The House of Fragile Things

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In the years leading up to World War II, prominent French Jews invested their fortunes in France's cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country's army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this evocative account, James McAuley traces the story of figures familiar from the writings of Proust and others the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahen d'Anvers and shows how these Jewish art collectors attempted to celebrate the very nation that would later betray them