The Little Yellow Train: Survival and Escape from Nazi France

by Alain F. Corcos

Between 1940 and 1944, when Alain Corcos was a teenager, the Germans systematically plundered the French countryside to feed their own armed forces and civilians. Both the Nazis and the fascist Vichy government forced everyone with "Jewish blood" to register as Jews, condemning those who complied to death in concentration camps. The Little Yellow Train chronicles the years of occupation in France, describing the Corcos family's struggles to survive. In addition to finding enough food to sustain themselves, they needed to forge records and identification cards in order to conceal the fact that some of their ancestors were Jewish. When the SS began kidnapping young French men and women to work in German factories, the author and his brother decided that the time had come to escape and join the Allied forces overseas...

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Amie Kovitvongsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a nostalgic look at the author's memories of growing up in the Côte d'Azur, to the terrifying years of German Nazi power, to an account of he and his brother's escape from France. Alongside a concise overview of the history of WWII, Dr. Alain Corcos relates the story of his family and their survival during the years of the fascist Vichy government and the German-Italian occupation of their country.
In his conversational style, the author shares his insight of the social, political, and economic conditions during the war as they evolved, and he and his family's responses to the resulting repression and persecution, leading ultimately to their escape through the mountains into Spain. As the reader shares in his telling of the events he encountered and his reflections on their meaning and significance, the warmth and humanity of the author is revealed, making the book eminently readable.