The Mother Who Defied the Reich

James Lander holds a PhD in Archeology and is a retired high school history teacher. He is the author of Lincoln & Darwin: Shared Visions of Race, Science, and Religion.

"Deeply moving and brilliantly researched. Anyone who wants to understand the complex and tragic history of war torn France and its often divided families should read this gripping story. It's a page turner and once I started found it unputdownable. A triumph of story telling bringing history alive."-Anne Sebba, author of Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940's "Out of an intimate family saga comes a wartime epic told from original sources. People and places come brilliantly alive. Revelatory on every level . . .-Christy Campbell, author of Target London: Under Attack from the V-Weapons during WWII "A dramatic and compelling account of the glory days, entanglements and ultimate decline [may I say disintegration?] of a French aristocratic family caught in the vortices of the Second World War."-Robert Gildea, author of Marianne in Chains: In Search of the German Occupation 1940-1945 "The amount of research that has gone into this remarkably detailed account is quite extraordinary."-Steve Darlow, author of Sledgehammers for Tintacks: Bomber Command Combats the V-1 Menace, 1943-1944 "A very personal story of a Norman noble family [ . . . ] intertwined with the great history of the German occupation, persecution of Jews, weapons of reprisal and the battle in Normandy."-Sil van Doornmalen, author of Rivierenland 40-45 "In this work, James Lander paints a vivid portrait of Henriette Diana de Bosmelet-a truly extraordinary figure. The narrative unfolds primarily during the Second World War. Among the many characters whose paths intersect within this enthralling historical saga, one figure emerges with particular courage: the great Resistance fighter Michel Hollard, founder of the AGIR network, whose actions at Bosmelet saved London."-Alain Germain, Chateau de Bosmelet "James Lander's harrowing and engaging tale of a family torn apart by war shows us its unpredictable nature. The Mother Who Defied the Reich takes the reader on an incredible journey that traverses North America, Europe, and Africa. As each member of the Bosmelet family attempts to survive World War II, Lander shows how their fidelity to one another and their nation led to each of them taking on Nazi Germany in their own way."-Cameron Zinsou, Assistant Professor, Department of Military History, US Army Command and General Staff College "The Mother Who Defied the Reich combines the rigor of meticulous scholarship with the narrative delights of a gripping novel. When the Germans, during the agonizing final year of WWII, chose the ancient Chateau de Bosmelet as a launching site for their V-1 bombs, they hadn't reckoned with Henriette, the chateau's fierce matriarch, and the resilient members of her family. Unfolding a multi-generational panorama of intersecting lives, with Henriette as the unyielding center, Lander succeeds in lending a human dimension to a time of otherwise unimaginable brutality,"-Christoph Irmscher, Distinguished Professor, Indiana University Bloomington, 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, author of Max Eastman: A Life "James Lander's story of the indomitable matriarch Henriette Soyer de Bosmelet and her struggle to keep her family legacy intact is a thrilling read through the deep corners of France during the occupation. Lander explores how a mother, son, and daughter-in-law navigate the Nazi occupation, each on a separate trajectory, as the war unfolds and they face the dawning recognition of brutal anti-semitism. In this well-researched account Lander deftly captures critical developments of the war, like the German V1 program, the African campaign of de Gaulle, and blindness of the elite of Jewish society who refused to see what was coming. A must-read for anyone interested in France during the occupation."-Gwen Strauss, author of The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany