Saturday 10 January 2015


I started this over Christmas, not the most festive choice of reading but fascinating. It tells the story of a  cluster of remote villages, on an inaccessible plateau of the Massif Central, that saved hundreds of Jewish children from deportation during the Nazi occupation. It was a heavily Protestant area, with a long tradition of discretion and silence. It was also, since long before the war, well known for its children's homes and pensions catering for needy and abandoned children in the clean mountain air.
The beginning chapters are particularly shocking, chronicling the appalling collaboration of the Vichy regime; more than collaboration, it was wholehearted participation that went over and beyond the demands of the Germans. This is the story - a story with many grey areas, of course - of ordinary, decent, courageous people who wanted no part of it.

6 comments:

Miranda | Miranda's Notebook said...

I hadn't heard of this before, but it sounds a fascinating read! One to add to my (ever growing) TBR pile! xx

mary said...

Yes, those piles keep growing. My resolution is to read one at a time and finish rather than three at once!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this review. One to add to my TBR pile as well. Btw have you read "Marianne in Chains" by Robert Gildea - a different area of France but some very telling insights into life in WW2.

mary said...

I haven't - and I've just googled it and it sounds very interesting.

Ann said...

I got this book from the library two months or so ago but then decided to read the first in the trilogy 'A Train in Winter'. While it is a grim story it is remarkably well told. I will come back to 'Village of Secrets'. Over Christmas I read 'Hanns and Rudolph' by Thomas Harding which is another grim story but I can't recommend the book highly enough. For light relief I then turned to Dorothy Whipple 'Because of the Lockwoods'!

mary said...

Hello, Ann. I was also tempted by A Train in Winter (I didn't realise it's a trilogy, so I've started with the wrong one - but it does stand up on its own.) Like you, I've gone for light relief for my current read! You can only take so much at a time.