Suggested Further Reading

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Relatively few English language sources address the smuggling of Jewish children from France into Switzerland during the war. Here are a few books that you might find of interest.

 

My book gives an historical overview of the circumstances that gave rise to the formation of operations on the part of OSE and the MJS. It provides very detailed information on the convoys that the MJS organized and passed across the border in the summer and fall of 1943, including the names of all those who comprised the groups.

 

Lefenfeld, Nancy, The Fate of Others; Rescuing Jewish Children on the French-Swiss Border. Maryland: Timbrel Press, 2013. Translated by Lucienne Latour-Zederman and published as Le sort des autres: Le sauvetage des enfants juifs à la frontère franco-suisse. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2016.

 

Here are two excellent memoirs written by child survivors who were smuggled across the border by members of the MJS in the fall of 1943: 

 

Bikales, Gerda. Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, Inc., 2004.

 

Panczer, André. Je suis ne dans l'Faubourg St. D'nis: Odyssée d'un enfant de la Shoah. Paris: Les Éditions de I'Officine, 2022. Translated by Nancy Lefenfeld as I was born on St. D'nis Street: The Odyssey of a Child of the Shoah. Paris, Les Éditions de l'Officine, scheduled to appear in spring 2026.

 

The following book speaks to the evolution of Swiss policies regarding the acceptance or refoulement of Jews who entered the country illegally in light of prevailing political considerations and social realities.

 

Häsler, Alfred A. Das Boot ist voll… Zürich: Stuttgart, Fretz & Wasmuth, 1967. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann and published as The Lifeboat is Full: Switzerland and the Refugees, 1933–1945. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969.

 

In 1987, Lucien Lazare published an excellent book on how Jews helped themselves and one another in France during the Shoah. The English translation of the book appeared in 1996. As part of a broad overview of rescue and resistance activities, it briefly addresses the smuggling of children into Switzerland.

 

Lazare, Lucien. La résistance juive en France. Paris: Editions Stock, 1987. Translated by Jeffrey M. Green and published as Rescue as Resistance: How Jewish Organizations Fought the Holocaust in France. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.   

 

For any English reader seeking to understand what life was like for Jews living in France under the Occupation and how the situation evolved over time, the following book is a wonderful resource to have. 

 

Poznanski, Renée, Les Juifs en France pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Hachette, 1994. Translated by Nathan Bracher and published as Jews in France during World War II. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2001. 

 

This is the best book that I ever read concerning the Italian Occupation of southeast France in 1942 – 43.

 

Carpi, Daniel. Between Mussolini and Hitler: The Jews and the Italian Authorities in France and Tunisia. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1994.