Pamela Druckerman interviews Alan Riding

AFJ members are invited to this free online session hosted by Pamela Druckerman via Zoom from Paris, as part of her popular Pandemonium U series of educational sessions on Zoom. The session is sponsored by the Federation of Alliances Françaises.

When German tanks rolled into Paris in 1940, they took over the cultural center of the Western world. It was the era of Picasso and Piaf, Sartre and Malraux, Colette and Némirovsky. And it was a city where, since the time of Voltaire, the intellectuel engagé has shaped the national thinking on political events. How did Paris’ great writers, painters, musicians and actors respond to the long German occupation? Did continuing to publish and produce art necessarily entail collaboration? Do artists and writers have a special duty to show moral leadership in moments of national trauma?


In the 45-minute Zoom meeting, Pamela will discuss artists and intellectuals in Nazi-occupied Paris with Alan Riding, best-selling author of And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-occupied Paris. Riding is the former Paris bureau chief and European cultural correspondent of The New York Times. A Brazilian-born Briton, he became intrigued by the political role of writers and intellectuals while covering Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, a period when most countries there were under dictatorships, and many artists were forced into exile, persecuted or silenced. He lives in Paris.

Pamela Druckerman has lived in the City of Lights since 2004 and is the author of four books including Bringing Up Bébé: One American mother discovers the wisdom of French parenting. She’s been a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times since 2013 and a columnist for 1843/the Economist since last year.

Please register for this session at the link below. You will be sent a link to the Zoom session on Friday morning.