Synopses & Reviews
Review
andldquo;A valuable addition to the field of Holocaust history that provides solid institutional information along with dramatic, poignant, heart-rendering tales of rescue and survival.andrdquo;andmdash;Susan Zuccotti, author of The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews
Review
andldquo;This testimony by Vivette Samuel is important not only because she describes dramatic events that took place during the occupation of France but also because she brings to light insufficiently known facts about an organizationandmdash;the andOElig;uvre de secours aux enfants (OSE)andmdash;whose devotion to human causes does honor to humanity. I confess that I read this book with a great deal of emotion, because I owe so much to the OSE. It was the OSE that, in June 1945, took charge of the four hundred andlsquo;children of Buchenwald,andrsquo; [including me].andrdquo;andmdash;Elie Wiesel, winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
Synopsis
Rescuing the Children is the memoir of Vivette Samuel, who at age twenty-two began working for the andOElig;uvre de secours aux enfants (OSE, or Society for Assistance to Children). The OSE and similar organizations saved 86 percent of Jewish children in France from deportation to Nazi concentration and extermination camps.
About the Author
Vivette Samuel had a long career in social work and lived in Paris, France. Charles B. Paul, a historian, is professor emeritus in the humanities department at San Josandeacute; State University. He was among the children rescued by the OSE.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Foreword: Rescue the Childrenandmdash;but the Others?
A Reminiscence
Introduction
1 Odessa to Paris
2 War, Exodus, and Occupation
3 To Be Committed at the Age of Twenty
4 Rivesaltes: Behind the Barbed Wire
5 At the Time of the Deportations
6 The Hunt for the Children
7 Going Underground
8 Coming Out of the War
9 Fifty Years Later
10 Children's Odysseys
Appendix 1: What Happened to Them?
Appendix 2: Some Numbers
Appendix 3: Chronology
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index