Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis

by Jeffrey H. Jackson

Overview

“A Nazi resistance story like none you’ve ever heard or read.” —Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and On Desperate Ground

"Every page is gripping, and the amount of new research is nothing short of mind-boggling. A brilliant book for the ages!” —Douglas Brinkley, author of American Moonshot 

A Stonewall Honor Book in Nonfiction
Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

Paper Bullets is the first book to tell the history of an audacious anti-Nazi campaign undertaken by an unlikely pair: two French women, Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, who drew on their skills as Parisian avant-garde artists to write and distribute “paper bullets”—wicked insults against Hitler, calls to rebel, and subversive fictional dialogues designed to demoralize Nazi troops occupying their adopted home on the British Channel Island of Jersey. Devising their own PSYOPS campaign, they slipped their notes into soldier’s pockets or tucked them inside newsstand magazines.

Hunted by the secret field police, Lucy and Suzanne were finally betrayed in 1944, when the Germans imprisoned them, and tried them in a court martial, sentencing them to death for their actions. Ultimately they survived, but even in jail, they continued to fight the Nazis by reaching out to other prisoners and spreading a message of hope.

Better remembered today by their artist names, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, the couple’s actions were even more courageous because of who they were: lesbian partners known for cross-dressing and creating the kind of gender-bending work that the Nazis would come to call “degenerate art.” In addition, Lucy was half Jewish, and they had communist affiliations in Paris, where they attended political rallies with Surrealists and socialized with artists like Gertrude Stein.

Paper Bullets is a compelling World War II story that has not been told before, about the galvanizing power of art, and of resistance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616209162
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	635,876
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey H. Jackson is Professor of History at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. An expert on European history and culture, he is the author of Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910 and Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris. He has appeared in documentary films and helped develop “Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story” for PBS’s Great Performances .

Table of Contents

Prologue: "They Have Not Caught You This Time" 1

I Learning to Resist

1 "Jealous, Exclusive Passion": Paris in the 1920s 9

2 "A Professional Smile-and Voilà!" 26

3 "I Sensed the War Coming (without Wanting to Believe It)" 36

II Fighting the Nazis

4 "It Will Take Much, Much Longer Than You Think" 51

5 War without End 65

6 "News Service" for the Germans 79

7 The Indirect Effect 86

8 The Soldier with No Name 94

9 The Deportations 107

10 "Jesus Is Great-but Hitler Is Greater" 122

III Arrest and Trial

11 "Come in … Gentlemen" 137

12 "It Becomes Quite Impossible to Trace Back the Origin of a Particular Idea" 151

13 "I Would Live One Day at a Time" 169

14 "I Am Prepared to Acknowledge Anything of Ours" 182

15 "Good Night, My Poor Little Chick" 195

16 "We Are at the Show" 210

17 "This Strange Dream" 223

18 "Lullaby for One Condemned to Death" 233

19 "Any Minute Now" 247

IV Lucy and Suzanne in Peacetime

20 "A Place More Deserted Than the Desert" 257

Epilogue: Why Resist? 267

The Story Behind the Story: A Note on Sources 274

Acknowledgments 283

Notes 285

Editorial Reviews

08/10/2020

In this intriguing and carefully documented account, Rhodes College history professor Jackson (Paris Under Water) documents the “artistic acts of psychological warfare” committed by French artists Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe on the British Channel island of Jersey during WWII. Friends since childhood, Schwob and Malherbe fell in love when they were teenagers and moved to Paris in the 1920s, where they swirled in the same bohemian circles as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and André Breton. In 1937, the women, posing as sisters, moved to Jersey to “find quiet,” only to see it fall to the Germans in 1940. Their acts of resistance included scrawling graffiti on buildings and leaving notes snuck into soldier’s pockets and in between the pages of newsstand magazines. The messages, including photomontages, summaries of BBC news reports, and literary parodies “focused on fomenting resentment against the war and the German leadership,” Jackson writes. Discovered and arrested in July 1944, Schwob and Malherbe attempted suicide and spent months imprisoned before being sentenced to death. They inspired other prisoners through the notes they continued to pass, and were eventually released in May 1945. Expertly mining the couple’s own “postwar reminisces,” Jackson enriches his account with colorful details such as the time they smuggled a cat through customs in a Hermès bag. Readers will delight in this unique and well-crafted story of wartime resistance. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A Booklist Editors' Choice, Biography Memoir

“Every page is gripping, and the amount of new research is nothing short of mindboggling. A brilliant book for the ages!”                           
—Douglas Brinkley, Rice University Professor and bestselling author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race

“This is a Nazi resistance story like none you’ve ever heard or read, a story with two unlikely heroines who risked their lives in their subversive—and often wildly creative—struggle to face down evil. Paper Bullets prompts us to explore the boundaries of art, love, gender, and politics—and to question the true meaning of courage.”
—Hampton Sides, bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice and On Desperate Ground

“Cataloguing everything from their small but fearless acts of resistance to their harrowing stints in prison cells, author Jeffrey H. Jackson had us utterly riveted. His well-researched history goes deep into the characters of these two unlikely heroes, whose rebellion was fueled by love and compassion. Malherbe and Schwob’s inspiring story is barely known, but Paper Bullets will make you want to shout it from the rooftops.”
—Apple Books (Best Book of November)

“A captivating tale of queer love and resistance during World War II . . . Jackson’s research is impeccable and his writing is lively . . . Paper Bullets is a gem of a historical text about two women who stood up to power defiantly, living on their own terms.”
—Foreword Reviews (starred review)

“A remarkable story of creative courage . . . exceptional and inspiring.”
—Booklist(starred review)

