"Going back to Vialas: Retracing my Family History. The Baby Must Not Cry"

Anny Bloch-Raymond is a French sociologist, born 24 May 1944, in Vialas (Cevenne), France, the daughter of Yvonne and Andre Bloch. Her family had fled from their native Alsace during the German occupation of France in 1940, seeking refuge with family members in and around Nîmes. Following the German occupation of southern France in 1942, many Jewish families from Nîmes sought refuge in country homes in the hills surrounding the city. The Bloch family moved to the nearby village of Genolhac, and then to Vialas in October 1943, where a number of villagers, including members of the Vidal family, sheltered them and other Jewish refugees. Following the liberation of Nîmes by Allied forces in August 1944, the Bloch family left Vialas. Consists of one memoir by Dr. Anny Bloch-Raymond entitled "Going back to Vialas: Retracing my Family History. The Baby Must Not Cry." In her memoir, she details her search for her own family's history and the history of Vialas, France, a predominantly Protestant village in southern France (in the departement of Lozère), whose inhabitants sheltered Jews during World War II. She describes her family's evacuation from northern France to Nîmes and life there between 1940-1944, when the family was sheltered in Vialas, and where she was born in 1944. Dr. Bloch also interviews children who were hidden in Vialas and describes the elaborate resistance network which the town used to protect those hiding there, as well as the role of the family of Elise Vidal, who were instrumental in sheltering the author's family and other persecuted Jews. Copyright Holder: Dr. Anny Bloch-Raymond