The Paris Girl
The Young Woman Who Outwitted the Nazis and Became a WWII Hero
by Francelle Bradford White
Pub Date Dec 24 2024
Kensington Publishing |Citadel
Biographies & Memoirs| History


Kensignton Publishing/Citadel and Netgalley provided me with a copy of The Paris Girl for review:


A biography movingly written by Andrée Griotteray’s daughter, The Paris Girl kept me up late at night, unable to put it down.


Through her harrowing work as an underground intelligence courier, Andrée Griotteray, a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Paris, would become a hero of the French Resistance and a hero of the underground resistance.


Andrée Griotteray was 19 years old when German forces invaded France and occupied Paris, where she worked at a passport office. She secretly typed up and printed copies of an underground newspaper, and stolen I.D. cards that enabled scores of Jewish citizens to escape persecution after her younger brother, Alain, created a resistance network named Orion.


Although Andrée was charming and pretty, she secretly began working as an undercover courier, nimbly avoiding German officers' unwanted attention. While under immense pressure, she delivered vital intelligence destined for France's allies-until she was betrayed and arrested.



Andrée remained composed throughout her ordeal, refusing to reveal the whereabouts of her comrades. In addition to deceiving her interrogators, she continued her underground activities until France was liberated.



Andrée's daughter, Francelle, weaves diary entries, letters, and conversations into her mother's story. This memoir details Andrée's narrow escapes and moments of terror as well as the daily acts of courage and defiance, as well as the extraordinary courage displayed by so many of her contemporaries.


I give the Paris Girls five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

I actually got this in kindle format and audiobook. They were both good. I enjoyed how the narrator told the story, since I had read it first. I liked the plot and characters and was pleased when I finished both types. If you like historical fiction then definitely grab this one when it comes out.

Voluntarily reviewed copies from NetGalley

In this beautiful, brave, and brilliant biography of Andree Griotteray, a member of the French resistance during the German occupation of France in World War II, her daughter Francelle Bradford White brings Andree and the challenges and dangers of resistance work to life in this incredible biography. Focusing on her work as an undercover courier for the Orion network (founded by her brother Alain) and as a clerk in the passport office under German eyes, readers will discover the risks that everyday people took to free their country from the Nazis eighty years ago. Bringing Andree’s diaries, letters, and conversations with Bradford White into this biography, Francelle Bradford White has created an incredible tribute to her mother’s work for the resistance in this book. With so much historical detail and incredible information present throughout this book, readers will be immersed in the atmosphere and danger of World War II France in this book thanks to Bradford White’s research into her mother’s story. With a fascinating personal slant to this biography and constantly thwarting the odds, this is a powerful, moving, and thrilling new biography of the women of the French resistance that World War II historians and women’s historians will absolutely devour.

There is something that feels very personal about this book. Whilst many (many, many) books discuss the Second World War, I find that most have a distance between the reader and the subject. This book is based on the author’s mother’s work with the resistance and her diaries at the time, both of which combine to make it feel like you really know Andree, that you’re her friend and that she’s telling you about her life. A story of bravery and courage centered around a woman who could’ve survived the war being “ordinary” but instead chose to be extraordinary.

Goodreads review to follow shortly!

The Paris Girl is a meticulously researched and beautifully woven tale of the author's mother's experience working for the French resistance. Compiled via interviews and her mother's diaries, we follow the entirety of the second World War through the eyes of a young woman working in the Passport Office in Paris and undercover as a courier for the French resistance group, Orion. While the writing felt a little awkward at times, and I found myself wishing that the author had included more quotes from primary sources such as the diaries, it was deftly woven together into a cohesive narrative that was informative as well as enjoyable to read.

This is a true story, as told by Andrée’s daughter. Andrée was still a teenager when she started working at Paris Police Headquarters, just before the Germans captured Paris. Her younger brother, Alain, set up a Resistance group. Both of them were very brave in their roles within the Resistance. The story is well written and very informative. Compelling reading. There’s such a wealth of information. Andrée’s journal/diary gives a first hand account of what they lived through during World War Two. Fascinating!

