History prof brings WWII to life in book

As the possibility of war looms over the country, memories of past conflict are being stirred by Thomas Childers in his latest literary work. Last night, the Penn Bookstore welcomed Childers, a Penn History professor, as he presented his book In the Shadows of War: Three Lives United by the French Resistance. The book, the second in a trilogy dealing with the events of World War II, recounts the episodes of the French resistance through the eyes of three people, who -- unknown to each other -- were "hurled together by faith." Childers said that while "this is a work of historical nonfiction" -- achieved by re-enacting the journey through Europe himself -- it was narrated using literary devices that would enable the reader to "smell and feel" the events as the characters had. "My goal here is to illuminate the events of the Second World War and the people caught up in it," Childers said. To add to the veracity of the text, the story is told from the characters' points of view, without having their thoughts filtered through an omniscient narrator. The story, which was brought to Childers' attention in 1992, immediately captured his interest. "I was taken by the story -- it seemed almost incredible," Childers said. The book's main figures are Roy Allan, a Philadelphian aviator, Colette Florin, the local teacher of a rural French village and Pierre Mulsant, a French resistance leader. In the summer of 1944, Allan was injured and hidden by Florin in her house. Upon recovery, he was taken to Paris by Mulsant, but fell in the hands of the German Gestapo. He was then deported to a concentration camp in East Germany, where he remained until he was freed by the Russian army. During his years of research, Childers rebuilt Allan's journey, collecting documents and interviewing many of the survivors -- including Florin. After the lecture, Childers entertained many questions. The audience, a group of about 40 people, was eager to know the details of his research. After assuring the audience that Florin was "very happy" with the book, Childers tried to explain the situation in which Allan found himself -- a foreigner in an occupied country who did not speak the language. Childers affirmed that the book portrayed "what it's like to have your life in the hands of people you don't understand and who don't understand you." The event organizers -- who arranged for Childers to present his book a few weeks after its release -- were satisfied with the success of the lecture. "I thought he was wonderful," said Christine Hibbard, marketing director for the Penn Bookstore. Members of the audience also agreed that the presentation had been an interesting one. "It was really neat," College senior Alison Rose said. A history major, Rose said she had previously taken the course "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" with Childers as her professor. "It was an honor to take a class of an historian who is so renowned and respected in his field."