Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939-1945

Neill Lochery

ISBN 10: 1455121991 ISBN 13: 9781455121991

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2011

Synopsis

Throughout the Second World War, Lisbon was at the very center of the world's attention and was the only European city in which both the Allies and the Axis powers openly operated. Portugal was frantically trying to hold on to its self-proclaimed wartime neutrality but in reality was increasingly caught in the middle of the economic, and naval, wars between the Allies and the Nazis. The story is not, however, a conventional tale of World War II in that barely a shot was fired or a bomb dropped. Instead, it is a gripping tale of intrigue, betrayal, opportunism, and double-dealing, all of which took place in the Cidade da Luz and along its idyllic Atlantic coastline. It is the story of how a relatively poor European country not only survived the war physically intact but came out of it in 1945 much wealthier than it had been when war broke out in 1939. Portugal's emergence as a prosperous European Union nation would be financed in part, it turns out, by a cache of Nazi gold.

During the war, Lisbon was a temporary home to much of Europe's exiled royalty, over one million refugees seeking passage to the US, and to a host of spies, secret police, captains of industry, bankers, prominent Jews, writers and artists, escaped POWs, and black marketeers. An operations officer writing in 1944 described the daily scene at Lisbon's airport as being like the movie Casablanca--but twenty-fold. In truth, Lisbon was the real Casablanca of the war, complete with refugees; British, German, Italian, and American spies; and the Portuguese secret police watching every move.

In this riveting narrative, renowned historian Neill Lochery draws on his relationships with high-level Portuguese contacts, records recently uncovered from Portuguese secret police and banking archives, and other unpublished documents to offer a revelatory portrait of the war's backstage.

About this title

About the Author:

NEILL LOCHERY is a world-renowned source on Israel, the Middle East, and Mediterranean history. He is the author of five books and countless newspaper and magazine articles. He regularly appears on television in the US, the UK, and the Middle East. He is currently based at University College London and regularly gives talks in Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Review:

Publishers Weekly
“Lochery tells the gripping story of the city known as ‘Casablanca II’...engrossing and rewarding.” 

Booklist, September 20, 2011“Lochery recounts wartime happenings in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, where the Allies and the Axis conducted the war through espionage, propaganda, and diplomatic pressure on Salazar to relinquish Portugal’s neutrality. A cloak-and-dagger atmosphere accordingly suffuses Lochery’s account.... A productive archival sleuth, [he] makes original contributions to the literature of neutrality in WWII.” Shelf Awareness“A lively, accessible and hair-raising history revealing every sordid detail of Lisbon during World War II--a time and place that many have chosen to forget in order to save face.” Wall Street Journal“Evocative.... [Lochery] skillfully documents the experiences of the rich and glamorous as well as the less fortunate and even sinister of the city’s war time arrivals... Distilling an enormous quantity of research, he has rendered a fascinating and readable account of this small country’s role in World War II, protected, as it was, by its wily champion.” Seattle Times“’Lisbon’ is a valuable source of information about an astonishing time and place.” Columbia Daily Newsfeatured in roundup of history books: “A fascinating account of one of the back stages of the War. Lisbon was a hotbed of intrigue and espionage while remaining neutral as the world fought around it.”\ Macleans“Like Casablanca, only 20 times more.”
Express Milwaukee“Fascinating.” The Scotsman, four-star review“Intrigue, betrayal, opportunism and double dealing’ Lochery promises us – and his engrossing book delivers all those things and more.”

Literary Review
"The twists and turns of Salazar's tight-rope diplomacy form the central thread of Neill Lochery's impressive account of wartime Lisbon and its leader... The personalities, plots and counterplots within that tale are absorbing... The book's principal worth lies in its illumination of Salazar, who emerges from Lochery's pages as a fascinating, tireless and single-minded figure."

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1455121991
• ISBN 13: 9781455121991
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 7