The Survival Of The Jews In France 1940 44

Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.

A renowned historian of genocide reconsiders French responses to the Nazis' attempt to exterminate France's Jewish population.

The history of France's "hidden children" and of the French citizens who saved six out of seven Jewish children and three-fourths of the Jewish adult population from deportation during the Nazi occupation is little known to American readers. In The Hidden Children of France, Danielle Bailly (a hidden child herself whose family travelled all over rural France before sending her to live with strangers who could protect her) reveals the stories behind the statistics of those who were saved by the extraordinary acts of ordinary people. Eighteen former "hidden children" describe their lives before, during, and after the war, recounting their incredible journeys and expressing their deepest gratitude to those who put themselves at risk to save others.

Anny Latour was an active member of the Jewish Resistance in France. She manufactured forged identity papers, transported arms, and smuggled children out of danger to safe havens. Out of 350,000 Jew in France, about 90,000 fell victims of the Holocaust. The toll would have been much higher had it not been for the well organized Resistance organized by the Jews along with the French Resistance. Tens of thousands of Jewish children were saved through the underground. A Jewish fighting force, the Jewish Army even defeated a German garrison at Gastres. Latour's saga of the heroic exploits, escapes, devotion and sacrifice are based on hundreds of personal accounts with survivors and eyewitnesses and research.

Like so much else that happened in France during World War II, the Nazi occupation of Paris was something entirely more complex. In 1940, when the author was three, Nazi Germany invaded France. Two years later, a roundup of Jews living in the Paris metropolitan area was staged, to deport them to concentration camps. The Jeruchim family, the author's parents, and his brother and sister, avoided arrest, but could no longer remain at home. Later, in 1949, the author and his siblings immigrated to the United States where he became an aerospace engineer and was among those at the forefront of the communication age. But he never fully came to terms with the loss he suffered early in life. Years later, his wife, Joan, a psychologist, urged him to attend the first gathering of Jewish children who had been hidden in WWII. There, the author found kindred spirits, who like him kept their traumatic childhoods inside. His journey to healing and bearing witness, unfolds in his compelling memoir.

It is generally accepted that the French government independently enacted anti-Semitic regulations during World War II. Despite the country's alignment with Nazi policies, over 75% of Jews in France survived the war. This thesis examines the relationship between the French non-Jews and the foreign Jewish population in France using the personal narratives of four survivors. In analyzing the type of help the French provided to foreign Jews, it becomes clear that the French were not as anti-Semitic as their government. Their decisive actions created a mass movement of individual resistance that helped save thousands of lives during World War II.

Describes how Jewish resistance fighters in France saved thousands with forged identity papers, sabotaged the German war effort, and fought against Nazi forces

Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.