Paris WWII History Tour: Nazi Occupation and the Resistance

See Tripadvisor review. Tour needs to 1. run full length and 2. have content more appropriate to both the tour's title and the site at which the docent speaks. e.g. a picture of a boy ultimately gassed at Auschwitz is sad but not really as compelling as showing where he lived (or pick a person who lived in one of the blocks the docent stopped at) and the victim's progress to the lager. So I thought showing of the former clothes sorting station and the the office of the department who issued the anti semitical regulations was very good. But is it possible to add Drancy or Val d'Hiver to the tour (if there's anything left to see?). Or where was the local round up point and what was the transport method to Drancy (train?)? Or where were those under suspicion taken to and interrogated? And when the focus is on those remaining in Paris, just pointing out at a distance the venue of the war time anti semite installation (albeit with pic) is not trying v hard. We couldn't walk the block to see it closer? There weren't other places which ostensibly/in fact embraced Nazi anti semitism? The story at the Opera corner (not shaking Hitler's hand) is, to me, a throw away anecdote which alone did not justify a lengthy stop at a difficult intersection. The stop regarding the American cafe owner (?) was v poignant. It is not a well known story and was told well - altho I would have liked to know how an American by birth doesn't get interned in Vichy France (I did ask but with no real answer). By contrast, the Jeu de Palme stop was disappointing because, as the docent said, the activities of the female archivist are now more widely known due to, inter alia, The Monuments Men film which, whilst hardly documentary like, does give the basics - the docent should give more. Or he/she should correct the film's errors. Also, I'm not sure I was as moved as I should have been about the teenage resistor's letter to his maman on the eve of his death. Perhaps I was just a little weary by that stage? If this boy really the "best" French Sophie Scholl equivalent perhaps the tour should focus on (i.e. visit) where he lived, where he arrested/Interrogated, where he was shot and what were his heroic exploits. The liberation of Paris was not addressed in any meaningful way - i.e. were there any battles in or near the Place de La Concorde? There was some desultory comments about Choltitz and whether he actually "saved" Paris and something totally irrelevant (as far as I could follow) about him being served in Le Meurice years later. This was similar to earlier comments made about Speer. I couldn't follow the point attempted to be made and I'm not sure it was correct in any event - I don't think Speer ever designed a gas chamber. To be fair, I am a WW2 enthusiast and have toured a lot of the ETO sites. But amongst my fellow walkers was a retired US military man and family member of a Holocaust survivor - both of whom would also have a familiarity with the basics. Dare I say we were looking for a little more detail from this tour? Anyway, thank you for conducting the tour. A gal need s respite from all that Parisien beauty and fabulousness...:)

<p>Hi Rebecca,</p> <p>I hope you are well and not too hot. This weather is crazy.</p> <p>I'm afraid we've just received some negative feedback and I wanted to bring it to your attention as well as get your thoughts:</p> <p><em>"The docent told us at the outset that if we walked at her pace, the tour was 2 and a half hours, not 3. She walked very fast and far ahead of us much of the time. We wondered if she had someplace to go and wanted to get the tour over with as soon as possible. When we stopped, we had long stretches of her talking and our standing, looking at not much that was relevant. With this much talking, and standing, a break in a cafe to sit and listen to some of her talk would have been welcomed. The docent apparently conceived of the walk as what happened to the Jews and other dissidents in Paris under the occupation, not, as the walk is described, what happened to Paris and all its people during the occupation. A recent book by Ronald Rossbottom, When Paris Went Dark: The City of Lights Under the German Occupation, 1940-1945, covered this topic in a far superior way. It was quite disappointing."</em></p> <p>I think there are a few issues at hand, some that should be fairly easy to right and others that might require a bit of a restructuring of the walk with input from you and the other docents who are leading it.</p> <p>About the pace of the walk, I'm afraid comments of this nature have come up before on your other walks. I cannot stress enough the importance of matching your pace to that of the group and making sure that clients aren't falling behind. I know you take a slightly different approach when doing walks for your meet-up group, however Context clients are seeking a different experience than marathon walking. They understandably feel neglected when walks pan out in this way and they cannot keep up. It seems this client was particularly upset about the pace considering it may have shortened the walk. I wonder if things didn't start off on the wrong foot when you mentioned this possibility at the beginning. Is this something you normally mention? We do advertising the walk as a 3-hr walk so that's what clients are expecting.</p> <p>Adding a break is also something that has come up before in your comments about this walk. Is this something you've considered doing? I think because we cover such a long distance on the walk, it could be very useful to make time for sitting over a light beverage. This doesn't mean a break per se, you can continue your discussion while sitting, but it does give clients a chance to recharge. We encourage this on all our walks, really.</p> <p>Regarding her other comments, perhaps this can be addressed by modifying the description of the walk if indeed we are focusing only on Jewish citizens and members of the resistance.</p> <p>Other docents have mentioned that they have had trouble with certain aspects of the walk, especially the distance covered, and this has been reflected in their client feedback as well. That said, I think it might be a good idea to have you all collaborate on a walk development framework (http://contextlearning.ning.com/forum/topics/walk-development-framework) for the walk so that we can make any necessary structural modifications together. I will initiate this next week.</p> <p>Lastly, I do fully realize that clients have a tendency to exaggerate especially when they are a bit unhappy, so I don't want you to find this feedback completely alarming, though I do need to take it seriously. I also know that there are two sides to every story, so if you remember anything about this walk that you'd like to add please don't hesitate to do so.</p> <p>I look forward to hearing from you.</p> <p>Best,</p> <p>Sara</p>

Extremely interesting. Would like more in this vein. Docent had great knowledge of the subject and was very willing to answer questions. Thanks so much!