Research question

I'd suggest thinking about their childhood, as well - how they were raised will affect how they act in the present. Do they have deeply held morals that enable them to actively take the obvious risk of interacting with a Jewish girl? Are they intelligent enough to foresee the challenges - if so, who taught them this strength of character?

If the male protagonists were farmers, before the conflict, their knowledge of the land, the seasons, what grows where (and how) could be useful nuggets to drop in idle conversations that they are involved in, perhaps?

For Danielle, how is she dealing with being the potential subject of persecution? Is she hiding her religion or is she standing proud? Either way, this behaviour must be derived from somewhere - could be useful to mention this in either conversations or drip-fed as a back-story.

Hi, Sylvia!

I strongly advise you to read "Gone To Soldiers" by Marge Piercy! It's a book that keeps hopping from PoV to PoV and back again. About a dozen, that weave around each other. Many of the PoVs are Jewish (as is Piercy) and it's set shortly before, during, and shortly after the 2nd World War. Much of the action takes place in France... though I can't remember exactly which parts of France: it's been over 20 years since I read it.

Piercy always researches all of her books thoroughly, so you should be able to pick up a few hints, at least.

Aside from that, I don't know what to recommend, really. One serious problem with researching is that - after the war - the French rewrote their history. They were allies, fighting the Nazis. Tosh and bosh! From 1940 onward, half of France was under the Vichy government (collaborators with Hitler, exporting Jews to camps in occupied zones), the other half was occupied by the Germans.

The majority of the French (excluding the Free French Forces under De Gaulle, in exile) claimed - AFTER the war - that they'd been active in the Resistance. Only fairly recently have a large number of French historians admitted that this is codswallop. The vast majority were either collaborating... or keeping their heads down. Vichy forces fought Free French forces for control of overseas possessions. A de facto civil war.

My point is this: In no way can the whole of France be considered an Allied country during the 2nd World War! And yet it's been pretending that ever since!

Largely because of this lie ("We were all resisting bravely!"), France became one of the 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council when it was formed in 1946. Formerly fascist countries like Germany and Italy were excluded.