The Paris Architect

Lucien meets with Henri Devereaux, a fellow architect and former rival who is struggling to find work. He asks Lucien to put in a good word for him with the Germans, but Lucien, pleased to see Devereaux desperate, says there’s nothing he can do. Lucien intentionally baits Devereaux into an angry outburst by taunting him about their changes in situation. Devereaux calls him a “traitor to France” and declares that he will make sure Lucien pays for his behavior (320). Utterly unaffected, Lucien pays for the meal, saying it was worth it. As Lucien leaves, Devereaux ominously declares, “‘I’ll fix your ass, Bernard!’” (320).

Two Gestapo officers come to Bette’s apartment after a tip that she is hiding Jewish people. She answers the door in her underwear, throwing off the officers. As they search, she repeatedly jokes that her apartment is full of Jewish people to mock them: “There’s one on top of the chandelier right now!” (322). Meanwhile, Emile and Carole are safe in the hiding place under the windowsill. She distracts the officers by asking their opinions on a choice of party dresses and giving them cognac before they leave. As she retrieves the children from the wall, Bette is grateful to Lucien for saving them and hopes to spend the rest of her life with him.

Alain is thrilled to finally follow Lucien all the way to an apartment across the street from German headquarters. He notes the address and apartment number and then waits to see who Lucien’s co-conspirators are. He recognizes Manet and wonders why such a man would risk his life and his money to help Jewish people. Finally, he sees two men carry a heavy trunk into the apartment building and then leave with it, seemingly lighter.

Thrilled that he can call his uncle with the tip that they will find the Jewish person inside and arrest Lucien, he dials his uncle’s home phone. His uncle answers, but before Alain can speak, Pierre appears. The hatred in the boy’s eyes startles Alain into dropping the phone.

Pierre stabs Alain in the chest with a kitchen knife, kicks the body to make sure he is dead, and then hangs up the phone. He takes Alain’s billfold and walks home. Pierre feels he had no choice but to protect Lucien, especially since Lucien is protecting his people: “He was quite proud that he’d protected his protector this time—and he’d done it all on his own like a man should” (331).

Lucien finds himself kidnapped by the Resistance once again. This time, beyond vague threats, they have a plan. They intend to blow up a factory in accordance with orders from London—his new factory. Lucien is horrified, refusing to cooperate until they show him photographs of French soldiers killed by planes whose engines were assembled in the Chaville factory he designed. Lucien realizes that the excuses he gave to rationalize his work for the Boche were just that—excuses. He muses that Celeste was right in calling him an “architectural Mephistopheles.”

Realizing his Tremblay factory truly belongs to the Germans, not to him, Lucien agrees to help. The Resistance wants the building designs and advice on where to place the explosives for maximum effect. Further, Lucien must go with them to ensure all goes as planned. As Lucien resigns himself to the idea, it becomes clear that Henri Devereaux has gotten his revenge: based on Henri’s referral, Lucien will now be forced to blow up his own greatest work to date and risk his life doing so.

Despite his disgust for the Resistance members, Lucien helps place the bomb to destroy his factory. When the time comes to detonate, Lucien insists on being the one to push the plunger: “Lucien figured that since he’d conceived the building, he alone had the right to kill it” (Page 341). Mesmerized by the rubble that was once his creation, he forgets to run. Remy, the Resistance man who hates him, snaps him out of it and they flee.

Alain’s uncle, Major Hermann Holweig, accidentally kills Aubert the cabinetmaker during his torture session. When Schlegal asks why he overdid the beating, Holweig explains that he took out his frustration about Alain’s murder on Aubert. However, without Aubert, Schlegal has nothing to go on in his hunt for Janusky.

As he smokes a cigarette, Schlegal looks out the window and sees a ring on a man’s hand shining between the curtains across the street. Recognizing it as the one from the picture of Janusky, Schlegal gleefully orders his men to raid the building across the street and collect Lucien. As the men scramble to follow his orders, Marie calmly dials a number on the phone, letting it ring four times before hanging up. She looks up at the apartment building. 

