Hunting Down the Jews Vichy, the Nazis, and Mafia Collaborators in Provence, 1942-1944

Germany invaded southern France in November 1942 and the German police made abundant use of freelance Jew hunters, who eagerly seized the opportunity. The details of Nazi and Vichy anti-Semitic policy and the mechanisms of collaboration with its Mafia component have never been analysed with such accuracy. Sarah Lewendel, a Jewish woman originally from Poland, disappeared in the vortex of the Nazi extermination machine on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Her son has lived with this tragedy for over 65 years and has carefully reconstructed the history of the Holocaust in Provence, the Vaucluse, and its main city, Avignon. About the Authors Isaac Levendel was born in Avignon, France, in 1936 and is the author of Not the Germans Alone. He is a software engineer and lives in Chicago, IL. Bernard Weisz was born in Marseille, France, in 1946. He is a teacher and journalist and lives in Avignon, France.