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Janet Skeslien Charles's The Paris Library: the untold story of heroic librarians in Paris during World War II

Advertisement Reading is my passion. I can’t imagine not having access to books, yet this is exactly what happened to Jewish readers in France during World War II. During the Nazi Occupation, Jewish people were stripped of their rights. They could no longer work in many professions. They did not have the right to enter parks or libraries. They were in tremendous danger: a quarter of France’s Jewish population was killed. Yet librarians at the time reached out to Jewish readers to ensure they remained part of the community. My novel, The Paris Library, tells the true tale of the international team of librarians who defied the Nazis in order to hand-deliver books to Jewish readers.

Janet Skeslien Charles's The Paris Library: the untold story of heroic librarians in Paris during World War II

Getting Lost in the Libraries of Paris Researching WWII

Janet Skeslien Charles Finds Her Way to Her New Book  February 19, 2021 The American Library in Paris sits in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Its collection of 100,000 books is spread over three stories. Members from 60 countries can work at long tables or whisper at the coffee machine. As the programs manager, I oversaw the ALP’s weekly Evening with an Author series, hosting journalists, debut novelists, and National Book Award winners. At events, I stood in the back of the reading room, one eye on the crowd, the other on my journal as I jotted down the writers’ words. During the day, at my desk in the bustling back office, I also took note of what colleagues said and was particularly captivated by the World War II story of the courageous librarians who defied the Nazi “Library Protector” in order to hand-deliver books to Jewish readers. 

With a heart filled with gratitude, a long-time reporter files a final column before retiring

Everyone was overjoyed, especially their mother. It had been three years since the family of five had been together.

The Aricos were a typical Italian-Catholic family living in Barrington in the 1950s.  Mary and Anthony  called Tony  brought their children up in a modest home on Maple Avenue, just a stone’s throw away from the Barrington Steam Brick Company.  Many of the company’s 200 workers had been recruited from Italy and Mary’s father had worked there as a foreman.  Although the brickyard closed down in the 1940s, the Italian enclave that had sprung up around the site continued to flourish.  The Aricos had three boys – Vincent, Anthony Jr. and Daniel  all born two years apart. “We were a very moderate-income family, living in the heart of the Italian section of Barrington, but we were a very happy family,” says Anthony.