Before the Second World War, approximately thirty thousand Americans lived in Paris. When war broke out in 1939, that number had been reduced to five thousand, many of whom continued to live in Paris for the duration of the war.

Who stayed in Nazi Paris, why, and their experiences is the subject of Charles Glass’s book, Americans In Paris.

Glass chronicles the experiences of the Americans from the spring of 1940 through the liberation in the summer of 1944. The Americans in Paris are a mixed bunch, humanitarians (Dr. Sumner Jackson), collaborators (Charles Bedaux), and the merely naïve (Sylvia Beach), but regardless of their circumstances or motivation, their stories are fascinating.