Between Vichy, the OSE, Le Chambon, and Switzerland

French Jewish children under the Vichy Regime are invaluable to historians. The detention camps, rescue operations, rescuers, and smuggling into Switzerland were very common experiences, yet one that is usually pushed away in research to focus on concentration camp victims. Even though their stories are different, it is incredibly important to learn and understand these survivors’ experiences, as most Holocaust research relies on them. This paper uses specific examples of the journey that thousands of French children went on. This includes necessary information on the unique situation in France, the Gurs detention camp, the OSE (the French Children’s Aid Society), the village of Le Chambon, and the illegal smuggling into Switzerland. These are only the more widely known, extreme examples of rescue and hiding so that one can make sense of the smaller-scale versions that occurred all over the world. Although thousands of children were saved, their suffering aids in the ongoing discussion of the Holocaust and its effects, which historians would never understand without learning of the journeys of these rescued, French Jewish children.