The defeat of France by Germany in May–June 1940 transformed the lives of French writers and publishers. Freedom of expression, almost achieved after centuries of struggle, was now set aside. Writers matter in France, and writers were deeply implicated in the changes of 1940. Some of their colleagues were silenced for racial or political reasons. How should they respond? Should they collaborate? Resist? Wait and see? Or follow some more complicated pathway through the changing course of the war? All of them risked being used by one side or another. Yet they were expected, in a nation that placed a high value on its intellectuals, to offer moral leadership in a time of doubt and uncertainty.

Between Collaboration and Resistance begins with a look at the effects of World War I, the decline of the Third Republic, and the installation of the Vichy regime, followed by thematic sections examining everyday life, collaboration, resistance, the Holocaust, and international solidarities. It features often unique and largely unpublished contemporary documents concerning collaborators like Céline, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, and Robert Brasillach; resistors like Louis Aragon, Jean Paulhan, and Robert Desnos; and writers who changed their minds like Paul Claudel. One of the exhibition’s most remarkable items is the manuscript of Irène Némirovsky's Suite française. Diaries, manuscripts, books, maps, letters, photographs, and other materials are drawn from the collections of The New York Public Library, the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine, the Mémorial de Caen, and other institutions and private collections.

A companion volume to the exhibition is available for purchase at The New York Public Library's Library Shop by clicking here

This exhibition has been organized by the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine [IMEC]and The New York Public Library, with the cooperation of the Mémorial de Caen.


Major support for this exhibition has been provided by The Florence Gould Foundation.
Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani and Adam Bartos, Jonathan Altman, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.

Click here for more information about the related symposium

Related Programs:

Tuesday, May, 5, 2009
Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation

Tuesday, Jun, 2, 2009
<strong>Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Cinema Under Nazi Occupation</strong>

Tuesday, Jun, 9, 2009
<strong>Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Cinema Under Nazi Occupation</strong>

Tuesday, Jun, 16, 2009
<strong>Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Cinema Under Nazi Occupation</strong>

Tuesday, Jun, 23, 2009
<strong>Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Cinema Under Nazi Occupation</strong>

Tuesday, Jun, 30, 2009
<strong>Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Cinema Under Nazi Occupation</strong>

This ongoing exhibition consists of large wall panels with photographs, text, objects, and videos illustrating the history and the vast array of collections, services, and users of The New York Public Library's Branch and Research Libraries. The Jill Kupin Rose Gallery was created in 1998 by former New York Public Library Chairman Marshall Rose in memory of his late wife, Jill Kupin Rose.

A photographic exhibition reveals the determination, resilience, and struggle of Africans living in Europe. More than 100 photographs by award-winning photographers. Curated by the Program In Africana Studies at New York University.

St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Bicentennial Exhibition presents the 200 year history of St. Philip’s, from 1809 to 2009. Notable church members include Rev. Peter Williams Jr., James McCune Smith, Elizabeth Jennings, Kenneth Clarke, and Thurgood Marshall.

Katharine Hepburn’s elevation to the status of “icon” was due undoubtedly to her singular success on the screen. But her acting career began on the stage and it was there that she honed the skills that would later serve her so well in Hollywood. Yet even after her stature as a screen actress was solidified, she returned repeatedly to the stage, where each time she found new challenges, new audiences, new risks, and, more than once, failure. Her role models as serious actresses (Jane Cowl, Katharine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne) avoided film work, so she served as the role model for the current generation.

The Katharine Hepburn Papers, Billy Rose Theatre Division, document the actress’s life and stage career from the late 1920s through the mid-1990s. Among the papers are typescripts (some—like the script for Coco—annotated in Hepburn’s hand),hundreds of photographs (publicity shots and formal portraiture as well as informal snapshots and rehearsal candids, scrapbooks, promotional ephemera, and sixty years of correspondence includes fan mail, congratulatory notes, and general letters from such notable friends and admirers as Judy Garland, Charlton Heston, Richard Burton, George Cukor, Vivien Leigh, Peter O’Toole, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, John Gielgud, and Joan Crawford, among scores of others. A few personal notes are signed “Pot,” Hepburn’s pet name for long-time friend Spencer Tracy. A journal of sorts (1950–51) contains an account of her arrest for speeding in Kansas—a minor misadventure during which, in typical Hepburn fashion, she proclaimed the arresting officer “a moron.” Notable also are a copy of a curtain speech she delivered in tribute to the fallen students at Kent State and an impassioned plea she composed for Joe Papp’s Save-the-Theatres campaign. Also included are such unique items as her annotated vocal exercises, pages and pages of handwritten rehearsal notes, and a rather severe full-length photo of her from The Big Pond in 1930, a production she appeared in for one night only before being fired.

Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, curated by dance historian Lynn Garafola, celebrates the legendary company that transformed 20th-century ballet and made it modern. Founded in 1909 by the Russian impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes taught audiences to hear, see, and respond to the art of the moving body in unprecedented ways. For the 20 years of its existence, a new repertory came into being—now-classic works like Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides and Petrouchka, Vaslav Nijinsky's L'Après-midi d'un Faune, and George Balanchine's Apollon Musagète and Prodigal Son—choreographed by artists whose talents Diaghilev was quick to discern and passionate to guide. He carried his quest for new expressive forms to music and design, commissioning scores from Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Manuel de Falla, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, and Darius Milhaud, thus creating a new body of work both for ballet and for the concert hall. The list of his painters, headed by Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, and Henri Matisse, reads like a who's who of international modernism, underscoring the fact that Diaghilev's stage also served as a gallery of modern art.

The influence of the Ballets Russes reverberated throughout the dance world. After his death in 1929, this legacy was most closely identified with the companies directed by Colonel Wassily de Basil and Sergei Denham that took over not only the name of their legendary predecessor but also selected repertory, personnel, and an increasingly diluted notion of Russianness.

To celebrate the centennial of the Ballets Russes, Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels will depict this remarkable era of 20th-century dance history through visual, documentary, and recorded materials from various divisions of The New York Public Library. Drawing on the unparalleled resources of the Library's Slavic and East European Collections, which include the book collections of Diaghilev's two greatest Imperial patrons, Grand Dukes Vladimir and Sergei, the exhibition will highlight Diaghilev's St. Petersburg career as an exhibition curator, author, and the founding editor of the art journal Mir iskusstva. His career as the indefatigable captain of the Ballets Russes, his passionate quest for new forms, commitment to developing young talent, and far-ranging influence will be told through the Jerome Robbins Dance Division's dazzling collection of designs, drawings, photos, souvenir programs, rare books, scrapbooks, magazines, and archival documents, including one of Diaghilev's "black books," in which he jotted notes about repertory and other matters, as well as artifacts from the Music and Billy Rose Theatre divisions, and a small number of private and institutional lenders.

Ms. Barnett, a resident of Harlem was born in Jamaica, West Indies. Although having no formal training, she loved to sketch the beautiful memories of her homeland, scenes of the colorful houses and palm trees. In December 2002, Ms. Barnett officially debuted as an artist to overwhelming success. Opening Ceremony-July 1st, 2009 from 5-7 pm