I found it a struggle to get through the first of The Paris Girl with such minute details. Once the actual resistance activities of Andree Griotteray and her brother Alain for the four years of German occupation of Paris and France the book became hard to put down. The author is the daughter of Andree and when awards began to flood Andree 50 years after the war ended, Francelle wanted to learn more. Walking the streets of Paris and the various escape routes the Resistance used brought a great impact to the author and the readers.

This book was originally written to raise money for Alzheimer's patients and research. Being reissued on 2024 facts have been verified over the decade and the amazing life of Andree (& Alain) is extraordinary.

This is the amazing story of Andree, a girl who worked as a spy for the Resistance in France during WWII. Written by her daughter based on Andree's diaries, the stories she told and different conversations with different people. It shows us how these young French people became spies with no training, only with courage and the will to help their country. Even though the style the book is written was a bit confusing for me, I learnt from a part of history I didn't know much about. Every person in the book can inspire you in a way and reading what they went through, how they survived those years, is a lesson to learn from.

At 19, Andrée Griotteray worked as a clerk in Paris during the German occupation of France. She and her brother Alain joined the resistance, with Andrée typing underground newspapers, stealing blank ID papers to help Jewish people and others in danger, and serving as a courier for the Orion network. Despite her youth, she remained composed, skillfully deflecting unwanted attention from German officers and contributing to critical resistance efforts.

The Paris Girl by Francelle Bradford White, based on family diaries, letters, and interviews, tells the story of Andrée’s bravery and resilience. Her actions significantly aided France and the Allied forces during the war. Awarded four medals for her heroism, Andrée’s legacy is honored through this compelling biography, with proceeds from its reprint supporting the Alzheimer’s foundation. Highly recommended—four stars!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

At the time of this review, there are only 8 others but I definitely feel like the odd man out. I had such high hopes for this one but it fell really short for me. The author is writing her mother's biography/memoir about the work she did for the French resistance during WWII. I have the utmost respect for these heroes and I deeply admire their courage and strength. With that being said, I could only make it to the halfway point of this book. I really wanted to give it more but it was starting to feel like a chore to pick it up. I just wasn't a fan of the writing style. I really wish that it had been written more like a novel and less like a history lesson. I feel that it could have easily been written like a novel and still held the authenticity of a biography. It just felt so detached. I would have expected more emotion since it was written by Andree's daughter. I had a hard time connecting with the people in the book. I felt that the events were not as cohesive as they could have been and the flow was a little choppy. I did like the entries from Andree's journal but felt they needed to be weaved into the story a little more seamlessly. They felt like they were just chunked out and then randomly thrown into pages. I liked hearing about the events and activities of the resistance group but felt very bored by how they were written. It felt like a textbook and I wanted more of the emotion that comes with a memoir or a novel. Normally, a book I cannot finish gets an automatic 1 star but I do feel that the content was valuable even if I couldn't personally get past the writing style. I'm giving this one 2 stars.

Author Francelle Bradford White's mother, Andrée Griotteray, was a courageous and fearless young lady living in Paris when War War II swirled all around her. She kept journals detailing her daily life including her disgust at the German soldiers marching in, her brother's escape to North Africa, food queues, wondrous meals and horrendous meals, theatre, curfews, dates she went on, clothing, antisemitic laws, scarlet fever, her job and work with the Orion Resistance group (in which she exercised journaling restraint). She worked in various departments at the Police Headquarters but the longer she was there the more incensed she became as she felt her workplace was full of corroborators. But her youth and naivete contributed to her bravery and she thought nothing about risk and danger. Her Médaille de la Résistance and the Croix de Guerre were well deserved. Andrée was a true heroine...what a privilege to learn more about her and her family. Kudos to the author for telling this story, her meticulous research and translating the journals. I imagine she is very proud of the work her family did to help persecuted Jews.

