Saving the Light at Chartres: How the Great Cathedral and Its Stained-Glass Treasures Were Rescued during World War II

by Victor A. Pollak

Overview

Built around 1200 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws more than a million visitors and pilgrims each year, Chartres Cathedral is one of the jewels of Western Civilization. How Chartres Cathedral and its priceless stained glass (today the largest such collection in one location) survived World War II’s widespread destruction of cultural monuments is one of the great stories of recent history. Saving the Light at Chartres begins half a decade before World War II, when a young French architect developed a plan to save the cathedral’s precious stained glass. As war engulfed Europe in the fall of 1939, master glass artisans dismantled the hundreds of windows, and soldiers, tradesmen, and laborers with local volunteers crated thousands of glass panels, stowed them in the crypt, and months later—just before German invaders reached Chartres—hauled them across the country to an underground quarry. This effort to save the stained glass is but a prologue. By August 1944, the U.S. Army had broken out of Normandy and was racing across France toward Paris and the Seine. Chartres became a key battleground. Allied bombing blew out the cathedral’s temporary window coverings, and when the Americans—assisted by French Resistance fighters—entered the city in the face of unexpectedly heavy defiance and snipers in the cathedral, many soldiers believed German artillery spotters were occupying the cathedral’s spires. When Colonel Welborn Griffith Jr.—a senior operations officer of Twentieth Corps in Patton’s Third Army—arrived, some were pressing to countermand the army’s standing order to avoid the cathedral and threatened to destroy it to neutralize the German spotters. Griffith was skeptical. He inspected the cathedral himself, climbed its towers, but found no Germans, so he rang the bell, waved an American flag, and ordered that the cathedral be spared, saving it from destruction. Griffith would be killed later that day. Victor Pollak tells both stories—the rescue of the windows and Colonel Griffith’s fateful role—in a compelling narrative. Saving the Light at Chartres honors the government and local teams who saved the windows, the Resistance that performed a vital role in the liberation of Chartres, Welborn Griffith, and the enduring treasure that is Chartres Cathedral.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811739016
Publisher:	Stackpole Books
Publication date:	03/16/2020
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	237,028
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Victor A. Pollak, an attorney in private practice as a partner in law firms in Chicago and Salt Lake City for more than thirty years, has received continuing professional recognition. Pollak graduated from Antioch College, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law with honors, and Pacific University with an MFA in Writing. He has traveled often in Europe, including to Chartres, Paris and southwestern France, and has worked on this book for five years. He divides his time between Tucson and Salt Lake City.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Prologue-Reims, a Burning Symbol of Hope for Preservationists xvii

Part I World War I

Chapter 1 Chartres Cathedral and Its Windows 3

Chapter 2 Groceries: Quanah, Texas, 1914-1918 9

Chapter 3 Risks: Paris and Chartres, 1915-1918 17

Chapter 4 Griffith Faces the World: Texas, New York, Manila, and Shanghai, 1918-1935 29

Chapter 5 Warming Cauldron: Paris and Chartres, 1919-1936 39

Part II The Interwar Years

Chapter 6 Spy Hap: Shiojiri, Japan, 1935 57

Chapter 7 Zay Transcends Confrontation: Paris and Chartres, Spring 1935-1937 69

Chapter 8 Griff in Training … But for What? Wyoming to Georgia, August 1935-January 1940 81

Chapter 9 Jump-Start: Chartres, September 1938-January 1940 91

Chapter 10 Removal: Chartres, August 1939-January 1940 97

Part III World War II

Chapter 11 Fort Hood and Leavenworth Faculty, with Nell: Texas, Kansas, and California, Fall 1940-1942 111

Chapter 12 Stunned into Action: Chartres and Paris, September 1939-June 1940 121

Chapter 13 Transport: Chartres and Berchères-les-Pierres, June 1940 133

Chapter 14 To Quarry or Back to Crypt, for a Long Wait: Fongrenon and Chartres, June 1940 147

Chapter 15 Maneuvers: Kentucky to New York, April 1943-February 1944 161

Chapter 16 Goodbye to Both: New York City, Early February 1944 169

Chapter 17 War Hits Again: The Dordogne and Chartres, June 1940-Mayl944 181

Chapter 18 Collared at HQ: Marlborough, UK, and Normandy, Spring 1944-July 1944 187

Chapter 19 Race across France, Resistance Meetup: Normandy, July-Early August 1944 199

Chapter 20 Battle Prelude, First Probe of the Cathedral: La Ferté-Bernard and Chartres, August 1944 213

Chapter 21 Clearing the Church: Chartres, August 16, 1944 225

Chapter 22 In Command at Lèves: Chartres and Lèves, August 16, 1944 237

Chapter 23 Aftermath-Snipers and a Scrappy Lieutenant: Chartres, August 16-19, 1944 249

Part IV Postwar

Chapter 24 Light Returns to Its Shrine: Fongrenon and Chartres, Winter 1944-1945 to November 1950 265

Epilogue-Chartres and the United States of America: Spring 1944-1995 275

Afterword: Author's Note 281

Acknowledgments 283

Notes on Sources 287

Bibliography 355

Index 369

About the Author 385