Lisbon
War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939–1945
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Lisbon
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Narrated by:
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Robin Sachs
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By:
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Neill Lochery
About this listen
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Portuguese contacts, records recently uncovered from Portuguese secret police and banking archives, and other unpublished documents to offer a revelatory portrait of the war’s backstage.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.Listeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Lisbon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Antoine Vanner
- 21-12-22
An excellent narrative history
The title undersells this book. lt deals not just with the city of Lisbon in WW2 but with the complexities of Portuguese relations with both the Allied and Axis powers. Dominating the story is the personality of Salazar, Portugal's nowadays virtually forgotten dictator. He played a masterful hand. pitting one power bloc against the other and by exploiting the country's neutrality left Portugal very significantly richer in gold reserves than it had been at the outset. The machinations are still somewhat opaque even today but the moral underpinning was dishorourable. A fascinating book. gripping from first to last.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Edgar F.
- 27-03-23
Insighful, detailed, well read
The audiobook provides a great insight on Lisbon and Portugal during WW2. From the diplomacy game that engulfed Portugal at the time, to the daily life of Lisbon. It provides an overview of the political, economical an social conditions of Portugal during the regime of Salazar's 'Estado Novo'. Overall, i enjoyed listening to this audiobook - the contents were well organised, it was detailed enough without being boring, and the narrator was competent in delivering the spirit of the book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rui Ribeiro
- 03-09-21
Very interesting
The book is more about the way the ruling strongman of Portugal steered the country through World War II, managing to stay neutral, while enduring the pressures of the Allies (and a centuries old Alliance with Britain) and Germany. It covers some of the known places of Lisbon and that is done in quite an interesting manner.
The narration was good, even if the narrator clearly struggled with the correct pronounciation of Portuguese names, with some names completly off the mark.
I enjoyed the book a lot. It's worth a read (or listen) to anyone interested in this period of the history of World War II or Portugal.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Gillian
- 04-12-11
Lisbon - War in the Shadows... an excellent read
Excellent writing about a little known 'theatre' during WWII that happened in Portugal. A wide-ranging conscientious indepth researched book with fascinating photographs of the various participants taken during 1939-1945.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Drew Lawrence
- 16-06-22
Good with caveats...
The story was engaging. The narration could have been better (although I don't want to speak ill of the dead), as Robin Sachs is sadly no longer withbus
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Graeme
- 11-01-24
Fascinating study of Portugal’s role in WW2
I enjoyed this audiobook which provided a really interesting overview of life and politics in Lisbon during WW2, with informative commentary to put everything into the wider geopolitical context
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Glenn Michael Harper
- 25-04-22
a glimpse of Rick's Cafe Americain
The expected tray of pasteis de nata is shown briefly before huge plates of Ferrero Rocher are brought out en masse for the clientele in this restaurant.
The various decor shows posters of Casablanca, James Bond, etc.
The story documents the diplomatic world that surrounded Prime Minister Salazar and his Estado Novo. The narration by Sachs evokes a WWII ministerial briefing room in a good way.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Richard S
- 09-11-22
Interesting History from the Periphery
Portugal's overall role in WWII was fairly peripheral so I hadn't read anything about it before now. This book brings some of the interesting stories to the centre stage. I found particular aspects to be quite fascinating, e.g. the wolfram wars, Nazi gold, the Lisbon spy games, the Azores, KLM Flight 777A and Salazar's neutrality dance.
It is a bit of a Salazar lovefest, but I don't begrudge a historian their point of view and Salazar was clearly a remarkable man. It isn't quite a hagiography but it occasionally grates though. The bumbling British and the hapless Germans are masterfully played off against each other in Salazar's game of multidimensional chess; meanwhile morally repugnant policies such as actively preventing Jewish refugees from entering Portugal are reframed as a necessary part of a bigger work of foreign policy genius.
The Salazar love aside, Lochery does discuss the nature of the Portugal's WWII experience fairly openly and in detail, which includes the business dealings with the Germans and the postwar agreements on looted Nazi gold. It all seems pretty detailed and well-researched.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lady Essex
- 18-08-24
A joy to listen to, an education, and an easy way to learn about a much forgotten subject
Strong clear narration of a fascinating man, How did Salazar compare to Franco, and many others questions you did know you needed answers to!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kim
- 05-09-22
Salazar Fan Boy delivers dull homage to sordid dictator
Don’t bother with this. Dull writing delivered by automaton. Author is in love with Salazar. I thought the prose turgid and fan boy in the extreme.
Narrator was on autopilot
Avoid at all costs
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