and died w ith them on the shores of northern France. Writers accredited by the US War Departm ent w ere stationed in Paris, staying at Hotel St. Germ ain des Prés on the Left Bank (36, rue Bonaparte – it is still there), w ho w ere m uch m ore “em bedded” in the daily and cultural life. O ffering astonishingly rich insights into life before and during the w ar, Janet Flanner w as one of those journalists, and w as w riting for the New Yorker. At least one photo exists w here w e see her in a US arm y uniform . She started w riting articles for the New Yorker in 1925 w hich resulted in her fam ous Letters from Paris w hich she w rote till 1974. Her voice is at its clearest w hen foreseeing m uch of the horror that the Nazi’s w ould bring and observing the European political situation that proved to be a breeding ground for m uch that w as to com e. Controversial and as m uch hailed as criticized is Flanner’s portrait of Hitler w ritten in 1936. He read gluttonously at this period, though exactly w hat only he know s. From later rem arks, he apparently read m ore Goethe to dislike him for criticizing the Germ ans; adored Schiller, that patriot’s poet; and devoured all he could find about Bism arck, still the Führer’s sentim ental hero. What’s m ore im portant, Hitler clearly read up on the Habsburg Em pire’s lam entable history, thus founding his angry, racial Nazi Weltanschauung of today; he certainly also read the French Count de Gobineau, from w hom he got his notions of Nordic race superiority… (7 March 1936, 27)
She also opened people’s eyes to Parisian life after the Liberation. Existence in Paris is still abnorm al w ith relief, w ith belief. The tw o together m ake for confusion. The population of Paris is still a m ass of uncoordinated C HRISTIANE H ARDY
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