Georges Connes was perturbed by aformer classmate’s 1922 memoir ofWorld War I, which portrayed theGermans as sinister people. It didn’t ringtrue with Connes’ own experience as aFrench prisoner of war, and so he pennedhis own account in 1925. But publishers atthe time refused to print it, balking at thehumanistic portrayal of the enemy. Thememoir lay forgotten in the attic of hiscountry home until 2001, when his sondiscovered the document and was able topublish it in Paris. Connes’ daughter,Professor Emerita of French Marie-ClaireConnes Wrage, and colleague Lois Vinesdecided to translate the autobiographyfor English audiences. They contend thatthe memoir offers a new perspective onthe experience of an officer prisonerduring The Great War.

“Other POW accounts relate to the suffering and deprivation — and that’s very real, but it’s not bringing much new to the subject,” says Vines, a professor of modern languages. “This account reflects a view of the war from both sides of the conflict.”

Connes, who was detained in a German prison camp from June 1916 to January 1919, recounts several examplesof his more charitable encounters withGerman soldiers. Early in battle, a Germanarmed with a grenade spared Connes’ life.“Still today, the man with the grenadeseems magnanimous; he didn’t throw it,”Connes writes. “How tempting it musthave been. In the same situation, would Ihave had your composure?” Later, thesoldier recounts that his German captorsallowed his countrymen to receive carepackages from home, never confiscatingthe chocolates or pâté, even when theGermans and their families were starving.

The translation, which required the authors to research some unfamiliar military terms, also includes an afterword that details Connes’ post-war life. The former prisoner of war led the French Resistance in his region during World War II and laterserved as interim mayor of Dijon and asprofessor of British and American literatureand dean at the University of Dijon.

Today the story of Connes and his once-ignored memoir seems especially relevant in light of the lack of tolerance some Americans have shown toward those with anti-war views, Vines argues.

For Wrage, the experience has been more about personal discovery. “I was surprised because I didn’t know that side of my father very well,” she says. “This made him seem much more real to me.”