In 2012, I visited France and spent several days in Paris. I recall walking along the Champs de Elyseeto the Arc de Triomphe. I attempted to imagine in my mind the experiences of millions of French citizens as the armies of invasion and then liberation marched down the avenue. Of course, I had seen films of the events, but standing there in person provided me with a substantially different context.

Seventy-five years after the Nazi occupation of France, it remains difficult to comprehend life in an occupied nation. An occupying German soldier remarked to a young French woman in 1940 that her city seemed sad. Her reply was simple: “You should have been here before you got here.”

French resistance took many forms. Some did nothing, others were heroes, but the vast majority were occasional heroes, responding to individual moments demanding they exhibit their loyalty to humanity. THE COST OF COURAGE by Charles Kaiser is a moving tribute to one family, the Boulloches, who undertook the dangerous and secret effort to fight tyranny in the “City of Light” during the Nazi occupation.

"THE COST OF COURAGE vividly and eloquently recreates the heroism of many through the eyes of one French family."

Kaiser’s Uncle Henry, a U.S. Army Lieutenant, met Christiane Boulloche-Audibert, a heroine of the French Resistance, when she provided him with a room during his military service in liberated Paris in 1944. In 1962, Henry traveled to Paris and met Christiane, along with other surviving members of her family. He had learned a great deal from the sisters during his time in Paris, and his nephew acquired more knowledge about what the family and others had endured during the four years the Nazis occupied the city. THE COST OF COURAGE is a factual account of the occupation experiences that took five decades for Kaiser to create. His effort has produced a wonderful history, reading like a spy novel while serving as a testament to the efforts of many French men and women in their fight for freedom.

One of the common themes of World War II is the reluctance of many heroic people to discuss their participation in the war. Many of my contemporaries have relatives and friends who fought in Europe or Japan or participated in the war effort, but spoke of their contributions very reluctantly. The acts of many from that generation became public knowledge only when their service to our nation was noted in an obituary, or perhaps the marking of a notable historical anniversary. The Boulloche-Audibert family had the same reluctance to discuss their clandestine activities as did many of their fellow citizens. Kaiser was finally able to cajole remembrances out of the family after 50 years of silence. The story of their bravery is remarkable.

The Resistance would establish safe houses throughout Paris. Members were instructed that, if captured by the Gestapo, they should endure interrogation for 48 hours to allow their fellow members to relocate. If a fellow spy was not heard from for two days, safe houses were abandoned and new locations established. On one such occasion, the sisters avoided capture only because, while preparing a meal for their compatriots, they had to return to the market to purchase wine. While there, the Gestapo raided the safe house.

In the weeks preceding the Allied invasion of Normandy, the resistance was incredibly active. They blew up rail lines and prevented troop movement, and regularly provided information across the English Channel for German targets and troop movements. Even to this day, the full contribution of these brave French citizens remains underappreciated.

As the filmmaker Marcel Ophüls notes in his documentary film, The Sorrow and the Pity, “If one hasn’t been through…the horror of an occupation by a foreign power, you have no right to pronounce upon what a country does which has been through all that.” THE COST OF COURAGE vividly and eloquently recreates the heroism of many through the eyes of one French family.