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‘How long did that take – and for others to come around?’
‘A few weeks. The Germans believed they were helping by running a series of articles to spread the word – but it did more harm in the beginning than good.’
‘Articles?’ Sabine breathed, shocked.
‘Oh yes. They had a paper called Pariser Zeitung, it provided the news briefing in German with supplements in French. It served as the only source of information for the French about the Occupation. It even provided some updates from unoccupied Vichy – where the government had fled. It was reported to us as if they were a foreign nation. Well, as you can imagine, to many of us by then, feeling abandoned, they may as well have been.’
Sabine just stared at him in shock. ‘What was the newspaper like?’
‘Full of praise for the French.’
Sabine blinked. ‘What?’
‘Yes, see, in the early days of the Occupation, the Wehrmacht – the German army – had been forceful and forbidding. They’d tried the stick, which hadn’t worked as much as they liked. So they tried a new tactic instead.’
‘The carrot?’
He took a sip of wine, and nodded. ‘Indeed. It was swollen with flattery. They praised all the businesses and institutions that collaborated with the Germans. Waxed poetical about the beauty of the architecture, the people, and the belief that together they were building a new Europe. I mean, it was such a weird time. I know now it’s impossible to imagine a restaurant opening up during a war, during an occupation. But the Germans treated France as a kind of jewel in their crown – many of them acted as if they were there on a kind of colonial holiday. Francophiles, charmed by our art, literature and culture – they wanted us to keep putting on our shows, keep running our nightclubs and dance halls.’
She sat back and listened in horror as he began describing what the first few months of life were like back then, during the Occupation, when the new restaurant, thanks to the press from the Pariser Zeitung, became a roaring success, with the Germans that is.
As she sipped her wine, their world began to fade as she was transported to a very different, and very dark Paris.