This story gripped me and captivated me so thoroughly I carried the book around wherever I went. Not only does the reader catch personal glimpses into war before from Andrée's perspective before, during and after the war but the author's extensive and impassioned notes are fascinating and important.

My sincere thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this utterly engrossing book.

This is the inspiring story of Andrée Griotteray, who worked as a member of the Resistance, written by her daughter. Fans of the WWII genre should pick this up as Andree is an actual heroine. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Also good for the YA crowd.

Any historical era book from WWII will always be interesting to me. This one was even more interesting because it is a second hand account, written by the daughter of the person it is about. That is amazing. I love hearing peoples stories from that part of history. I will recommend to others I know!

I love that this book is written by the daughter of the woman it's about. You can tell there's a connection and depth to the story that wouldn't necessarily be there otherwise. It's incredible how many women were able to serve the war effort by being spies because who would expect a woman to be a spy? It took far too long for others to catch on, and it was too late once they had. A pretty pair of eyes and feigned innocence and naivete go a long way. So it is with this book. Andree was amazing and another woman to be inspired by!

See my full review at http://michelleardillo.com/2024/11/21/book-review-the-paris-girl-the-young-woman-who-outwitted-the-nazis-and-became-a-wwii-hero-by-francelle-bradford-white/

I loved the introduction, where the author’s parents return from a British Antique Dealers Association ball, and Francelle’s dad is telling her that everyone at the ball had been looking at mummy's cleavage aka actually her war medals that she got for “bashing up the Germans during the war.” (The author was just 6yrs old at this time) From then on, through her childhood, teen years etc her mother used to tell her what she got up to during the war.
I also loved the byline of "The young woman who outwitted the Nazis & became a WW2 hero" after reading the book I think Andree would have found it amusing as she really didn’t see herself as a hero at the time. Rightly so she was awarded war medals for her service and all the risks she took and danger she faced.

To begin with I struggled with the book I found it not personal or humanised enough for me.....it was just a set of facts and felt a little more like a reference book, than the story of a woman who lived in Paris in WW2. Then as the book progressed there were more diary entries used and we got to know Andree more, the book became much more interesting and I became hooked on reading more about Andree and what she did to help the resistance.

Before the war and occupation of France, Andree was working at the Police HQ under the guidance of Monsieur Langeron, and when the Germans invaded all such civil servants were not allowed to resign. Some chose to disappear and escape, leaving France. Some continued to do their jobs keeping their heads down and doing what the Germans told them to, even going so far as to collaborating and giving the Germans information of the whereabouts of Jewish people and those who were helping them. Then there were a few people, like Andree who continued to work at Police HQ and used their position in any way possible to help others and the resistance. She felt somewhat protected by Monsieur Langeron he was sympathetic to the cause, in fact it was Monsieur Langeron that was behind Andree working around all the different departments, so that she had an extensive inside knowledge of how everything worked and therefore she could access an extensive range of documents and information. When Monsieur Langeron was arrested, reinstated and eventually left Police HQ, Andree felt more alone and knew she needed to be even more discreet in what she was doing. In fact, a colleague warned her about taking blank ID cards too often. The colleague had obviously noticed Andree stealing the cards but had turned a blind eye until the point it would personally affect her if Andree was caught, and even then, she just warned Andree and didn’t report her to the Germans. There were those not openly or heavily involved with the resistance but would turn a blind eye if they saw others engaging in activities the Germans would consider as acts against them.

Andree was drawn into the Orion Resistance group by its eventual leader, her brother Alain. It was a risk as resistance members were not meant to associate with each other, never mind be related to each other. I have to say that even had she not joined an organised resistance group, Andree would have found a way to help the Jewish people and hinder the Germans as much as humanly possible. In fact, Andree did small acts of “defiance” like crossing the road to avoid interaction with German Officers. Though she did have an unavoidable friendship with one German Officer due to working at Police HQ which came in very useful later when she needed someone to vouch for her innocence and that she couldn’t possibly be a member of the resistance. I feel at times because Alain trusted Andree so much he would push her to do more and more dangerous missions.

