This blog post should really be called
'Understanding what it is like to live and resist in an occupied country: 2 books and a film'
By a strange set of circumstances, involving choosing small books to travel with, I ended up reading (at the same time) two books about living in an occupied country. Then an obscure film turned up on our doorstep from 'Lovefilm', from where we get 2 DVDs a month (I haven't got the hang of streaming yet. Give me time). The film was about living in an occupied country.
The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis
7/10
This is the story of George, a Cretan man, who helped the British intelligence and military services during the occupation of Crete by the Germans during the second world war. He was an untraveled, unsophisticated villager, who became a 'runner', carrying messages and articles across tremendous distances, over the mountains, across the island. Through many courageous acts he, and others, helped to establish and support the resistance movement which helped to overturn the occupation.
It's a gob-smacking book because of the real-life events that it recounts. I wouldn't normally read this kind of book - about war and derring-do - but sometimes one needs to read personal accounts to begin to understand the reality of history. I have been to Crete and I have great admiration and respect for the Greek people - more so after reading this.
George tells of whole villages being burnt to the ground, and of all the men in villages being taken away and shot, as punishment for small acts of resistance. I don't know how the island has recovered. I don't know how the Greek people have recovered. Maybe they haven't.
Another strange thing - I was reading this during the time of the Greek crisis with its economy and its membership of the EU. It made me understand the anger and defiance a little.
Resistance by Anita Shreve
7/10
And in this book Anita Shreve tells the story of an American pilot whose plane falls in Belgium during its occupation in the second world war. He is helped by a complex network of ordinary people who make up the Maquis, the resistance movement. It's a well told story. I'm a fan of Anita Shreve. She finds such accessible ways of telling stories that are meaningful and ful of complex emotions and relationships.
Again, it isn't a book for the faint-hearted. Living under occupation is living with brutality and fear.
Odette - a film, 1950
6/10
Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard
And then I found myself watching a film about an English woman, Odette, who is sent by British Intelligence to help support the resistance movement in France. It's a true story and it is harrowing. She is captured, tortured and sent to a concentration camp. She was brave and carried out acts of bravery that I doubt I would ever have the courage to do. Those war years challenged people to act beyond their comfortable normal roles and behaviours. We do indeed owe a debt, and we should ponder if we would have the guts to do half as much.
'Understanding what it is like to live and resist in an occupied country: 2 books and a film'
By a strange set of circumstances, involving choosing small books to travel with, I ended up reading (at the same time) two books about living in an occupied country. Then an obscure film turned up on our doorstep from 'Lovefilm', from where we get 2 DVDs a month (I haven't got the hang of streaming yet. Give me time). The film was about living in an occupied country.
The Cretan Runner by George Psychoundakis
7/10
This is the story of George, a Cretan man, who helped the British intelligence and military services during the occupation of Crete by the Germans during the second world war. He was an untraveled, unsophisticated villager, who became a 'runner', carrying messages and articles across tremendous distances, over the mountains, across the island. Through many courageous acts he, and others, helped to establish and support the resistance movement which helped to overturn the occupation.
It's a gob-smacking book because of the real-life events that it recounts. I wouldn't normally read this kind of book - about war and derring-do - but sometimes one needs to read personal accounts to begin to understand the reality of history. I have been to Crete and I have great admiration and respect for the Greek people - more so after reading this.
George tells of whole villages being burnt to the ground, and of all the men in villages being taken away and shot, as punishment for small acts of resistance. I don't know how the island has recovered. I don't know how the Greek people have recovered. Maybe they haven't.
Another strange thing - I was reading this during the time of the Greek crisis with its economy and its membership of the EU. It made me understand the anger and defiance a little.
Resistance by Anita Shreve
7/10
And in this book Anita Shreve tells the story of an American pilot whose plane falls in Belgium during its occupation in the second world war. He is helped by a complex network of ordinary people who make up the Maquis, the resistance movement. It's a well told story. I'm a fan of Anita Shreve. She finds such accessible ways of telling stories that are meaningful and ful of complex emotions and relationships.
Again, it isn't a book for the faint-hearted. Living under occupation is living with brutality and fear.
Odette - a film, 1950
6/10
Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard
And then I found myself watching a film about an English woman, Odette, who is sent by British Intelligence to help support the resistance movement in France. It's a true story and it is harrowing. She is captured, tortured and sent to a concentration camp. She was brave and carried out acts of bravery that I doubt I would ever have the courage to do. Those war years challenged people to act beyond their comfortable normal roles and behaviours. We do indeed owe a debt, and we should ponder if we would have the guts to do half as much.
