Holocaust odysseys : the Jews of Saint-Martin-Vésubie and their flight through France and Italy

"This book describes the ever-escalating dangers to which Jewish refugees and recent immigrants were subjected in France and Italy as the Holocaust intensified. Susan Zuccotti uncovers a grueling yet complex history of suffering and resilience through historical documents and personal testimonies from members of nine Central and Eastern European Jewish families, displaced to France just before or during the first year of the Second World War. The chronicle of their lives reveals clearly that these Jewish families experienced persecution of far greater intensity than citizen Jews or long-time resident immigrants. The odyssey of the nine families took them, with about one thousand others, from hostile Vichy France to the peaceful Alpine village of Saint-Martin-Vesubie and from there, after a harrowing trek on foot over the mountains, to northern Italy. There, in September 1943, German soldiers rather than hoped-for Allied troops awaited. Those who crossed over to Italy were either arrested and deported to Auschwitz or forced to scatter in a desperate fight for survival. Zuccotti brings to light the agonies of the refugees' unstable lives, the evolution of French policies toward Jews, the reasons behind the flight from the relative idyll of Saint-Martin-Vesubie, and the choices that confronted those who arrived in Italy. Powerful archival evidence frames this history, while firsthand reports underscore the human cost of the nightmarish years of persecution."--Jacket. Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-271) and index. xv, 285 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm