The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

This is a powerful historical fiction that reveals a likely largely unknown resistance effort carried on in Southern France in the Vichy area, at first a free zone from German occupancy but then the Germans take over this area as well. Residents are hiding Jewish children, a few people skillfully forge identification papers, others are transporting Jews to Switzerland. These brave resistors put their lives in danger to try to protect and rescue victims of the German genocide. The main character, a young Jewish woman who flees Paris with her mother after the French Police arrest her father, originally intended to get herself and her mother to Switzerland but the local resistance movement recruits her because of her skill in document forgery to help others. The story told in two time periods when the main character is an older woman who takes off to Berlin to take care of something important to her, and as the young person who lives in constant danger as she works around the clock to produce vital documentation. The narrative is well written, drawing the reader into the scary time of resistance, imparting both the fear and the dedication these people embraced as they resisted the Germans and even some French citizens who often for greed supported the German occupiers.