Boulloche Family Lived 'Cost Of Courage'

The Boulloche siblings—André, Jacqueline, and Christiane—survived Nazi-occupied France while working for the French Resistance, organizing arms transports, shutting down public transportation and passing intelligence to the Allies in Great Britain.

But the story of their courageous efforts was kept hidden for nearly 50 years, recognized only when the siblings would visit the graves of their parents, Jacques and Hélène, who were killed in concentration camps.

Their story, recently documented by Charles Kaiser in his newest book, “The Cost of Courage,” takes readers into Nazi-occupied France from 1943 to 1945 and discusses the war from the perspective of the resistance on the street.

Mr. Kaiser, who will make a stop at the Westhampton Free Library on Saturday during his book tour, first heard of the Boulloches when he was 11 years old through his uncle, Henry Kaiser, a U.S. Army lieutenant who lived with the family briefly following war.

“I grew up inspired by the story of my remarkable French cousins,” Mr. Kaiser, now 64, wrote in his book, “whom I thought of as a branch of my own extended family.”

But as he pressed for more details, the young Mr. Kaiser learned that those who survived Auschwitz walked with the shadow of the past, in addition to the emotional and physical scars left by Nazis. It was not until Jacqueline and André Boulloche died that their surviving sister, Christiane, realized their story was too important to take to the grave.

“Being a woman of duty, she knew the story would die with her and wanted to write it for her grandchildren,” Mr. Kaiser said during a recent telephone interview. “I wanted to give an idea of just how difficult it was. I wanted to give Americans the understanding that there was a great deal of heroism in occupied France.”

The book weaves the personal history of the Boulloche family into global context. Mr. Kaiser, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Vogue and the New Republic, said he used journalistic techniques to tell the story, as he did with his two other books, “1968 in America” and “The Gay Metropolis.”

“I tried to make it as easy to read as I could, while trying to educate you about the topics as best I can,” he said. “Being a journalist gave me the basic craft of how to interview, how to be accurate and how to be thorough.”

He began writing “The Cost of Courage” about a decade ago, but the Manhattan-based author said it took time to discuss each piece with Ms. Boulloche-Audibert, which he did in person at her home in Paris—he spent more than two years researching there—and to find the right editor for the book, published by Other Press on June 16.

“It was more important for me to tell this story well than any other story I’ve ever told,” he said, noting that he delivered a copy to Ms. Boulloche-Audibert himself.

“It was probably the greatest professional moment of closure I’ve ever had,” he said, noting that Ms. Boulloche-Audibert read the book in 10 days and told him she was satisfied.

Charles Kaiser will read from and sign copies of his newest book, “The Cost of Courage,” on Friday, June 26, at 7 p.m. the Westhampton Free Library. For more information, call (631) 288-3335.