The Lisbon Route Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe

by Weber, Ronald

• ISBN13: 9781566638760
• ISBN10: 1566638763
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-16
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee

Summary

The Lisbon Route tells of the extraordinary World War II transformation of Portugal's tranquil port city into the great escape hatch of Nazi Europe. Royalty, celebrities, diplomats, fleeing troops, and ordinary citizens desperately slogged their way across France and Spain to reach the neutral nation. Here the exiles found peace and plenty, though they often faced excruciating delays and uncertainties before they could book passage on ships or planes to their final destinations. As well as offering freedom from war, Lisbon provided spies, smugglers, relief workers, military figures, and adventurers with an avenue into the conflict and its opportunities. Ronald Weber traces the engaging stories of many of these colorful transients as they took pleasure in the city's charm and benign climate, its ample food and drink, its gambling casino and Atlantic beaches. Yet an ever-present shadow behind the gaiety was the fragile nature of Portuguese neutrality, which at any moment the Axis or Allies might choose to end.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Maps	p. xi
Hub of the Western Universe	p. 1
Tramping Forward	p. 27
Whatever We Can	p. 53
The Last Lap	p. 77
Gaiety, Plenty, and Brilliant Lights	p. 95
Living There	p. 121
Celebrité de Passage	p. 143
Holding Out Hopes	p. 171
Gloriously Neutral	p. 193
War without Guns	p. 209
The Seething Cauldron	p. 231
One World to Another	p. 251
Wolfram by Day	p. 277
Where to Spend One's Holiday	p. 293
Acknowledgments	p. 305
Notes	p. 307
Sources	p. 339
Index	p. 349
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