Love, Sex, and Wars

At the Musée de l’Armée, a fascinating exhibition investigates love and sex during the two world wars. Official posters, photographs, press, and film archives, mixed with private letters and diaries, give a rare insight into the effect of conflict on relationships between men and women. Over 480 documents are shown—a photograph of Lee Miller taking a bath in Hitler’s bathtub, a German propaganda puzzle depicting a pretty English blond girl looking at a mirror and seeing an ugly brunette with a crooked nose, a delicate statue of a French soldier and a woman hugging each other. From sexual violence to intimate encounters, propaganda and reality, the exhibition, supervised by three research professors, covers the complexity of the topic with tact and cleverness.

“Amours, Guerres et Sexualité, 1914-1945.” Until December 31. €4-6
Musée de l'Armée, 129, rue de Grenelle, Paris 7. Mº Invalides. 01 44 42 38 77. www.invalides.org

Women of Valor

By Mary Jo Padgett

In a book published last fall, journalist Ellen Hampton relates the story of an outstanding group of French women who, at a time when French women were often considered inconsequential and not enfranchised, trained in the United States and fought in France during WWII. The Rochambelles, as they became known, were organized in New York by Florence Conrad, a wealthy American widow who lived in France. On July 30, 1944, they crossed the English Channel to Normandy with their armoured division, serving on the front lines. They were among the first to enter Paris in August 1944.

Ellen Hampton, Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the WWII Front, Palgrave McMillan (2006), €18,50.