Who Will Rescue Us?

Laura Hobson Faure is professor of modern history and chair of Modern Jewish History at Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne. She’s an expert on French-American Jewish history and the author of The “Jewish Marshall Plan”: The American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France.

“[A] wrenching study. . . . Faure . . . diligently chronicles the intricate negotiations that humanitarian groups conducted . . . about the number of American visas and ship passages available for the endangered minors in France.”—Diane Cole, Wall Street Journal“Deeply mov­ing and com­pre­hen­sive. . . . The warmth and depth of the writ­ing invite in read­ers of all lev­els and make the mate­r­i­al acces­si­ble to both schol­ar­ly researchers and lay read­ers.”—Lin­da F. Burghardt, Jewish Review of Books“Hobson Faure has given us an in-depth and impressively researched account of the Jewish children who fled to France and America during the Holocaust. She is to be congratulated on her persistence, focus, dedication and original scholarship that have ensured a significant and substantive contribution to Holocaust studies.”—Anne Sarzin, J-Wire“Ground-breaking.”—Bruce Thompson, Methodist Recorder“Hobson Faure offers a meticulously researched account that both broadens and deepens our understanding of child rescue during the Holocaust.”—Niamh Hanrahan, Holocaust Studies“Who Will Rescue Us? is provocative not only because it raises the question of who saved Jewish children, but also because it prompts us to reconsider the meaning of rescue.”—Barnabas Balint, Jewish Culture and HistoryFinalist for the National Jewish Book Award, Writing Based on Archival Material category, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council Finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize 2026“Meticulously researched and warmly empathetic, Who Will Rescue Us? goes straight to the reader’s heart – and stays there.”—Debórah Dwork, author of Saints and Liars“Moving, deeply researched and innovative. . . . Laura Hobson Faure meticulously traces the determined efforts of transnational networks and collectives of relief workers and aid organizations and, most poignantly, Jewish families and children themselves, as they struggled to escape the Holocaust.”—Atina Grossmann, author of After the Nazi Racial State“A compulsive read. Laura Hobson Faure has exploited an impressive array of sources to craft a richly detailed and engaging narrative of Holocaust rescue. By exploring Jewish children’s agency, she sets a high standard for future scholarship in this area.”—Daniel Lee, author of The SS Officer’s Armchair“Laura Hobson Faure has written a detailed history of child refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Who Will Rescue Us? is an engaging and very readable demonstration of the complexity of this important subject.”—Andrea Hammel, author of The Kindertransport: What Really Happened“Beautifully written and deeply moving, Who Will Rescue Us? challenges us to radically rethink what it means to rescue a child. Laura Hobson Faure invites us to set aside assumptions about what makes a ‘heroic’ act, and instead embrace the complex and messy humanity that lies at the heart of rescue endeavours.”—Rebecca Clifford, author of Survivors“I am impressed by the depth and thoroughness of the research in Who Will Rescue Us? and the dramatic force of the writing. This book is an important addition to a field that one might have thought was fully covered. It is especially innovative to have the French and U.S. dimensions of this story treated together.”—Robert O. Paxton, author of Vichy France and The Anatomy of Fascism“A daring and path-breaking piece of research, which traces the complex networks of rescue and gives agency and a voice back to Jewish children in flight. A powerful challenge to the existing historiography which is also beautifully conceptualised and written.”—Robert Gildea, author of Fighters in the Shadows