create spaces to hide, but to create spaces that blend in with the current structure but to keep the Jews hidden from the deep searches of the Gestapo. The author uses his own knowledge of structural Engineering and architecture to illustrate how this was done and what these hidden alcoves stood against. This was the technical side of the book but not very difficult to understand though I wish there had been pictures or drawings to help us visualize it.

The second thing covered in the book was the profile on people, mainly Gentiles of Paris, and their reaction to the German takeover…