Simonne Vidal

Simonne Jeanne Myriam Vidal (; 14 February 1894 – 2 July 1944) 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. (Simonne's siblings included Jacques, the elder brother, and Jeanne, a younger sister.) Jeanne died in Auschwitz in 1944. It was notably related to the Dreyfuses.

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 . (In a 1939 letter to his eldest son, Marc Bloch wrote: "I was never a heartbreaker; certainly not!) That didn’t stop me from meeting your mother, from having the immense happiness of pleasing her, and from living with her a life of complete unity, one so beautiful that I couldn’t wish for you, as the crowning achievement of your own sentimental life — no matter what it may have been before —, anything more beautiful." In 2005, Étienne Bloch wrote: "Would Marc Bloch have become the great, globally recognized historian without his wife? I doubt it." 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. 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.

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