“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.
Caroline Moorehead is the New York Times bestselling author of the Resistance Quartet, which includes A Bold and Dangerous Family, Village of Secrets, and A Train in Winter, as well as Human Cargo, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. An acclaimed biographer, she has written for the New York Review of Books, The Guardian, and The Independent. She lives in London and Italy.
Table of Contents
Principal characters 1
Chronology 3
Maps 7
Foreword 9
Part 1 Escaping
Chapter 1 Mea culpa 15
Chapter 2 The camps of shame 35
Chapter 3 Deportation fever 59
Chapter 4 A national disgrace 75
Part 2 Arriving
Chapter 5 Walking near the Lord 93
Chapter 6 A pure spirit 112
Chapter 7 On Vichy's map 129
Chapter 8 Rats in a trap 151
Chapter 9 An open pen of chickens 171
Chapter 10 A lethal year 190
Chapter 11 An unknown and unknowable oblivion 207
Chapter 12 Crossing the border 222
Chapter 13 Living on a volcano 235
Chapter 14 Whatever else we do, we must save the children 251
Jacqueline Holland’s first novel, The God of Endings, is a sensational story we can’t stop raving about — perfect for fans of The Historian and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. With brilliant prose and a deep exploration of whether life is a gift or a curse, you’ll lose yourself in this suspenseful story that will linger in your heart for as long as Collette LeSange is alive. Keep reading for a Q&A with Jacqueline Holland about writing, art, and culture!
