A Train in Winter: The Resistance Quartet

They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera; a midwife; a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, secreted Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of sixteen, who scrawled "V" (for victory) on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer's wife in her sixties who harbored escaped Allied airmen. Strangers to one another, hailing from villages and cities across France—230 brave women united in defiance of their Nazi occupiers—they were eventually hunted down by the Gestapo. Separated from home and loved ones, imprisoned in a fort outside Paris, they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.
In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.
Drawing on interviews with these women and their families, and on documents in German, French, and Polish archives, A Train in Winter is a remarkable account of the extraordinary courage of ordinary people—a story of bravery, survival, and the enduring power of female friendship.

“By turns heartbreaking and inspiring.” — Caroline Weber, New York Times Book Review
“A compelling account of human suffering and courage in the face of appalling brutality. And by the careful use of detail, and an almost obsessive curiosity, Ms. Moorehead has succeeded in frustrating one of the main aims of the Nazis’ . . . the memory of ‘le Convoi des 3100’ has not disappeared.” — Patrick Marnham, Wall Street Journal
“[A] moving novelistic portrait. . . . An inspiring and fascinating read.” — Meredith Maran, People (3½ stars)
“[Moorehead] traces the lives and deaths of all her subjects with unswerving candor and compassion. . . . In Moorehead’s telling, neither evil nor good is banal; and if the latter doesn’t always triumph, it certainly inspires.” — USA Today
“The first complete account of these extraordinary women and, incredibly, over 60 years later we are still learning new and terrible truths about the Holocaust. . . . Moorehead’s group portrait offers an important new perspective not only on the suffering and courage of those in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, but of the complex French response to the German occupation Careful research and sensitive retelling.” — Buzzy Jackson, Boston Sunday Globe
“Journalist and renowned biographer Caroline Moorehead weaves together first person accounts including interviews, diaries, letters, and photographs, creating a chorus of women’s voices whose stories may never have been told so clearly before now. . . . Her narrative seamlessly comes together in order to share a significant part of history whose time has come to be heard.” — Christian Science Monitor
“A necessary book. . . . Compelling and moving. . . . The literature of wartime France and the Holocaust is by now so vast as to confound the imagination, but when a book as good as this comes along, we are reminded that there is always room for something new.” — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“Haunting account of bravery, friendship, and endurance.” — Marie Claire
“An extremely moving and intensely personal history of the Auschwitz universe as experienced by these women. . . . A powerful and moving book.” — Natasha Lehrer, Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Compelling . . . Moorehead weaves into her suspenseful, detailed narrative myriad personal stories of friendship, courage, and heartbreak.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Heightened by electrifying, and staggering, detail, Moorehead’s riveting history stands as a luminous testament to the indomitable will to survive and the unbreakable bonds of friendship.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Even history’s darkest moments can be illuminated by spectacular courage, such as courage that Caroline Moorehead movingly celebrates in A Train in Winter. . . . Moorehead has created a somber account, sensitively rendered, of yet another grim legacy of war.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Remarkable.” — Eric Herschthal, The Jewish Week
“A miraculous story about friendship and the will to overcome extraordinary cruelty, heartache and loss.” — The Jewish Journal, "Best Books of 2011"