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Not the Germans Alone: A Son's Search for the Truth of Vichy
Winner of the Prix Franco-Européen
On the eve of D-Day, Isaac Levendel's mother left her hiding place on a farm in southern France and never returned. After 40 years of silence and torment, he returned to France in 1990 determined to find out what had happened. This is the story of how, with perseverance, luck, and official help, he gained access to secret wartime documents laying bare the details of French collaboration-and the truth about his mother's fate.
On the eve of D-Day, Isaac Levendel's mother left her hiding place on a farm in southern France and never returned. After 40 years of silence and torment, he returned to France in 1990 determined to find out what had happened. This is the story of how, with perseverance, luck, and official help, he gained access to secret wartime documents laying bare the details of French collaboration-and the truth about his mother's fate.
341 pages, Paperback
Published May 21, 2001
268 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 9, 2021
This book is much like the novel Sarah's Key, because it's about the fate of French Jews during the Holocaust. The problem is, the author tries to cover too much ground. It's a heart-wrenching childhood memoir, but then it becomes a very dry historical work that compiles different documents in an attempt to figure out which French officials made which decisions and when. And it ends with the author having a series of inconclusive confrontations with various French politicians and aging Resistance fighters. It's not as raw as NIGHT by Elie Wiesel, and it's not as romantic as Sarah's Key. But I would definitely recommend it to serious students of the Holocaust
September 20, 2015
Many children in Europe lost parents in the 1940's. Isaac Levendel was one of those children. His mother disappeared from his life when he was only 7 years old. In this book he lovingly and longingly remembers his beautiful, caring, doting mother, a victim of the Auschwitz gas chambers.
Reading this story, I could feel his loss. His words convey the heartache he still feels, so many decades later. In his quest for truth, he discovers that Vichy France, collaborating with the Nazi's, is responsible for his mother's arrest, deportation, and death. It is the French people; neighbors, civil servants, anti-Semites, who assisted in delivering his mother and other Jews to the Gestapo. His investigation reveals the Vichy government members who are directly responsible for his mother's death. He is a son whose mother was ripped from his life. He is angry. Reading this, my chest would tighten, and I would cry. It is impossible to read without shedding tears. He has exposed his mother's murderers. He has identified them by name.
He honors the families who helped keep him safe following his mother's disappearance. He gratefully reveals their names and expresses his appreciation for the kindness and goodness they showed him. He knows how fortunate he was to have these good, special people as his caretakers.
His accounting of events and extensive research forces me to wonder what my actions would have been if I had found myself living in Avignon in the 40's. Would I have hunted the Jews or would I have harbored them, protected them? If I had been a civil servant, would I have quit my job instead of helping the Gestapo? Would I have joined the Resistance? History repeats itself. No child should ever again experience the trauma experienced by Isaac. His search for the truth pays tribute to the memory of his mother while implicating those who were instrumental in her death. I believe his mother would be proud of him.
Reading this story, I could feel his loss. His words convey the heartache he still feels, so many decades later. In his quest for truth, he discovers that Vichy France, collaborating with the Nazi's, is responsible for his mother's arrest, deportation, and death. It is the French people; neighbors, civil servants, anti-Semites, who assisted in delivering his mother and other Jews to the Gestapo. His investigation reveals the Vichy government members who are directly responsible for his mother's death. He is a son whose mother was ripped from his life. He is angry. Reading this, my chest would tighten, and I would cry. It is impossible to read without shedding tears. He has exposed his mother's murderers. He has identified them by name.
He honors the families who helped keep him safe following his mother's disappearance. He gratefully reveals their names and expresses his appreciation for the kindness and goodness they showed him. He knows how fortunate he was to have these good, special people as his caretakers.
His accounting of events and extensive research forces me to wonder what my actions would have been if I had found myself living in Avignon in the 40's. Would I have hunted the Jews or would I have harbored them, protected them? If I had been a civil servant, would I have quit my job instead of helping the Gestapo? Would I have joined the Resistance? History repeats itself. No child should ever again experience the trauma experienced by Isaac. His search for the truth pays tribute to the memory of his mother while implicating those who were instrumental in her death. I believe his mother would be proud of him.
December 11, 2016
Extremely moving and objectively critical of the time, legislation, and experiences both he and his family endured. A necessary read for an examination of the Collaboration or Accommodation debate.
** This work IS cited. However, it is a primary source in which the victim did historical research.
** This work IS cited. However, it is a primary source in which the victim did historical research.
March 10, 2022
Not the Germans Alone by Isaac Levendel tells the story of one family destroyed by the Nazis, with Vichy French collaboration. The author's research demonstrates two things that stuck with me--the continued lack of interest and compassion amongst the French bureaucracy in assisting survivors and research into this time period, and the degree of Vichy collaboration, which at times went above and beyond the demands of the Nazis. It was frightening how quickly people will use opportunities like this to settle old scores and hatreds. On the other hand, it was heartening to see average French citizens helping the Jews and others being hunted, whether by turning a blind eye to something, or by taking the ultimate risk to themselves and hiding them.
September 13, 2019
Startling book about French deportation of 'foreign' Jews. An interesting tale of a man's search for what happened to his Jewish mother in the free zone of France during WW2.
March 1, 2010
More on my Holocaust binge - I am fascinated by Vichy France and all the contradictions that implies. How could you collaborate with Nazis and justify it? This story is a Jewish man's search for the murderers of his mother in 1944 France. He paints a great picture of wartime France and then abruptly shifts into his modern day pursuit of the truth in French archives. Made me very interested in current French efforts to come to grip with their past.
October 6, 2008
Granted, I met the writer while travelingg from NY to Chicago, so this personal story might have hit home more than normal, but this is a terrifying story of French complicity in the holocaust. Very educational and moving.
July 31, 2010
A touching and tragic story of a son's quest to learn of his mother's fate during WWII. Essential read for anyone who wants to learn more about France's role in the deportation of it's jews.
November 28, 2011
I wanted a book more focused on the actions of the Vichy governement and this is really more one man's terrifically sad story about losing his mother in the camps and how his life is impacted by it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews