Doctor to the Resistance: The Heroic True Story of an American Surgeon and His Family in Occupied Paris (review)

In Doctor to the Resistance, Hal Vaughn constructs an insightful and moving tale about the life of Dr. Sumner Jackson, an American surgeon stationed in Paris during World War II. This well-researched narrative depicts a physician whose indefatigable devotion to his patients compels him, on numerous occasions, to undertake perilous risks, with the possibility always in mind that "the reward would be death, or worse than death" (9).

Born and raised amid the rural valleys of northern Maine, Dr. Jackson joined the American military as a volunteer physician at the conclusion of World War I, only weeks after completing his medical education at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1919. A brief visit to a prisoner-of-war camp during this period exposed the young doctor to harrowing images of malnourished prisoners being transported, like chattel, to various work camps throughout Europe. The experience struck a responsive chord in the empathetic surgeon and unleashed an irrepressible urge within him to strive to protect the assaulted and effaced identities of human victims of war in whatever capacity he could.

Following a brief postwar interlude in which he and his wife returned to the United States, Dr. Jackson, seized by boredom, opted to return to Paris in order to fill a vacancy at the American hospital in Paris. The Paris to which Jackson returned was a vibrant city gripped in the throes of a cultural renaissance, where literary and visual artists from all over the world found sanctuary and inspiration for their aesthetic pursuits.

Dr. Jackson thrived in Paris and briefly enjoyed the stimulating ambience of the city, only to have his world erupt in chaos in 1940 when the German military occupied France. Determined to prevent the wholesale subjugation of innocent French citizens at the hands of the Nazis, Dr. Jackson demonstrated an unshakable resolve in his role as director of the American hospital by tirelessly battling to undermine the Nazis' stranglehold on the city. He did so not only by protecting innocent French citizens but also by playing a pivotal role in the activities of the French resistance.

Vaughn describes the doctor as an idealist who often enlisted his wife and son to participate in "intelligence gathering" operations on behalf of the resistance. As a valued participant in the resistance, Dr. Jackson demonstrated a glint of steel that emboldened him to defy the Nazis and, as a result, become the object of veneration for his patients as well as for the indignant civilians who maintained a visceral aversion for the indignities meted out to them by the detested occupying army. Whether it was carrying encrypted messages to members of the resistance, hiding wanted militants in his hospital, or using his home as a shelter for downed Allied pilots whom he helped escape to Britain, Dr. Jackson was a critical player in the liberation of Paris during this tumultuous period.

Incidentally, his decision to involve his wife and son in the activities of the French resistance would indeed have fatal consequences. Only weeks after his housemaid found anti-Nazi paraphernalia in his son's trousers while doing laundry, the Gestapo detained the entire family and transported them to work camps, where they were subjected to inhumane treatment of every sort. Following scathing aerial bombardment by Allied forces on Nazi positions in France months later, Dr. Jackson and his son Philip were transferred to a nautical steamer en route to a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. After sustaining a direct hit from an Allied aircraft, the steamer sunk. Although Jackson's son was able to swim to safety, Dr. Jackson, who opted to stay behind in order to assist his fellow prisoners, remained onboard. In so doing, Dr...