Lisbon

War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939–1945

De: Neill Lochery

Narrado por: Robin Sachs

Throughout the Second World War, Lisbon was at the very center of the world’s attention and was the only European city in which both the Allies and the Axis powers openly operated. Portugal was frantically trying to hold on to its self-proclaimed wartime neutrality but in reality was increasingly caught in the middle of the economic, and naval, wars between the Allies and the Nazis. The story is not, however, a conventional tale of World War II in that barely a shot was fired or a bomb dropped. Instead, it is a gripping tale of intrigue, betrayal, opportunism, and double-dealing, all of which took place in the Cidade da Luz and along its idyllic Atlantic coastline. It is the story of how a relatively poor European country not only survived the war physically intact but came out of it in 1945 much wealthier than it had been when war broke out in 1939. Portugal’s emergence as a prosperous European Union nation would be financed in part, it turns out, by a cache of Nazi gold.

During the war, Lisbon was a temporary home to much of Europe’s exiled royalty, over one million refugees seeking passage to the US, and to a host of spies, secret police, captains of industry, bankers, prominent Jews, writers and artists, escaped POWs, and black marketeers. An operations officer writing in 1944 described the daily scene at Lisbon’s airport as being like the movie Casablanca - times twenty.

In this riveting narrative, renowned historian Neill Lochery draws on his relationships with high-level Portuguese contacts, records recently uncovered from Portuguese secret police and banking archives, and other unpublished documents to offer a revelatory portrait of the war’s backstage.

©2011 Neill Lochery (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“As interested as history readers may be in the spying, the economic war over tungsten and Allied demands for an Azores base dominate this history. A productive archival sleuth, Lochery makes original contributions to the literature of neutrality in WWII." ( Booklist)

great book

What did you love best about Lisbon?

book is easy to listen to. very interesting in its narrative. It portrayed Mr Salazar in a very interesting light, certainly an immensely smart man that dealt with both warring sides with great diplomacy and tact and was able to keep Portugal safe. He describes in a very entertainng way the intricacies of the relationships taking place during the war,

Wolfram?

I won’t give away any other details on the book, but to begin, I had never heard of Wolfram. Where have I been? 🤷🏻‍♂️ I had to stop the book and look it up. At first I thought the narrator was saying “wolfem.” Not so! He was saying, “Wolfram.”
For those in the same sad state of ignorance as me, “Wolfram” is “Tungsten.” For everyone else, please move on to the next review. According to the bottomless source if irrefutable facts, “The Internet,” the word “Tungsten” is used primarily in the US and Great Britain.

Aside from having no idea what wolfram was, I thought it was an interesting book with good narration, with the Portuguese supply of “wolfram” during WWII to both the Nazis and the British being a point of contention.

There does not seem to be much out there on recent Portuguese history, so this was a good find. The book is about way more than wolfram, so give it a go!

Little known

I am a World War fan and thought I knew all about the first and second World Wars, that is until I read (heard) Lisbon. The story was fascinating. Portugal was lucky to escape the horrors of the 2nd world War, but could well have been entrapped into it. Its refusal to accept the fleeing Jews was indeed very sad and may have left a stigma on the nation. However a very good listen.

Not That Much Happened

This was short enough book that I made it to the end but the spies were bureaucrats and the spats were financial and diplomatic. I was hoping for more on MI6 personalities at least.

great story but the writing could be better

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The writer presented this too much like what I remember history books I read in school. Although the story is great and compelling, it could have been written much better

What did you like best about this story?

learning the story and role of Lisbon during the war; we had visited it this fall

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

If they could learn from Casablanca [good intro but couldn't sustain it]