Sign-In
Cart
Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France
Paperback
Series: Resistance Quartet, Book 2
French HistoryGeneral World HistoryHolocaust
ISBN13: 9780062202482
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: Oct 27 2015
Pages: 400
Weight: 0.65
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.30 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Le Chambon has long been mythologized in France for the actions of its inhabitants. . . . But, as this riveting history shows, the story is more complex. . . . If the picture Moorhead paints is messier than the myth, this only serves to enhance the heroism of the main actors.-- The New Yorker
From the author of the New York Times bestseller A Train in Winter comes the absorbing story of a French village that helped save thousands hunted by the Gestapo during World War II--told in full for the first time.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village of scattered houses high in the mountains of the Ardèche, one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Eastern France. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of this tiny mountain village and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, freemasons, communists, OSS and SOE agents, and Jews. Many of those they protected were orphaned children and babies whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.
With unprecedented access to newly opened archives in France, Britain, and Germany, and interviews with some of the villagers from the period who are still alive, Caroline Moorehead paints an inspiring portrait of courage and determination: of what was accomplished when a small group of people banded together to oppose their Nazi occupiers. A thrilling and atmospheric tale of silence and complicity, Village of Secrets reveals how every one of the inhabitants of Chambon remained silent in a country infamous for collaboration. Yet it is also a story about mythmaking, and the fallibility of memory.
A major contribution to WWII history, illustrated with black-and-white photos, Village of Secrets sets the record straight about the events in Chambon, and pays tribute to a group of heroic individuals, most of them women, for whom saving others became more important than their own lives.
- A Hidden History of the Holocaust: Go beyond the myth of Le Chambon to discover the more complex, and more heroic, true story of how its people saved thousands from the Gestapo, based on newly opened archives and survivor interviews.
- The Secret Rescue Network: Uncover the web of pastors, farmers, teachers, and doctors--many of them women--who risked everything to shelter Jewish children, Allied agents, and political refugees from the Nazis.
- A Village Against Vichy: Witness the gripping tale of silence and defiance, as an entire community stood against the collaborationist French government in a country infamous for betrayal.
- Righteous Among the Nations: A deeply moving tribute to the ordinary men and women who, guided by faith and conscience, chose to save others at a time when it was more dangerous than anything else.
1 different editions
Also available
Also in
French History
Art of the Defeat: France 1940-1944
Laurence Bertrand Dorleac (author)
Jane Marie Todd (translator)
Hardcover
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Paperback
The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
Young, Michelle
Hardcover
Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
Kladstrup, Donald
Kladstrup, Petie
Paperback
The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris
Mazzeo, Tilar J.
Paperback
The Dark Side of France: A History of the French Far Right from the 1890s to the Present
O'Doherty, Enda
Hardcover
The First Emancipation: The Forgotten History of Abolition in Revolutionary France
Popkin, Jeremy D.
Hardcover
The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
Young, Michelle
Paperback
Josephine Baker's Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom
Diamond, Hanna
Hardcover
A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France
Moorehead, Caroline
Paperback
Beyond the Ocean: France and the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions
Rushforth, Brett
Hodson, Christopher
Hardcover
A Bite-Sized History of France: Gastronomic Tales of Revolution, War, and Enlightenment
Mitchell, Jeni
Hénaut, Stéphane
Paperback
The Last Empress of France: The Rebellious Life of Eugénie de Montijo
Kladstrup, Petie
Resnick, Evelyne
Hardcover
The People's Justice: Revolutionary Law and the Founding of the French Republic
Hesse, Carla
Hardcover
The Leopard in the Garden: Animal and Human Lives in Paris at the First Public Zoo of the Modern Era
Burkhardt, Richard W., Jr.
Hardcover
The Napoleonic Wars: An Enthralling Guide to Global Conflict, Revolutionary Tactics, and the Empire's Expansion
Wellman, Billy
Hardcover
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918
Barthas, Louis
Paperback
And There Was Light: The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II
Lusseyran, Jacques
Paperback
From Occupation to Integration: Recivilizing the French Zone of Post-Nazi Germany, 1945-1955
Flanagan, Drew
Hardcover
The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
Bell, David A.
Paperback
Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour Du Pin, Eyewitness to an Era
Moorehead, Caroline
Paperback
Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment
Bodanis, David
Paperback
Devil's Guard: The Fascinating, True Story of the French Foreign Legion's Nazi Battalion
Elford, George R.
Paperback
Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris; June 6 - Aug. 5, 1944; Revised
Keegan, John
Paperback
From Ancient Gaul to Canada: A Trip Through the Enchanting History of French Canadians
Kish, Dennis
Paperback
Who Will Rescue Us?: The Story of the Jewish Children Who Fled to France and America During the Holocaust
Hobson Faure, Laura
Hardcover
Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly
Paperback
The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon
Whitaker, Robert
Paperback
City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris
Tucker, Holly
Paperback
Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People
Herring, Emily
Hardcover
Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812: Complete and Unabridged (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)
Bonaparte, Napoleon
Paperback
The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940
Shirer, William L.
Paperback
A Good Place to Hide: How One French Community Saved Thousands of Lives in World War II
Grose, Peter
Paperback
Matriarchal Societies of the Past and the Rise of Patriarchy: West Asia and Europe
Goettner-Abendroth, Heide
Hardcover
French Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the French Revolution, the Life of Marie Antoinette and the Impact Made by Napoleon Bonaparte
History, Captivating
Hardcover
A Protestant Air: Gide, Sartre, Barthes, and the Religion of Literary Modernity
Fauré-Bellaïche, Clémentine
Paperback
The Story of Modern France: The Kings, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the Establishment of Democracy and Liberty
Guerber, Hélène Adeline
Paperback