Simonne Vidal
Simonne Jeanne Myriam Vidal was a French housewife whose husband was the historian Marc Bloch. Throughout their marriage, Vidal played a significant role — as a secretary and as a research assistant — in Bloch's work. She was also a hospital volunteer in both World Wars.
Vidal was born in Dieppe in a wealthy Jewish family. In 1916, during the First World War, she volunteered as a nurse. She was decorated for her work with prisoners and refugees. Vidal married Marc Bloch in 1919, after which the couple moved to Strasbourg. All six of their children were born there. Vidal and Bloch's marriage was described as strong and loving. She served as her husband's secretary, research assistant and interlocutor, playing a significant role in his historical work.
The Second World War led the Bloch family to move frequently within France. Vidal's fragile health was tested during those years, and she often had to raise her children alone due to her husband's mobilization. During that period, she again volunteered as a nurse in Paris. When France was occupied and Bloch joined the French Resistance, Vidal helped him by sending food and supplies to his base in Lyon. When he was arrested by the Gestapo, she travelled there, where she was hospitalized for an undiagnosed stomach cancer. She died in the hospital under a false name two weeks after her husband was executed, and was buried in a common grave. In 2024, it was announced that she would enter the Panthéon, along with Bloch.
Early life
Simonne Vidal was born in Dieppe, in the French region of Normandy, on February 14, 1894. She was the third child of Paul Vidal, a successful engineer, and his wife Alice Hirsch. The Vidal family was part of the Jewish bourgeoisie and came from a tradition of engineers and manufacturers. It was notably related to the Dreyfuses. Simonne Vidal was described as being gifted in music and foreign languages. When she was twenty years old, in 1914, World War I broke out. She volunteered as a nurse in 1916, working with prisoners and refugees in Dieppe, and was decorated for her service.Marriage to Marc Bloch
Vidal married Marc Bloch in Paris on July 19, 1919. Bloch had returned from his own military service in World War I four months earlier. The couple held a religious ceremony four days after the wedding, in. Vidal's family provided Bloch with a substantial dowry. In the fall, the couple moved to Strasbourg after Bloch joined the faculty of the University of Strasbourg. They lived in Strasbourg for seventeen years, and all six of their children — starting with Alice, born in 1920 — were born there.Vidal's second child,, described his mother as "an excellent housekeeper, managing her little world with skill and efficiency". He described her union to his father as loving and unbreakable. In addition to Vidal's household work, she also served as her husband's secretary — transcribing his manuscripts — and research assistant. Sharing many of his interests, she was seemingly also his favorite interlocutor. Her role in her husband's work initially went unrecognized. In 2005, Étienne Bloch wrote: "Would Marc Bloch have become the great, globally recognized historian without his wife? I doubt it."
World War II and death
In August of 1936, the Bloch family moved from Strasbourg to Paris. Earlier that year, following Hitler's remilitarisation of the Rhineland, Marc Bloch had shared with Lucien Febvre his concern about living near the German border. On August 24, 1939, a week before the beginning of World War II, he was mobilized in Alsace. Due to the threat of large cities being bombarded, Vidal and he decided to move the family to the village of Guéret, near their country house in Fougères. The apartment in Guéret was much less comfortable than what they were used to, and Vidal—whose health was fragile—was in charge of raising five of her children there, with the help of a maid. The area experienced significant bombardment after Italy joined the war against France.During the fighting Vidal volunteered part-time in a Paris hospital. When the Armistice of [22 June 1940] was signed, she was in the German [military administration in occupied France during World War II|occupied zone] of France, along with one of her sons, in order to retrieve her mother-in-law in Marlotte and bring her to Guéret, in the zone libre. On their way back, they saw a German military column and were forced to turn back, eventually staying in Paris for a week. There, Vidal was able to obtain German permission for everyone to cross back into the zone libre. After Marc Bloch returned from the war, the family moved to a small apartment in Clermont-Ferrand, where Bloch was able to join the relocated faculty of the University of Strasbourg.
Simonne Vidal was prone to sickness during those years. On April 12, 1941, she suffered an attack of pleurisy. In the hopes of improving her health, Marc Bloch obtained a teaching post in Montpellier, a warmer city by the Mediterranean, and had their family move there later that year. Around the time of the invasion of the zone libre, which occurred on November 11, 1942, Bloch joined the French Resistance. While he was living under a false identity near Lyon, his wife regularly sent him food, clothes, books and supplies. She occasionally visited him. Bloch was arrested by the Gestapo on March 8, 1944. His last letter to his wife, sent that morning, read: "Despite your courage and reason, I imagine you being a bit troubled by all the decisions to make. Sorry for being so far away."
Worried about her husband, Vidal travelled to Lyon with her daughter Alice. There she was hospitalized — under a false name — for an undiagnosed stomach cancer. She died after surgery, likely without knowing that her husband had been summarily executed two weeks earlier. She was buried in a common grave. A plaque in her name, however, is on the family vault, located in the cemetery of Le Bourg-d'Hem, near their country house. In 2024, French president Emmanuel Macron announced that Marc Bloch and Simonne Vidal would enter the Panthéon, through a cenotaph.