Schlegal is eager to capture Janusky and win his promotion. When the elderly concierge gives no information, she is thrown to her death in the stairwell. Lucien sees the old woman fall and considers that a similar death is in his future. Having made arrangements for Pierre with Bette, he resolves to die quickly at his own hand rather than be taken alive. He is at peace because he has finally achieved his dream of being a good father.

Remaining calm, Lucien exchanges friendly greetings with Schlegal, who demands to know where Lucien would hide someone in the apartment. Lucien’s panic starts to melt away as he realizes he is there as a consultant rather than a suspect. He begins to enjoy ordering the Nazis around and instructing them to search places he knows are wrong. Herzog arrives and yells at Schlegal for bothering Lucien.

Schlegal is furious not only at his failure to capture Janusky, but at Herzog’s reprisals. Embarrassed, Schlegal orders the deaths of the other people who live in the building. His men inform him that they have “torn everything apart except those paintings” (354). Herzog notices Lucien quickly glance at the paintings. He points out the value of the paintings, telling Schlegal he can’t rip them down as it would be a waste of money for the Reich. Herzog threatens to call Reich Minister Speer and make Schlegal explain why he destroyed “‘millions of Reich marks of property’” (355). Schlegal then informs Herzog that the paintings will come down either way once he obliterates the building with the field artillery gun aimed at the apartments. Grinning, he tells Herzog he has two minutes to take the paintings down if he wants to spare them.

Neither Herzog nor Schlegal is willing to back down. Schlegal is convinced that Janusky is in the building and states that he will die when the building collapses. Herzog explains that if he fires the artillery on the building, he’ll set fire to the whole block and the percussion from firing will break all the windows across the street—at German headquarters. Still, Schlegal stubbornly holds to his plan as Herzog makes a phone call.

Lucien receives permission to leave, but before he can, Herzog beckons Schlegal to the phone. On the other end is Lischka, who screams at him for even considering firing artillery so close to headquarters. He gives him a direct order to withdraw immediately. Herzog savors his victory, then goes on to discuss the paintings, appreciating their historical value. When everyone else is gone, Herzog shocks Lucien by whispering in his ear, “‘Better wait until the middle of the night to get him out of there. And you, my friend, must be gone by tomorrow night’” (357).

Manet helps Janusky out of his hiding place and treats him to some wine and bread after his horrific ordeal. Janusky is wracked with guilt over the lives lost on his behalf, but Manet reminds him not to waste their sacrifices. Janusky considers his survival a “miracle” and asks Manet to tell Lucien that he is a “mensch.” Manet answers that he will never see Lucien again since he has made arrangements to leave the city but that “I think he now knows that” (360). Manet dresses Janusky as a priest as a part of his plot to smuggle him into Spain.

Lucien and Bette await Herzog’s arrival in the countryside. The children are packed in the car and Bette is worried that they cannot trust Herzog, but Lucien assures her all will be well. Herzog arrives in civilian clothes with instructions on how to avoid guards at the border, as well as gifts: travel papers from the Reich for safe passage, a note saying that Lucien is relocating his family to start work on a factory, and a gun in case of emergencies. Lucien invites Herzog to come with him, but the soldier declines, saying he is “‘still a German soldier sworn to defend the Fatherland’” (365). The two unlikely friends say their goodbyes and Lucien drives away.

Herzog waits until he sees headlights, then fetches his canvas bag and machine gun. He opens fire on the vehicle, running it off the road. A soldier is slumped over the wheel as two officials move about in the back seat. Herzog throws a stick grenade under the car, causing it to burst into flames. Herzog drives back to Paris with a smile on his face: “He knew Schlegal would never ignore an anonymous tip” (366).

Lucien finds that he is not scared and smiles as he considers what his anti-Semitic father would think of the last several months. He believes he would have considered Lucien a failure, but Lucien knows he has not failed. He is proud that he disproved his own belief that he was inability to help another person. Bette, the children, and Mischa, the cat, are all asleep as he drives. He smiles as he considers his new family (367).