This saw the start of the formation of deep friendship among the women-women separated by age, which ranged from seventeen to sixty-seven, as well as their education level, class, and profession, who were compelled by shared stories and similar losses.

The killing at Chateaubriand in October 1941, which saw the slaughter of twenty-seven Frenchmen, was only one among several.īeginning in 1942, in different parts of the country, women of the resistance began to be rounded up and delivered to La Santé prison in Paris, where they would be tortured, and then, they would be taken to Romainville, a military fort where several of the women witnessed their lovers’ and husbands’ executions by firing squad.

Aided by the French police, the Nazis issued mass retaliation for killings of German officials and soldiers, typically murdering ten French citizens for each German victim. Ultimately, France’s Special Brigades would tenaciously pursue those the Nazis considered undesirable, a long and inclusive list. Moorehead observes that French collaboration with the Nazis was widespread, particularly among the police, who were incentivized with improved pay and various other privileges. The first half of the book is devoted to setting the scene in France, in which women involved themselves in the early stages of the resistance as the Nazi grip tightened around the country and its brutality increased. Through the power of friendship, the courageous women sacrificed everything to battle against the march of evil taking place across the world. Moorehead, a biographer and human rights journalist, relays the women’s tale-a journey filled with fear, bravery, and survival. A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France (2011) by Caroline Moorehead tells the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were sent to the death camps by the Nazis who occupied their country in January 1943.

A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead