"The Haunted House," by Michèle Audin: Strasbourg, user guide

Published on May 7, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.

The city of Strasbourg. MYRIAM TIRLER / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP

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Review The painful history of this region annexed in 1940 by the Third Reich. Drawing on a vast amount of archives, the author revives the memory of places of Nazi atrocities and reveals many ghosts. ★★★☆☆

Certainly, Delphine, recently settled in Strasbourg, appreciates the joys of cycling and opera tickets that are more accessible than in Paris. But "the city remained foreign to me - just as I was foreign to it," she reflects. Her surname - Maugein - does not sound very Alsatian, the shopkeepers change language when they see her and we are surprised that she has "no religion" . Desperately, she remains "a Frenchwoman from the inside". But with her, we discover the painful history of this region annexed in 1940 by the Third Reich, via the movements in her building on the (fictitious) rue Dunat-Diehr. Germanization of the country, forced enlistment of the "malgré-nous" in the Wehrmacht, auto-da-fés of French books...

Drawing on a vast array of archives, Michèle Audin revives the memory of sites of Nazi atrocities and brings many ghosts to light. With a sensitive approach and close to the intimacy of families, she retraces the suffering of a people whose wounds have still not healed.

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