The Lisbon Route

February 21, 2011
As Weber notes, the Lisbon route is largely forgotten as anything more than Ilsa's destination in Casablanca. But the route offered thousands of refugees a path from Nazi-held Europe to neutral Portugal and from there to America. Weber, professor emeritus of American studies at Notre Dame (News of Paris), assembles vignettes into each stand-alone chapter, creating contrast between the breathless escape of pilots such as Chuck Yeager (who crossed the Pyrenees with the help of the Resistance after his plane was downed in France) and easier journeys by Man Ray, Virgil Thomson (who arrived by train), and the duke and duchess of Windsor, (they fled France by car with a diplomatic escort). As the primary city offering air and sea passage to England and the United States, once quiet Lisbon attracted a mixture of wealthy expatriates, desperate intellectuals, and other refugees, along with spies, creating a colorful collage of luxury hotels, and brothels whose prostitutes were paid to spy; Ian Fleming came as a member of British naval intelligence. Weber provides a rich if sober microcosm of one segment of WWII's substantial displaced population.

March 15, 2011

The best route in and out of Occupied France for downed airmen or secret agents was through Spain and Portugal (as fans of Casablanca will know). Allied and neutral ships and planes landed in Lisbon to pick up and drop off passengers. Until the D-day invasion there was fear that the German Wehrmacht would move into the Iberian Peninsula and block these pathways of escape. Weber (American studies, emeritus, Univ. of Notre Dame; News of Paris: American Journalists in the City of Light) presents narratives of dangerous trips in and out of the war zones, bureaucratic turf battles, and diplomatic skirmishes, as seemingly everyone spied on everyone else (including at famous casinos where Ian Fleming collected experiences for later stories). The British were the dominant Allied player in Lisbon. This accessible book for general readers may also appeal to lovers of Alan Furst's novels set in the era.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.