“The book, at once tense and tender, is a scrupulously researched account of [Cahun and Moore's] lives. It is the first biography to comprehensively weave together their lifelong romance, radical art and fearless political resistance during World War II . . . Yet, even with its piercing wartime depictions of rationing and hunger, intimidation and depravity, and nail-biting acts of resistance, Paper Bullets is at its core a story of devotion.”
—The Washington Post

“A fascinating examination of community and resistance, gender and sexuality, and what it means to recognize the humanity in every person.”
—Chapter 16

“Jeffrey Jackson brings to light Lucy and Suzanne’s courage and savvy in this book that reads like a classic WWII spy thriller, but with a modern focus on how these two heroes took society’s default tendency to underestimate women’s power and agency, especially during wartime, and used it to undermine the Nazis. We marvel at how they hide in plain sight as they stealthily fight the very forces trying to exterminate who they really are. And not only do they outsmart their German foes, but they survive to tell about it.”
—Emily Yellin, author of Our Mothers’ War

 “A unique WWII history and absorbing story of two bold, unconventional women.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Paper Bullets has it all — it's a tale of romance in spite of the odds, a slice of art history, and an inspirational World War II story. It is, simply put, nearly impossible to put down.”
—Memphis Flyer

“Impeccably researched and meticulously sourced, Paper Bullets is a welcome and timely portrait of courage and creativity.”
 —Bookpage

“Readers will delight in this unique and well-crafted story of wartime resistance.”
 — Publishers Weekly

“This is a satisfying contribution to World War II scholarship, highlighting a sophisticated, cultured, and still grassroots resistance effort.”
—Library Journal

“Paper Bullets reads like a well-paced, nail-biting thriller. Jeffrey H Jackson leads us through a novel-like tale of intrigue, scandal and plucky war-time resistance . . . The power of art and the impact of political artists makes for a gripping rollercoaster ride that we thoroughly enjoyed.”
—Daily Art Magazine  

“A gripping story. The lesbian couple Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe deployed their intellectual capacities and peacetime experience in dissembling their identities to challenge the German occupiers with artistic 'paper bullets.' The contest between the baffled Nazis and the crafty traitors animates this historical thriller.”               
—Bonnie G. Smith, author of Women In World History

“A regular occurrence in queer history is erasure. This book allows the past to speak for itself. Jackson elevates and highlights these Nazi-fighters and avant-garde artists—better known today as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore—and reminds us to use spiritual arms instead of firearms in the face of growing division and hate.”
—Tommy Kha, artist and winner of the 2019 Creative Review Photography Annual

“Riveting. Breaks new ground in our understanding of collaboration and resistance in Nazi-occupied Europe and the impact of women in wartime. A must-read for anyone interested in World War II, resistance, women's history, or the defense of democratic ideals during times of tyranny and oppression.”
—Michael D. Bess, Vanderbilt University Professor and author of Choices Under Fire

From the Publisher

11/01/2020

For fans of Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and LGBTQ+ history, here is a based-in-truth account of a pair of heroes who defied the Nazis and faced violence and death in their efforts to resist occupation. Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe were a romantic pair who had a colorful past that included spending time with some prominent figures of the 1920s Parisian art scene, which heavily influenced their later actions. In this fast-paced narrative, Jackson (history, Rhodes Coll.; Paris Under Water) focuses on the postwar writings of the people involved, as well as on official reports from Nazi authorities who dealt with them. While the first part deals in some amount of speculation on the author's part, piecing together stories of other subversive actors on the Channel Islands and those who knew the women, the latter half is rooted in primary documents and spotlights these unsung heroes of the Nazi resistance. Well-chosen photographs help place the women and their lives in context. VERDICT This is a satisfying contribution to World War II scholarship, highlighting a sophisticated, cultured, and still grassroots resistance effort. Recommended for public libraries.—Amanda Ray, Iowa City P.L.

Library Journal

★ 2020-08-20
The story of two women artists who courageously resisted Nazi occupation of a small island.

Historian Jackson offers a fresh look at World War II resistance through the lives of Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, lovers who lived on Jersey, part of the Channel Islands, throughout the Nazi occupation. The daughters of wealthy families in Nantes, the two had fallen in love when they were teenagers, thrived among the avant-garde in Paris in the 1920s and ’30s, and moved to Jersey in 1937 to escape rising oppression and anti-Semitism—Lucy had Jewish heritage—in the French capital. As artists, Lucy took the moniker Claude Cahun and Suzanne, Marcel Moore, with which they signed their creative work: photographs, collages, drawings. “By choosing new identities but also keeping their given names, Lucy and Suzanne remained somewhere between masculine and feminine,” Jackson observes, “resisting either category fully and enjoying the freedom to float between the two when it suited them.” In Jersey, the women were determined to demoralize the occupiers, leaving notes, cartoons, and illustrations throughout the island where soldiers could find them. “Each message,” writes the author, “tried to convince soldiers to lay down weapons, desert, and go home.” With increasing German paranoia about spies and subterfuge, avoiding suspicion was difficult; but it was not until late in the war that the women were arrested, interrogated, tried, and sentenced to death—a sentence successfully appealed. They were released after Germany’s surrender. For Lucy, who suffered many physical and mental debilities, the war “was the one moment in her life when she seemed to have the strongest sense of purpose and the most direct vision about who she wanted to be.” Drawing on archival and genealogical sources, the women’s own writings, and histories of the period, Jackson creates a vivid picture of the tense, fearsome atmosphere of Jersey under Nazi occupation and the perils of resistance.

A unique WWII history and absorbing story of two bold, unconventional women.

Kirkus Reviews