Commentary
One of the striking things about life in wartime is how normal it can be for ordinary people.
Imagine life in Paris under German occupation for four years during the Second World War. Children were born, and old people died—of natural causes. Teachers taught, and kids went to school to learn. Shops, churches, and offices stayed open. In much of Paris, it was business as usual.
The police managed traffic and handed civil and criminal offenders to the courts, who tried them in a customary way. Even the trains generally ran on time. Young soldiers of the occupation force sometimes dated nice girls. Some people, understandably, were angry about their country’s defeat, but they were usually left to their disgruntlement if they kept their feelings to themselves. Others were largely indifferent or even occasionally reasonably well-disposed towards their occupiers….