ABSTRACT
W ORLD WAR II transformed a generation of intellectuals. This was particularly the case with Albert Camus. The young essayist and novelist discovered a new sense of solidarity during this time in which each, employing a phrase from his play State of Siege, "was in the same boat." The defeat of France created a short-lived unity between previously conflicting political tendencies ranging from conservatives like General Charles de Gaulle to communists as well as anarchists like Pascal Pia. Even many who were nonpolitical found themselves drawn into some form of opposition against Hitler and his puppet rulers of Vichy. Intense, if often short-lived, friendships were forged in the cafes, underground cultural events, and countless meetings. The years of defeat were the ones in which Camus came to know Andre Gide, Andre Malraux, and Arthur Koestler, and grew close with figures like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. It was the same with the great love of Camus' life, the wonderful actress Maria Casares, now best remembered for her minor part in the film Children of Paradise. Most of these friendships would sour after the war. Nevertheless, the bitterness of defeat generated a new sense of community and a hope for the postwar renewal of France from which the legend of the Resistance was born.
