From Vichy to Jerusalem

Jacques Lévi intended the manuscript of this book simply to be nothing a gift of memories to his 3 sons and their families. Thankfully, he took the comments of some early readers to hear, that his life story might "resonate with others"…, with a wider audience. This story begins with Germany poised to annihilate its own and all European Jewry. Germany invades Poland in 1939, France and the Low Countries by May, 1940. World War II is underway, and the Holocaust is coming. The Vichy regime forms in southern France in July, immediately passing anti-Semitic laws that send the family into hiding. Jacques Lévi weaves his parents written and oral recollections and his child's-eye memories into an intimate, honest, compelling memoir of the war years, his coming of age and passage to adulthood. His is as much a spiritual journey as a passage from fear and terror to salvation and to a life well lived.