70. Echoes of WWII: Resisting Fascism, Then and Now

The warnings of WWII ring out piercingly today, as a new wave of fascism threatens countries around the globe. Acclaimed authors Mark Braude and Jane Rogoyska share the breathtaking real stories of ordinary citizens who resisted fascism and helped each other survive. Braude’s The Typewriter and the Guillotine reveals the story of Janet Flanner, an American journalist assigned to write a puff piece about Paris. Upon encountering signs of rising extremism, she worked tirelessly to alert readers to the dangers of the Third Reich instead, reinventing The New Yorker in the process. The Hotel Lutetia in Paris has long been a meeting place for artists, intellectuals, musicians, and politicians; in Hotel Exile, Jane Rogoyska covers the years when it became a place of refuge for people escaping Nazi Germany. These immersive works of historical nonfiction read like thrillers and are hauntingly relevant today. Moderated by Robert Wiersema.

Jane Rogoyska’s appearance generously supported by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Vancouver.

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Event Participants:

Mark Braude

MARK BRAUDE is the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris, a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, a Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris, and an NEH Public Scholar. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. His books have been translated into seven languages. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and their two daughters.

Jane Rogoyska

JANE ROGOYSKA is the author of Surviving Katyń (Oneworld, 2021), about the 1940 massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police (winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize, 2022; longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, 2022; Second Prize –winner of the Pilecki International Book Award, 2022). Her first book, Gerda Taro: Inventing Robert Capa (Jonathan Cape, 2013), charts the life of the first female photojournalist to be killed on the front line of battle during the Spanish Civil War. She has collaborated on related projects in radio, film, theatre and photography, including the documentary Still Here: A Polish Odyssey (2018), which she wrote and presented for BBC Radio 4.

Robert Wiersema

The author of six books, including the novels Before I Wake, Bedtime Story, and Black Feathers, Robert J. Wiersema is also one of Canada's foremost literary reviewers, and teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University. He lives in Victoria.