As Andree worked at Police HQ she had access to a fairly plentiful supply of materials to type things up, be that undercover newspapers, leaflets or information to be passed on. At one point Andree’s job gave her access to ID cards so she stole blank ID cards for the resistance to use to help Jewish people. Even when Andree was switched departments, which happened to her a lot, she would return to see her friends and use these visits to gain access to the blank ID cards.
When doing her regular work at the Police HQ grateful clients would gift Andree perfume and cigarettes which she would sell to fund trips she would take.
Andree took many trips with her small suitcase with its carefully designed lining that she could hide documents in. On a later trip she purchased a girdle to sew coins supplied by the Americans to fund the resistance in to smuggle them across the country. Andree used her image of a young, carefree, perhaps somewhat naïve woman to fool the Germans on more than one occasion. On other occasions she channelled her mother’s authorative manner and actually threatened the German Officers and challenged the Gestapo. Andree had many adventures, one of which resulted in her being unable to find a hotel room for the night, approaching the local Police for help and being directed to a brothel to spend the night! Though she didn’t have a great nights sleep there as she woke part way through the night being bitten by fleas!!

Orion Agents had no formal training, it was set up & managed by French men & women living in their own country familiar with their surroundings. The Orion group never used radio transmitters Alain thought them too risky, it was too easy for the Germans to pick up on radio frequencies. They may have used other resistance operatives & British & US Intelligence service radios but they never had their own. Alain insisted that if a courier was in danger they were to destroy whatever information they were carrying and try to lose whoever was tailing them, but not to lead them to their home or the home of other members. They were not to socialise with other members of the group, in fact the least they knew of each other the better. That way if they were ever caught and tortured, they could not reveal a lot of information. It was later after Alain’s training with the intelligence services that they were issued with cynanide capsules to take if absolutely necessary. Orion’s main instructions came from the “top, top man” Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie and were to make contacts & gather information that may be of use to intelligence services. On the whole Orion was quite successful but it mustn’t be forgotten is caught they would inevitably be tortured and either sent to the camps or simply shot. Orion only lost 2 of its 18 full time agents. These agents were young people. Alain was the youngest resistance group leader and all but 4 of his agents were still under the age of 24yrs at the end of the war. There were only 2 women in Orion, Andree Groitteray White & Margit Ehrart Hutton. Though other women did help Orion they were not full time members.
It was thought at the time that the Germans were less suspicious of women which is why the resistance recruited them, though they were still in as much danger and at times more danger than male recruits. There was always the threat of moles reporting them to the Gestapo, or Vichy. It could be a concierge at the building they lived in who reported them, a work colleague, a double agent or even a “friend”. There were roughly 2,500 German agents, 6,000 French agents and an estimated 24,000 people informing on their neighbours, colleagues and even their friends. These groups such as Orion were not really linked to other resistance groups and there were many such groups however, they did support and work with the SOEs. In comparison to the “untrained” Orion Agents, the SOE Agents received 6 months intensive training in the UK before being parachuted or travelling by sea into France. The SOE sent in 470 Agents - 118 did not return. Of the 470, 39 were female agents, 13 of those died in action. Wireless operators had a life expectancy of 6 weeks!!

I found the initial 20% or so hard going which annoyed me as I so wanted to read about this amazing young French woman & her brother who were part of the Orion resistance. Then as more and more of Andree’s own words are used within the book from her own diary entries made at the crazy dangerous time, I became more and more absorbed. The thing is Andree doesn't believe herself a heroine she sees herself as a normal French woman so doing what she can to help rid her country of unwanted invaders. I found reading about what “normal” life in Paris under the German rule interesting too. On one hand people were starving, yet on the other there were restaurants and hotels that still offered extravagant food. It was interesting to read about Andree’s family life, the way her mother knew her daughter was taking part in dangerous work being a courier of information yet they didn’t openly talk about it. Again it was better that the rest of the family knew no details of operations.
Though it was Alain and Andree that were deeply involved in the resistance they and their family had to know if they were caught that there would be serious repercussions for the whole family. It was amazing to read of the French citizens who all played a small part in the greater goal of the resistance.

