Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France
Summary (from the publisher): From the author of the runaway bestseller A Train in Winter comes the extraordinary story of a French village that helped save thousands, including many Jewish children, who were pursued by the Gestapo during World War II.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village of scattered houses high in the mountains of the Ardèche. Surrounded by pastures and thick forests of oak and pine, the plateau Vivarais lies in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Eastern France, cut off for long stretches of the winter by snow.
During the Second World War, the inhabitants of the area saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, freemasons, communists, downed Allied airmen and above all Jews. Many of these were children and babies, whose parents had been deported to the death camps in Poland. After the war, Le Chambon became the only village to be listed in its entirety in Yad Vashem's Dictionary of the Just.
Just why and how Le Chambon and its outlying parishes came to save so many people has never been fully told. Acclaimed biographer and historian Caroline Moorehead brings to life a story of outstanding courage and determination, and of what could be done when even a small group of people came together to oppose German rule. It is an extraordinary tale of silence and complicity. In a country infamous throughout the four years of occupation for the number of denunciations to the Gestapo of Jews, resisters and escaping prisoners of war, not one single inhabitant of Le Chambon ever broke silence. The story of Le Chambon is one of a village, bound together by a code of honour, born of centuries of religious oppression. And, though it took a conspiracy of silence by the entire population, it happened because of a small number of heroic individuals, many of them women, for whom saving those hunted by the Nazis became more important than their own lives.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village of scattered houses high in the mountains of the Ardèche. Surrounded by pastures and thick forests of oak and pine, the plateau Vivarais lies in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Eastern France, cut off for long stretches of the winter by snow.
During the Second World War, the inhabitants of the area saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, freemasons, communists, downed Allied airmen and above all Jews. Many of these were children and babies, whose parents had been deported to the death camps in Poland. After the war, Le Chambon became the only village to be listed in its entirety in Yad Vashem's Dictionary of the Just.
Just why and how Le Chambon and its outlying parishes came to save so many people has never been fully told. Acclaimed biographer and historian Caroline Moorehead brings to life a story of outstanding courage and determination, and of what could be done when even a small group of people came together to oppose German rule. It is an extraordinary tale of silence and complicity. In a country infamous throughout the four years of occupation for the number of denunciations to the Gestapo of Jews, resisters and escaping prisoners of war, not one single inhabitant of Le Chambon ever broke silence. The story of Le Chambon is one of a village, bound together by a code of honour, born of centuries of religious oppression. And, though it took a conspiracy of silence by the entire population, it happened because of a small number of heroic individuals, many of them women, for whom saving those hunted by the Nazis became more important than their own lives.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.
Located in a remote mountain village in Eastern France, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon was ideally posed to hide those fleeing from the Nazis in occupied France during the Second World War. Hundreds of inhabitants risked their lives and safety of their families and homes to house strangers, many of them Jewish children and babies. The village, both due to its remote geography and its culture, was ideally posed to help hide and aid escaping individuals. Wanting no credit or thanks for their work, their story has only recently come to light, decades after the end of the war.
Unfortunately, like many histories of WWII, many of these stories related in this book are difficult to read. Jewish children from France sent to internment camps "arrived filthy, smelly, covered in sores and lice. The youngest, who could not yet speak, had labels tied to their clothes with their names on. But these were soon lost or torn off, as were the little bundles of personal items their parents had so lovingly given them, and they became numbers" (66). Their are hundreds of murders, families separated, children orphaned, babies and children starving.
Moorehead does a good job describing the circumstances that lead this village to behave the way they did, when many in France watched silently as Jews were removed from their homes and publicly ill treated. The remote location had been operating children's homes and hospitals since the summer of 1910, since its fresh air and country living was believed to help those in poor health So the area already was used to serving large groups of children. Earlier in the area's history, as early as 1685, "Louis XIV's declaration that Protestants were to be considered heretics, schematics and enemies of the state had driven tens of thousands into the mountains of central France, to join communities of earlier refugees from Catholic repression. [...] They had brought with them a spirit of resisitance, a code of strict morality and a number of underground churches" (104-105). The community was isolated, to the point where it often felt like it was "barely part of France at all. In such remoteness, there was little need to conform to others" (110).
It's estimated that the isolated plateau area was able to save hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Through the work of hundreds, and the geographic isolation that allowed the children to run into the woods to hide when the Germans appeared, many survived the war. However, in the remote village and throughout France, there were roughly 5-6,000 Jewish children made orphans by the war. One orphaned child described himself as "a suitcase of whom no one has asked their opinion" (322). I can't help but wonder what happened to the many children hidden in the plateau after the war. Some were fortunate to be reunited with parents and relatives, but I wonder about the remainder, who had no family left.
This book felt like a very slow, ponderous read to me. A good portion of the beginning of the book is devoted to describing the experiences of Jews early in the war, only getting to the remote plateau location after almost a hundred pages. Additionally, this book lacked central figures, covering instead dozens of individually very sparsely. It was difficult to remember who individual characters were and locate them within the bigger context. I felt like the author tried to take on too large a scope with this book, but would have done better to narrow the topic either by region or individuals.
Stars: 3
It's estimated that the isolated plateau area was able to save hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Through the work of hundreds, and the geographic isolation that allowed the children to run into the woods to hide when the Germans appeared, many survived the war. However, in the remote village and throughout France, there were roughly 5-6,000 Jewish children made orphans by the war. One orphaned child described himself as "a suitcase of whom no one has asked their opinion" (322). I can't help but wonder what happened to the many children hidden in the plateau after the war. Some were fortunate to be reunited with parents and relatives, but I wonder about the remainder, who had no family left.
This book felt like a very slow, ponderous read to me. A good portion of the beginning of the book is devoted to describing the experiences of Jews early in the war, only getting to the remote plateau location after almost a hundred pages. Additionally, this book lacked central figures, covering instead dozens of individually very sparsely. It was difficult to remember who individual characters were and locate them within the bigger context. I felt like the author tried to take on too large a scope with this book, but would have done better to narrow the topic either by region or individuals.
Stars: 3
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