Book Review: Paper Bullets by Jeffrey H. Jackson

By Al Preston

---

“Understanding history did not prepare me for the emotional reality of history.” – Lucy Schwob

            There are many sides to a story, most of them would surprise you. World War Two is one of those histories that feels very cut and dry. Nazis are bad, there is no other side to that, that is a fact. There is nuance in what makes a German soldier a Nazi or just a cog of the machine. However, the unknown side of that battle that is rarely talked about is the way those in occupied territories fought back and complied with the Nazi occupation. Who these people were and how they resisted is an interesting history.

            People fought back in every way they could, even while knowing that doing so would be dangerous to them. Even the soldiers, specifically low-level soldiers, were perhaps only willing to go along with their leaders until they had a tangible reason not to. That does not excuse them. Fear is extremely powerful.

            There is another level of nuance perhaps less explored, which is the level and types of resistance and compliance within occupied territories. Paper Bullets by Jeffrey H. Jackson is that story and it is one that challenges a lot of ‘collective’ beliefs about World War Two, Nazi territories, and individuals on the ground on both sides.

            Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe were two wealthy women who would vacation on the island of Jersy in the English Channel prior to the war. They were childhood friends and, later, lovers. Suzanne took care of Lucy frequently because Lucy had very bad health. Their families were also well aware of their relationship and let them be together.

            Both women were also artists and had many Parisian friends who were anti-capitalist and pro-communist. They had surrounded themselves with rebellious and radical people and beliefs. So, when the Nazi’s took over France and their home Jersey was abandoned by the English to be occupied, both women fought to resist in the few ways they knew how.

            I will leave how their story ends up to you to read (it is happier than you would expect) because I really want to talk about their acts of resistance. I feel that, at this present moment (2025), we could use their examples of activism as motivation and inspiration.

            Resistance can come in many forms. Some are more obvious and overt than others. Lucy and Suzanne used a more covert method than others. Lucy and Suzanne chose this covert option so that they could protect themselves somewhat and keep up their fight for longer.

            On an illegal typewriter (the Nazi’s banned them) they wrote out messages for the German troops rather than their fellow French and English civilians. During the war, English propogandist had leaflets flown into occupied territory to encourage those occupied people to resist. Lucy and Suzanne, however, were going to the source. Their goal was to encourage dissent in the German ranks, make soldiers paranoid, and fight each other by appealing to their sense of humanity.

            They wrote parody versions of the German magazines to make the soldiers question their leaders. Under the pseudonym ‘the Nameless Soldier’ they wrote dialogues, poems, and stories encouraging the soldiers to mutiny. They wrote about German military failures that they heard about from BBC radio reports (radios were also forbidden) because they knew that German prints were lying to them about the battles.

            It was difficult for them to know how successful they were with these notes. They dropped them on cars, in hats, pockets, and between the pages of magazines. They placed crosses on the graves of soldiers who died on the island insulting the leadership for their deaths. They hung art and banners in gathering spots telling the soldiers to leave. At one point, they tricked soldiers into going to the wrong location for a meeting.

             Lucy and Suzanne were fifty-year-old women who successfully planted their notes and helped escaped prisoners for four years before someone, another civilian, reported them as suspicious. They went about life as normal (as they could) while causing chaos and resisting along the way. In every way, they resisted and pushed back against Nazi rule. Not only that, but they also left an impression on every person they met, including Nazi soldiers. One even sent them a letter after the war.

            Lucy’s desire was to appeal to the humanity of soldiers of a nation committing atrocities. While it is unknowable if they were successful, it was clear that people saw their notes and were affected by them. Unlike others doing similar work across Europe, these women wanted to reach the lowly soldiers and push them to rebel.  Few want to consider any Nazi as human. The fact of the matter is that not every soldier worked in a concentration camp. Many former Nazi soldiers were allowed to become citizens of other countries as well. Some were kind to Lucy and Suzanne, even after discovering that they were lovers.

            No group is a monolith and the kindness of a few does not forgive the atrocities of the whole. It takes just one person to rebel, to fight back and stop cruelty, but many will not be that one. People are complicated and confusing. Suzanne and Lucy’s appeals to their humanity and their empathy for the enemy protected them multiple times.

            This book shows how people, good people, can fall in line with the worst people imaginable. How empathy can change minds. Lucy was Jewish. Her family converted to Catholicism, but she was born to a Jewish family and the Nazi’s had little care to differentiate. However, knowing she was Jewish, knowing she had tried to insight rebellion, the Nazi soldiers that kept her and Suzanne imprisoned hoped for them to live. They didn’t want them to get the life sentences or be shot in the prison yard.

            Empathy kept them alive, and it made a Nazi soldier they once knew send them a letter after the war. They were eventually allowed to stay in the same cell, even when it became clear that they were more than they claimed (technically, by law, they were stepsisters. When they were much older adults and had already spent more than a few years as lovers, their parents married, legally making them stepsisters. While that does feel weird to say, they were lovers long before they were legally sisters and shortly after marrying their parents died. It is a blurry line, but when the occupation started, that legal designation saved them), that they were lovers, they were allowed to stay together.

            This was a book that shows the horribly human side of a very horrific war. Far from the camps, far from direct Nazi command, humans were still capable of absolutely horrific violence but also incredible kindness and compassion.

            Lucy and Suzanne show the importance of resistance and empathy. How both can be done together to save lives and change minds. Empathy is just as powerful as fear, although it is much harder to come by.