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Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure Paperback – April 30, 2002
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"To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine."
–Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d’Argent
In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown–until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCrown
- Publication dateApril 30, 2002
- Dimensions5.43 x 0.68 x 8.16 inches
- ISBN-100767904486
- ISBN-13978-0767904483
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"Assured, detailed, highly readable . . . does honor to all those who labored to keep French wines from barbarous hands. An engrossing addition to the popular literature of WWII." –Kirkus Reviews
"[A] gem for wine aficionados and history buffs." –Boston Herald
"As exciting and interesting and pleasurable as wine itself." –Robert Mondavi, Chairman Emeritus, The Robert Mondavi Winery
From the Inside Flap
"To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine."
Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d Argent
In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.
From the Back Cover
"To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country "and its wine."
-Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d'Argent
In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown-until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. "Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
To Love the Vines
It was late august 1939, and French winemakers were fretting about the harvest. Two months earlier, the outlook had been bright. The weather had been good and there was the promise of an excellent vintage. Then the weather changed. For six straight weeks it rained, and temperatures plummeted.
So did the mood of winegrowers attending the International Congress of the Vine and Wine in the resort of Bad Kreuznach, Germany. The weather was all they could think about—that is, until the next speaker was announced. He was Walter Darre, the Minister of Food Supply and Agriculture for the Third Reich. Winegrowers had been jolted when they first walked into the convention hall and discovered a large portrait of Darre's boss, Adolf Hitler, dominating the room. Like the rest of the world, they had watched with growing alarm as Hitler annexed Austria, carved up Czechoslovakia and signed a military agreement with Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini. Many, fearful that full-scale war was just one step away, felt sure Darre would have something to say about the latest events.
But when the Reichsminister took the podium, he did not speak about the war. He did not even talk about wine. Instead, he called for the Congress delegates to go beyond the concerns of wine and winemaking and work instead to "advance the mutual understanding of peaceful peoples." Those in the audience were thoroughly confused.
What they did not know was that at almost the same moment Hitler himself was giving a very different kind of speech—this one to his high command—in another German resort, Berchtesgaden, the favored vacation spot of the Nazi leadership. The Fuhrer was telling his generals what was coming next and exhorting them to remember, "Our opponents are little worms. . . . What matters in beginning and waging war is not righteousness but victory. Close your hearts to pity. Proceed brutally."
Within a week, his forces invaded Poland. The date was September 1, 1939. French winegrowers at the conference were promptly summoned home. Two days later, France, along with Britain, Australia and New Zealand, declared war on Germany.
For the second time in little more than a generation, French winegrowers faced the agonizing prospect of trying to get their harvest in before vineyards were turned into battlefields. As in 1914, the government mounted an extraordinary campaign to help. Winegrowers were granted delays in being called to active duty, military labor detachments were sent to the vineyards and farm horses of small growers were not to be requisitioned until the harvest was completed.
Memories of that earlier war, "the war to end all wars," still haunted them—the brutality, the hardships and especially the staggering loss of life. Out of a population of 40 million, nearly a million and a half young men were killed, men who would have entered their most productive years had they survived. Another million lost limbs or were so badly wounded that they could no longer work.
It was a bloodletting that left almost no family in France untouched: not the Drouhins of Burgundy, the Miaihles of Bordeaux, the de Nonancourts of Champagne, the Hugels of Alsace, nor the Huets of the Loire Valley.
Gaston Huet's father returned home an invalid, his lungs permanently scarred after his army unit was attacked with mustard gas.
Bernard de Nonancourt's father also suffered the ravages of trench warfare and died of wounds soon after the war.
The mother of Jean Miaihle lost her entire family when German troops attacked their village in northern France.
The Hugel family, which had lost its French heritage and nationality when Alsace was annexed by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, sent their son away so that he could escape being drafted into the German army.
Maurice Drouhin, a veteran of trench warfare, escaped physical injury but not the nightmares which haunted him for years afterward.
Like nearly everyone else in France, these winemaking families watched with trepidation as the specter of another war approached. Although France had been the winner earlier, it had paid a terrible price. Could it afford another such victory? Many in France doubted it, especially Maurice Drouhin, who had witnessed the horrors of war close up.
Thoughts of his family and vineyard were all that comforted him as he huddled with his men in the muddy blood-soaked trenches of northern France, peering at the enemy across a strip of no-man's-land. Although the winter of 1915 still had that part of the country in its grip, Maurice knew that back home in Burgundy, the vines already would be stirring and workers would be busy pruning. If he closed his eyes, he could almost picture it, the men with their secateurs working their way slowly down the long rows of vines; and he could almost hear the church bells that called them to work each day.
Those bells were the first sounds Maurice heard each morning when he awoke in his home in Beaune. For him, they were the background music to life in the vineyards. They rolled across the villages and wheat fields, they sent children racing to school and mothers scurrying to markets for the freshest produce of the day. They heralded lunchtime, dinnertime, and called people to worship, and to celebrate. But as World War I ground on, they were calling more and more people to mourn.
Now, on the battlefields of northern France, the sounds that surrounded Maurice were artillery and machine-gun fire and the agonized cries of the wounded. In the heat of one battle, he saw a German soldier crumple to the ground, unable to move after being shot. With German troops too frightened to venture into the storm of bullets to retrieve their comrade, Maurice ordered his men to cease firing while he raised a white flag. Then, in impeccable German, he shouted to the Germans, "Come get your man. We will hold our fire until you have him." The Germans moved quickly to rescue their fallen comrade. Before returning behind the lines, however, they halted directly in front of Maurice and saluted him.
Later, in a letter to his wife, Pauline, Maurice described the incident. Pauline was so moved that she passed the story on to the local newspaper, which published it. Headlined "The Glorious Hours," the article said, "The glorious hours sound not just for heroic action on the battlefield but also for those activities that occur in daily life, for it is when war is over that a soldier's heart and character are also revealed."
Maurice was highly decorated for his military service. Among his awards was the Distinguished Service Medal from the United States government, a medal for which he had been nominated by Douglas MacArthur. But as proud as Maurice was of that medal and his life in the military, it was his life in the vineyards that held even greater meaning for him—one that beckoned him home when the "war to end all wars" had finally ended.
Product details
- Publisher : Crown (April 30, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0767904486
- ISBN-13 : 978-0767904483
- Item Weight : 8.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.43 x 0.68 x 8.16 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #32,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in French History (Books)
- #26 in Homebrewing, Distilling & Wine Making
- #29 in Wine (Books)
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as we drove from Paris to Champagne we started reading out loud, the portions that dealt with the Champagne region during the Nazi occupation. Absolutely fascinating, and sad of course, but gave a historical view that one wouldn't get otherwise
even if you don't travel to France, it's a very good read- we must never forget WW2 and those brave citizens that had to endure it
The wine industry did not recover after WWI. There were bitter harvests because several of the vineyards were used as battlefields. There were craters left in the ground from explosives, which altered the nutrients in the soil (18). The demand also decreased because of the Great Depression, which caused some wine growers to go bankrupt from low sales and labor shortages. In Burgundy, production fell by 40% and nearly half of the vineyards went uncultivated (19). The wine industry only started to improve slightly when World War II began because of the increase in demand of French wine from the French military (31). However, the wine industry began to suffer from another labor shortage because a good portion of the labor was called up to fight in the war (33).
When the Germans defeated the French, the Nazis had interest in French wine because of the revenue it could generate. Wine was used as a symbol of power and prestige (45). During German occupation, the Nazis set several different rules on the wine industry. For example, the wine owners could only operate if they sold their wine exclusively to the Germans (63). Sales to French civilians were prohibited in most places. France also saw the Aryanization of the wine industry. The Germans primary interest in French wine was for international trade and giving it to German soldiers (81).
While the Germans were extracting the wealth of French wine, wine owners showed forms of resistance. One form of resistance was to send inferior quality of wine to the Germans since the French oversaw their production (94). Another form of resistance was a more risky one, which was emptying wine bottles before the trains were loaded. This would eventually lead to the Nazis using more guards by their train, thus making resistance more difficult (94).
After France was liberated by the allies, the wine owners who collaborated were put on trial. The primary motive for wine owners to collaborate was to remain in business to have a source of income to survive through the tough times of occupation (206). Another collaborator was Louis Eschenauer who believed he served as a buffer zone between the French wine industry and the Nazis in order to prevent the Nazis from getting full control over the industry (216). Collaborators such as Eschenauer received a sentence of life in prison while others received the death penalty for treason (220).
Although this book is very well written, the authors could have added more to the book. The authors heavily rely on others research for information on politics during German occupation rather than using primary sources. The authors also should have elaborated more on some of their interesting concepts brought up in the book. For example, they mentioned how Germany had interest in French wine for international trade purposes as a way to fund their war, however, they fail to mention the nations that Germany sold the wine to as well as what the Germans spent the profit from selling French wine on.
Wine and War is a very interesting book, which provides a better understanding to how France's top industry responded to German occupation. The authors effectively argue the few choices the wine owners had for remaining in business as well as the heroic courage by some to resist the Nazis. They also provide a vivid picture of the struggles that the wine industry went through during occupation. Although the book has its flaws, it is still worth reading because it provides another unique perspective to the occupied France genre.
The stories in the book are compelling and illustrate the ability of the French people to protect their heritage and livelihood.
An anecdote. When I visited a major Cognac producer some summers ago, the house's tour leader explained how its ancient stores of brandy had survived the Nazi occuation of France: They had not been looted because the owners had "made a deal" with the Nazis. One wonders how many innocent deaths that deal and others like it had underwritten. Such treachery is more integral to the story of Vichy France than the resistance of those who hid treasures (and even people) in cellars and caves. But the Kladstrups only barely acknowledge this dark history.
Where the narrative does strive for balance, it instead achieves a confusing schizophrenia. In one chapter the "weinfuhrer" of Bordeaux (a chief bureaucrat of the occupying Nazis) seems almost noble, acting as virtuously as possible within the constraints of the leviathan to which he was indentured. But a later chapter conveys enough evidence of his deceit and villainy that one concludes he is no different from the typical Nazi beast. These conflicting perspectives do not appear to reflect
the complexity of the man; rather, it seems the two authors were simply unable to agree on what position to take, and careless editing neglected to synthesize the various accounts.
The book is well worth the read. But it has little value as a work of history and almost none as a morality tale.