Features biographical information about 11,400 French children who were deported from France to the Nazi death camps, including their names, faces, and addresses.

Moussa Abadi and Odette Rosenstock, after becoming trapped in Nazi-occupied Paris, formed the Marcel Network, which was able to shelter over five hundred Jewish children in Catholic schools and convents and with Protestant families during World War II.

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.

At the start of World War II, Gisele Naichouler Feldman was separated from her family. Although this was not the first time, this separation would prove to be life saving. Through the help of many people, now known as the Righteous, Gisele would find herself at the steps of a great castle once owned by French freedom fighter, General Lafayette, as a Hidden Child. Instructed to forget her Jewish heritage and pretend to be Catholic, Gisele would spend two and a half years within the castle walls hidden from the outside terrors that the Nazi's inflicted upon Europe. Saved by the Spirit of Lafayette tells of many Hidden Children accounts and takes the opportunity to thank all of those who earned the right to be called the Righteous. Book jacket.

One of the untold stories of the Holocaust—the nail-biting drama of Suzanne Spaak, who risked and gave her life to save hundreds of Jewish children from deportation from Nazi Paris to Auschwitz “vividly dramatizes the stakes of acting morally in a time of brutality” (The Wall Street Journal). Suzanne Spaak was born into the Belgian Catholic elite and married into the country’s leading political family. Her brother-in-law was the Foreign Minister and her husband Claude was a playwright and patron of the painter Renée Magritte. In Paris in the late 1930s her friendship with a Polish Jewish refugee led her to her life’s purpose. When France fell and the Nazis occupied Paris, she joined the Resistance. She used her fortune and social status to enlist allies among wealthy Parisians and church groups. Then, under the eyes of the Gestapo, Suzanne and women from the Jewish and Christian resistance groups “kidnapped” hundreds of Jewish children to save them from the gas chambers. Suzanne’s Children is the “dogged…page-turning account” (Kirkus Reviews) of this incredible story of courage in the face of evil. “Anne Nelson is superb at showing the upheavals in Europe since WWI through vivid, illuminating details…and she also masterfully describes the incremental changes in the Jews’ plight under the Occupation” (Booklist). It was during the final year of the Occupation when Suzanne was caught in the Gestapo dragnet that was pursuing a Soviet agent she had aided. She was executed shortly before the liberation of Paris. Suzanne Spaak is honored in Israel as one of the Righteous Among Nations. Nelson’s “heartfelt story is almost a model for how popular history should be written; it will satisfy lovers of history, Jewish history in particular” (Library Journal).

In Nazi-occupied France in 1941, four-year-old Ruth Kapp learns that it is dangerous to use her own name. "Remember," her older cousin Jeannette warns her, "your name is Renee and you are French!" A deeply personal book, this true story recounts the chilling experiences of a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. The Kapp family flees one home after another, helped by simple, ordinary people from the French countryside who risk their lives to protect them. Eventually the family is forced to separate, and young Ruth survives the war in an orphanage where she is not allowed to see or even mention her parents. Without the trappings of lofty language or the faceless perspective of history, this first-person account poignantly recreates the terror of war seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Your Name Is Renee is a tale of suffering and redemption, fear and hope, which is bound to stir even the most hardened heart.

Drawing on the extensive memoir literature of Jews who survived the Nazi period in France, Zuccotti paints a collective portrait of the victims, of those who tried to help them, of those who persecuted them and of the vast majority of French people who looked the other way. Zuccotti concludes that “benign neglect, vague goodwill, and, occasionally, active support” helped three-quarters of French Jews survive, while almost half of foreign-born Jews living under Nazi occupation or in the Vichy government “free” zone were sent to extermination camps with the active help of the French authorities. “Valuable and lucid. [...] Susan Zucccotti's book is admirable in many important ways.” — Patrice Higonnet, New York Times Book Review “Ms. Zuccotti combines vivid narrative with the most scrupulous historical accuracy. It is good to be able to enter the helpful gestures of many French individuals into the scales against the unspeakable actions of many Vichy officials and zealots.” — Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor of the Social Sciences, Columbia University, author ofVichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 “Dr. Zuccotti’s book, admirably balanced and free of bias, is a rich and compassionate study of the plight of Jews in France during World War II.” — Léon Poliakov, Honorary Director of Research, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) “In a vividly narrated reexamination of the historical record, Zuccotti tells the horrifying story of the fate of French Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators. [...] A balanced yet heartrending contribution to Holocaust literature.” —Kirkus Review “Zuccotti forces us to rethink the French response to the Holocaust in this challenging book” — Publishers Weekly “By use of precise examples, Zuccotti is able to illustrate the human side and contribute to a new understanding of [the fate of France’s Jewish population during World War II]” — American Historical Review “Ms. Zuccotti finds France to be a nation which, in time of crisis, showed itself to be made up of a handful of villains, a few magnificent heroes and a vast assortment of the cowardly, the apathetic and the self-serving.” — Forward “Zuccotti presents the most comprehensive account of the Holocaust in France available to the English reader.” — Paula Hyman, Yale University, Journal of Interdisciplinary History “An excellent narrative.” — Choice, American Library Association “Zuccotti has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust in France. Above all, she has illuminated in fascinating detail the extraordinary range of organizational and individual responses.” — Journal of Modern History “Zuccotti’s account investigates the popular responses of the French to the measures offered and implemented by [Vichy] officials... an essential tool for gaining a more complete understanding of Vichy France and the Holocaust” — Anne Higgins,University of Vermont History Review “This is an important work of 20th-century history. It is admirably researched, but remains lucid. It is, of necessity, sometimes harrowing, but illuminates moments of selfless heroism. Above all, it details a period of French history which has for too long been known to foreigners in only the broadest outlines... This is a valuable book deserving a wide readership.” — Morning Star “[Zuccotti’s] book is replete with personal histories and memories, culled from a very wide reading in the growing library of autobiographies, memoirs, and monographs dealing with this period.” — Tony Judt, New York Review of Books