Andree’s daughter Francelle, the author of this book used her mother’s diaries, spoke to other resistance members and her Uncle Alain as well as the memories of the stories her mother had told her. Francelle continues Andree’s legacy of helping others as the proceeds from this book are being donated to an Alzheimers & Dementia charity set up in her mothers name.

Summing up, I found the book intriguing, informative and fascinating. I think the word I’d use to describe how the book is presented/put over is pragmatic....... ”pragmatic” the way Andree had to be to survive. Andree didn’t think herself special or a heroine, she was just doing what she could to help the Jewish people and help to get the invading Germans out of her home country.

'I am nineteen and I want to have fun but we are at war!'

Andrée Griotteray is just nineteen years old and working at Paris's Police Headquarters when the German army parades down the Champs-Èlysèes to claim the city. Everyone is horrified, terrified, so many still have relatively fresh memories of WW1. For the Griotterays though, Andrèe and her brother Alain in particular, there is only one option, 'We have to think of victory and shout 'Vive la France''. Starting, by producing and circulating anti-Nazi news, Andrèe soon utilises her administrative position to steal blank ID cards to help Jews escape. Soon, Andrèe and Alain were asked to recruit even more members to their group, officially becoming known as Orion, so that information could be passed on to the British and Americans. Their teenage efforts lasted the entire war - they lasted the entire war - despite setbacks and betrayals.

'The Paris Girl' is Andrèe's war story, pieced together using snippets of her diary as well as contextual narration formed from conversations with family and other Orion members. What the story really conveys is how a couple of untrained teenagers, with nothing more than a patriotic lineage, and pluck could (and would) become medal-bedecked war heroes. It makes you re-think all the times you tell yourself that a problem is 'too big'.

'It is unbearably hot at the moment. We are leading the most awful life'.

Francelle Bradford White’s The Paris Girl is a historical account documenting Andree’s (the author’s mother) role as a courier for the French Resistance during World War II. This book is truly a labor of love, as the author pieces together her mother’s stories, diary entries, and interviews with people who were involved in the war effort.

There are a lot of different characters introduced, so we don’t always get a full background of their role (and honestly, it was naturally harder for me to follow all of the individuals mentioned). However, because this novel is telling a story of something that is not as commonly known and Andree’s work impacted a lot of people and brought her into contact with many, I can understand the author’s decision to lay down all the details and stories to ensure that the story is told as accurately as possible.

We definitely need more stories to be told about feminine heroes and activists, especially during difficult times in history.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for providing a complimentary eARC for review.

The Paris Girl is a fascinating account of young Andrée Griotteray, a French Resistance fighter (and the author’s mother). Documentation through diaries, letters, conversations, and interviews provide the details and historical record of Andree. Ms. Griotteray was honored with many awards from France over the decades for her work in the Resistance. Many Resistance fighters and leaders, including her younger brother, are included and the roles they played. There is an entire chapter devoted to the politics and history of France during World War II.
The story is captivating as we follow Andree who is a young nineteen-year-old at the beginning of the German takeover of Paris. Many descriptions of meals at hotels and at home are detailed. The effort to find food supplies to make these meals emphasizes how challenging the day-to-day life was for the Parisians. Andree, despite the depressing circumstances, manages to have a life with music, theater, dates, and vacations out of Paris. Her actual job, working for the Paris Police Administration, provides many opportunities to assist the Resistance with special passes for travel, amongst other things. Her job in the Resistance was primarily that of a courier. However, that position became much more dangerous as the war continued. She was actually captured and interrogated at one point.
I highly recommend the fascinating book, The Paris Girl, by Francelle Bradford White.

This is a story of WWII told from the records and diaries of a French Resistance Agent during the war. The story is largely based on the diary entries of this incredibly brave young woman. The story is compelling and the diary entries are very interesting to read Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.