French Railway Workers and the Question of Rescue During the Holocaust

Broch, L. 2015. French Railway Workers and the Question of Rescue During the Holocaust. Diasporas. 25 (2015), pp. 147-167. https://doi.org/10.4000/diasporas.379

TitleFrench Railway Workers and the Question of Rescue During the Holocaust
TypeJournal article
AuthorsBroch, L.
Abstract

Only one French railway worker has been honoured as a Righteous Amongst the Nations for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. But to what extent can one reduce the history of railwaymen, rescue and the deportations in Vichy France to this single incident? This article reveals the more complicated history of the Jewish but also non-Jewish deportation trains, and how it intersected with the history of the cheminots and of rescue operations between 1940 and 1944. Without aggrandizing the actions of the cheminots themselves, it seeks to rectify simplistic assumptions that cheminots failed to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.

JournalDiasporas
Journal citation25 (2015), pp. 147-167
ISSN2431-1472
Year2015
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.4000/diasporas.379
Publication dates
Published01 Sep 2015
LicenseCC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Related outputs

Moving objects: French history and the study of material culture
Broch, L., Pooley, W.G. and Smith, A.W.M. 2023. Moving objects: French history and the study of material culture. French History. 37 (4), pp. 345-356. https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crad051

Book review: Escapees. The history of Jews who fled Nazi deportation trains in France, Belgium and the Netherlands by Tanja von Fransecky, translated by Benjamin Liebelt, New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, 314pp., $135.00/£99.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-78533-886-1; German railways, Jewish souls: the Reichsbahn, bureaucracy and the final solution, by Christopher R. Browning, Peter Hayes and Raul Hilberg, New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, 164pp., $149.00/£110.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-78920-275-5
Broch, Ludivine 2023. Book review: Escapees. The history of Jews who fled Nazi deportation trains in France, Belgium and the Netherlands by Tanja von Fransecky, translated by Benjamin Liebelt, New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, 314pp., $135.00/£99.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-78533-886-1; German railways, Jewish souls: the Reichsbahn, bureaucracy and the final solution, by Christopher R. Browning, Peter Hayes and Raul Hilberg, New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, 164pp., $149.00/£110.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-78920-275-5. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 22 (2), pp. 227-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2022.2103655

Review of Sandra Ott, Living with the Enemy: German Occupation, Collaboration, and Justice in the Western Pyrenees, 1940–1948 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
Broch, L. 2019. Review of Sandra Ott, Living with the Enemy: German Occupation, Collaboration, and Justice in the Western Pyrenees, 1940–1948 (Cambridge University Press, 2017) . The Journal of Modern History. 91 (1), pp. 194-195. https://doi.org/10.1086/701555

Colonial Subjects and Citizens in the French Internal Resistance, 1940-1944
Broch, L. 2019. Colonial Subjects and Citizens in the French Internal Resistance, 1940-1944. French Politics, Culture and Society. 37 (1), pp. 6-31. https://doi.org/10.3167/fpcs.2019.370102

Review of Sarah Fishman, From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution: Gender and Family Life in Postwar France (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)
Broch, L. 2018. Review of Sarah Fishman, From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution: Gender and Family Life in Postwar France (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). Gender & History. 30 (1), pp. 286-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12346

The SNCF affair: trains, the Holocaust and divided memories of Vichy France
Broch, L. 2017. The SNCF affair: trains, the Holocaust and divided memories of Vichy France. in: Lower, W. and Faulkner Rossi, L. (ed.) Lessons and Legacies XII: New Directions in Holocaust Research and Education Northwestern University Press.

Les cheminots, Vichy et la Shoah: Des travailleurs ordinaires
Broch, L. 2016. Les cheminots, Vichy et la Shoah: Des travailleurs ordinaires. Tallandier.

Ordinary Workers, Vichy and the Holocaust: French Railwaymen and the Second World War
Broch, L. 2016. Ordinary Workers, Vichy and the Holocaust: French Railwaymen and the Second World War. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.

Martyred towns at the liberation: the case of the Massacre d’Ascq
Broch, L. 2014. Martyred towns at the liberation: the case of the Massacre d’Ascq. in: Broch, L. and Carrol, A. (ed.) France in an era of global war, 1914-1945: occupation, politics, empire and entanglements London Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 50-72

Book review: Sudhir Hazareesingh 'In the shadow of the general: modern France and the myth of De Gaulle'
Broch, L. 2014. Book review: Sudhir Hazareesingh 'In the shadow of the general: modern France and the myth of De Gaulle'. European History Quarterly. 44 (2), pp. 335-337. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265691414524528t

Professionalism in the final solution: French railway workers and the Jewish deportations, 1942–4
Broch, L. 2014. Professionalism in the final solution: French railway workers and the Jewish deportations, 1942–4. Contemporary European History. 23 (3), pp. 359-380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0960777314000186

Book review: The Routledge history of the Holocaust, ed. Jonathan C. Friedman
Broch, L. 2013. Book review: The Routledge history of the Holocaust, ed. Jonathan C. Friedman. The English Historical Review. 128 (530), pp. 212-214. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ces366

Book review: Barjonet, Aurélie and Liran Razinsky (Eds.), Writing the Holocaust today: critical perspectives on Jonathan Littell's 'The kindly ones'
Broch, L. 2013. Book review: Barjonet, Aurélie and Liran Razinsky (Eds.), Writing the Holocaust today: critical perspectives on Jonathan Littell's 'The kindly ones'. Modern and Contemporary France. 21 (4), pp. 560-561. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2013.822357

Book review: Jean-Pierre Renouard, My stripes were earned in hell
Broch, L. 2012. Book review: Jean-Pierre Renouard, My stripes were earned in hell. Modern and Contemporary France. 20 (4), pp. 519-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2012.718173

Book review: Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Sarah Gensburger, Nazi labour camps in Paris: Austerlitz, Lévitan, Bassano, July 1943–August 1944
Broch, L. 2012. Book review: Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Sarah Gensburger, Nazi labour camps in Paris: Austerlitz, Lévitan, Bassano, July 1943–August 1944. Modern and Contemporary France. 20 (2), pp. 257-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2012.657026

Book review: The resistance: the French fight against the Nazis by Matthew Cobb
Broch, L. 2011. Book review: The resistance: the French fight against the Nazis by Matthew Cobb. French History. 25 (1), pp. 127-129. https://doi.org/10.1093/fh/crr007

Book review: Jan Karski, Story of a secret state
Broch, L. 2011. Book review: Jan Karski, Story of a secret state. Jewish Quarterly. 58 (2), pp. 78-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/0449010X.2011.10707138

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/9w4y5/french-railway-workers-and-the-question-of-rescue-during-the-holocaust


Share this

Usage statistics

129 total views
224 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.