Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

For the small village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, World War II was both a terrifying and exhilarating time. Living in the remote mountainous region of eastern France, the village's historically Huguenot population was not unfamiliar with religious persecution. When the dispossessed of Europe—including Jewish refugees and orphans, as well as escaping prisoners of war and French Resistance fighters—began, in 1942, to find their way to Le Chambon and its environs, they found protection and safety from Nazi capture. Protestant pastors and villagers provided fugitives with shelter, schooling, food, false identities, secure hiding places, and occasional escape to Switzerland. Because of its extraordinary bravery, the village is recognized by Yad Vashem, the World Center for Holocaust Research, as one of their "Righteous Among Nations." Based on interviews with survivors and relatives and extensive archival research, activist Morehead (A Train in Winter) skillfully describes both the "felicitous combination of timing, place and people" in addition to the myth that has grown up around the events that took place there.