We had the pleasure of interviewing Fred Colemen in November about the incredible story of The Marcel Network, in which improbable success came at the price of almost unspeakable sacrifice.
A Paris Writers News interview.
In 1943, a clandestine organization founded by a young Jewish couple became one of the most successful operations of Jewish resistance in Europe, saving hundreds of children from Nazi gas chambers.
Fred Coleman, a former Newsweek Bureau Chief in Moscow and in Paris, has lived in France with his wife, Nadine, since 1992. His second book, “The Marcel Network,” tells the true story of a young French couple in German-occupied France who saved 527 children from the gas chambers. It was published by Potomac Books in the United States in November 2012 to outstanding reviews by Alan Riding, Stuart E. Eizenstat, Frederick M Schweitzer, Andrew Nagorski and other eminent authorities. It is with great pleasure that we publish this interview with Fred about his remarkable book.
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Laurel Zuckerman : How and when did you find out about this story?
Fred Coleman: Five years ago a friend told me his story as a “hidden child” in Nazi-occupied France. He saw his parents for the last time when he was nine years old. They couldn’t hug or kiss each other goodbye. All they could do was touch hands through a barbed wire fence. His story got more gripping as it went on. The parents died at Auschwitz; the son survived by a miracle.
What got you interested in “hidden children” and the people who saved them?
In Moscow. I got close to Andrei Sakharov and other dissidents risking their lives against Soviet repression. That experience led me to the similar struggle of Moussa and Odette Abadi, a young French couple who challenged Nazi oppression at the risk of their lives to save children from the Holocaust.
Why do you think these stories are emerging only now, seven decades after WWII started?
The children hidden during the war were reluctant to talk about their suffering – perhaps losing their parents or fearing for their own lives. They wanted to put the horrors behind them and move on. The people who saved them felt they had done their duty and that was reward enough. Some were finally motivated to speak out after the crimes of the Holocaust were denied.
How did you research the book?
Interviews from Paris to Nice with former hidden children, and with everyone I could find who knew the Abadis and the Catholic Bishop and two Protestant Ministers who helped them hide children. I also had access to the Abadi archives and seven hours of video-taped interviews with them.
What surprised you most?
The time and effort people offered to help me find one more vital source.
You’re a journalist with long experience in writing non-fiction. What did your background enable you to bring to this story?
I was the only American journalist to work in Russia under the rule of Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin. That became my first book, “The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire”. Once you have produced one book, you know you can do another.
What are the challenges in writing non-fiction on a topic like this? How did you balance the need to keep the story moving with the need to impart information in order to put things in context?
The full story of the Abadis had never been told before. Both had passed away before I started. Thus every facet of their wartime operation and later lives had to be discovered in their archives of correspondence, speeches, and interviews, or tracked down and confirmed by at least two people who knew them. Speculation from any single source would not make the cut. Tangential stories, while interesting in themselves but irrelevant to the main story, were dropped in order to keep the book’s narrative moving.
Was it difficult to find a publisher?
Yes. It took two years. My agent tried to sell the book for over a year to a major U.S. publisher. He was told it was well written etc etc, but would never make a million dollars because there are already too many Holocaust books out there, so, no thanks. Fortunately, smaller, independent and respectable publishers still accept manuscripts directly from authors. I looked through Jeff Herman’s guide over nearly 500 pages of publisher listings for these criteria: they must accept email queries, publish non fiction, make a speciality of history books, and have a track record of getting good books published by good people. I found three such publishers and two of them wanted my book. They did not suffer from “Holocaust Fatigue”. They didn’t need to make a million. They just wanted good books. Of the two, Potomac offered me better contract terms.
How do you write? A special routine or hygiene?
I do my best work in the morning, every day.
What made you become a writer? How did you learn the craft?
I was the editor of my high school newspaper. I always wanted to be a journalist. In its day, when I worked at Newsweek 1976 – 1992, the magazine set a high standard for writing. Producing a major cover story for them, written to space at significant length turned out to be excellent preparation for doing books.
What do you read for pleasure?
Good books
What are you working on now?
I don’t talk about a project before it’s done.
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About Fred Coleman
As Newsweek’s Moscow bureau chief, Fred Coleman befriended Andrei Sakharov and other Russian dissidents. He admired the way they stood up against Soviet repression. His prize-winning reporting on human rights in the USSR led him to the similar struggle of Moussa and Odette Abadi against Nazi atrocities, as recounted in The Marcel Network, his second book.
While reporting for Newsweek, Coleman rode a Soviet tank out of Afghanistan. He interviewed the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the first president of postcommunist Russia, Boris Yeltsin. As the magazine’s diplomatic correspondent, based in Washington, he travelled the world with three American secretaries of state. Later, as a longtime Paris correspondent for Newsweek and other publications, Coleman covered terrorist attacks and the launch of the euro. He once lived for a week with the French Foreign Legion.
Fred Coleman grew up in Oakland, California, and graduated from Princeton University. His first book, The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire, was published by St. Martin’s Press. He and his French wife, Nadine, live in Paris.
The Marcel Network is available from all fine bookstores and on amazon.com
