Why go
This period explains why the beaches near Saint-Raphaël and the railway at Anthéor matter beyond their scenery. It also brings the history of Nice into focus: Jewish residents were rounded up and deported before the Allied invasion of southern France in August 1944.
The full story
After France fell in 1940, the Riviera became a place of refuge and danger. Some Jewish artists, including Marc Chagall, escaped to the United States with help from American groups. In Nice, French police rounded up Jewish residents in 1942 and sent them through Drancy toward the death camps. This history belongs alongside the coast’s better-known wartime landmarks. The railway viaduct at Anthéor was a strategic target because the coastal line carried supplies. Allied air raids in 1943 and 1944 failed to cut it. On 15 August 1944, Operation Dragoon brought Allied forces ashore along the Var coast, including the area around Saint-Raphaël and Fréjus. The landings began the liberation of southern France. Saint-Tropez suffered damage from German mines around the liberation and was later rebuilt. The contrast between wartime destruction and the resort image that returned after 1945 is part of the region’s story.