Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

High up in the mountains of the southern Massif Central in France lie tiny, remote villages united by a long and particular history. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and above all Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.

Just why and how Le Chambon and its outlying villages came to save so many people has never been ful…