From One Hell to Another

I was surprised to know that this story was based on real events. Really cool. It was pleasure read for people who want to see II world war from quite different perspetive.

Carmen a teenage Spanish Girl, her mother Maria and her young sisters Otilia and Juanita flee via the Pyrenees from Spain to St -Hippolyte Southern France escaping the Spanish Civil War.
Carmen’s father Pedro is fighting in the war while his family seek refuge in France with ‘Uncle Fon’ Alfonso. Carmen and her sisters adapt to French life with Pedro returning to his family. Then France is at War with Germany.
Carmen has started a relationship with Pierre who soon is conscripted to form a guard for the Maginot line. Pierre’s father is then taken under the care of Carmen’s family who help run his fruit and vegetable business.
Carmen works in a local clothes shop and becomes friends with Sarah a Jewish girl living in a grand home with her parents.
St-Hippolyte is under the Vichy Regime headed by Marshal Philippe Pertain. I learned so much history from this book as I was not aware of the Vichy Regime.
A passage notes that Mussolini said 'France was crippled by bad journalism. syphilis and drink'. The drink soon dried up with the area becoming improvised so much so that notices looking for missing cats become a regular feature with the assumption that cats were being eaten by starving people.
I loved the characters and the way the story developed
The trust Sarah’s parents put in Pedro and his family and the way Alfonso managed to hide their valuables was very clever. Pedro and Carmen sought to protect Sarah and keep her hidden moving her regularly as a result. Jews all over had to hide to remain alive with Dutch Jews being called ‘Divers’ due to their hiding techniques.
It was great to hear from the people at war with the French General Weygand predicting that ‘In three weeks England will have her head wrung like a Chicken’. Churchill responded ’Some Chicken, Some Neck’.
The progress of the war was documented with the rise of the Japanese Pearl Harbour
British Prisoners of War were kept in the area and it was great reading of their escapades digging tunnels with forks and spoons and escaping. Carmen became involved in the Resistance collecting bicycles to be repaired and then used by the British soldiers to escape. Patrick O Leary’s Pat Line was new to me too.
How these people kept going is hard to imagine. There was some unimaginable cruelty with the dreaded SS part of the 9th SS Panzer Division coming at one stage and murdering civilians who had done nothing to them.
I liked the role Otilia played with the outcomes of her relationship having such an effect on her.
Carmen eventually went into the hills fighting with the Spanish bolstering the French resistance. With the help of the British S.O.E, and against huge odds, they win a spectacular victory over the Germans. Carmen during this time met Sean O’ Neill codename Felix. I enjoyed reading of their relationship and how it developed.
It was awful to see what young girls working for the Resistance were expected to do to get information from the Germans even having to have sexual relations with them. The Ten Golden Rules were interesting to read.
Carmen’s father Pedro was quite a political man and was always seeking information and knowledge as knowledge is power. His daughter Carmen was similar in her outlook. While all the family learned French and assimilated into French society as best they could Maria did not.
I found Maria quite annoying in part as she seemed to resist change so much not learning French and expecting endless support from Pedro. Carmen explained as the novel went on in that she wanted a simple existence and just her family around. On reflection I think Maria’s role was vital as a stabilising influence on her husband Pedro and daughters.
This is my first read by these authors and I picked book up as subject matter appealed to me. I would certainly pick up another I was gripped by this from the start not wanting to stop reading and I would highly recommend it.

Carmen and her two sisters were from a close knit, conservative Spanish family. With the outbreak of war, their father thought it was time to send them along with their mother Maria to his cousin who lived in France. They got out in the nick of time.

Settling into a village life in France was hard. Language was a problem and though schooling sorted that issue out very fast, Maria lagged behind. She was never comfortable with the French language, found the accent difficult to comprehend and remained isolated throughout. It did not help matters because she still brought with her traditional values which in the French context were out of date.

When the Germans invaded Poland, and then France Carmen decided enough was enough. She wanted to do something constructive with her life and joined the Resistance. The family was again in the midst of war and though not as bad as other villages, life was tough.

Pedro was struggling to maintain the farm he got from a friend of Carmens (when the boy was conscripted) and making huge amount of supplies to the German army made making a living precarious. When Ottillia the second girl began a liaison with a German soldier matters became worse. Ottilia was the hard headed girl who did not listen to advice and despite knowing what became of those who befriended Germans she continued the relationship.

The day to day life of the average person in the village juxtaposed with the life and deprivations of those who joined the Resistance and who faced major setbacks and hardship were very descriptive. The thread of romance going through the book in various forms shows that love will find a way in the most difficult of circumstances. It added another layer to the story.

Moving from one war to another was difficult. They came as refugees hoping to find peace and ended up in another bigger war. That they all escaped with their lives despite being foreigners was no easy task.

Very good historical detail of one of the lesser known contributions of the Spanish to the French resistance and war effort which is forgotton most of the time was detailed here.

Escaping through the Pyrenees from the Spanish Civil War, Carmen find themselves in more conflict as Hitler's forces defeat France and German restrictions plague her and her family. Well written.

Surprised to see this was based on true events.

A thriller story that is captivating. in From One Hell to Another, we find Carmen and her Spanish family settling in southern France, However, soon war comes knocking and with Hitler's arrival comes starvation, restrictions and atrocities.

The author is able to intertwine devastation, horror, betrayal and romance to make this a great novel.