Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
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Lowest price: $7.70
Binding: Paperback
Released: 2008-09-30
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A New York Times bestseller. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Velâ dâHivâ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Velâ dâHivâs 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode. Tatiana de Rosnay was born in the suburbs of Paris and is of English, French and Russian descent. She is the author of nine French novels. She also writes for French Elle, and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine. Tatiana de Rosnay is married and has two children. Sarah's Key is her first novel written in her mother tongue, English. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel' d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround the painful episode in that country's history. "De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discoversâ"especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to surviveâ"the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down."â"Publishers Weekly (starred review) âThis is the shocking, profoundly moving and morally challenging story . . . It will haunt you, it will help to complete you . . . nothing short of miraculous.ââ"Augusten Burroughs
âA powerful novel . . . Tatiana de Rosnay has captured the insane world of the Holocaust and the efforts of the few good people who stood up against it in this work of fiction more effectively than has been done in many scholarly studies. It is a book that makes us sensitive to how much evil occurred and also to how much willingness to do good also existed in that world.ââ"Rabbi Jack Riemer, South Florida Jewish Journal
âJust when you thought you might have read about every horror of the Holocaust, a book will come along and shine a fierce light upon yet another haunting wrong. Sarah's Key is such a novel. In remarkably unsparing, unsentimental prose . . . through a lens so personal and intimate, it will make you cryâ"and remember.ââ"Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save Us
âA remarkable novel written with eloquence and empathy.ââ"Paula Fox, author of Borrowed Finery
"A story of hearts broken, first by the past, then by family secrets, and the truth that begins to repair the pieces. A beautiful novel."â"Linda Francis Lee, bestselling author of The Ex-Debutante
âSarah's Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book will stay on your mind long after it's back on the shelf.ââ"Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights
âThis is a remarkable historical novel . . . it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul forever.ââ"Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife
âMasterly and compelling, it is not something that readers will quickly forget. Highly recommended.ââ"Library Journal (starred review)
"De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discoversâ"especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to surviveâ"the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down."â"Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Paris, May 2002: On Velâ dâHivâs 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode. Tatiana de Rosnay was born in the suburbs of Paris and is of English, French and Russian descent. She is the author of nine French novels. She also writes for French Elle, and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine. Tatiana de Rosnay is married and has two children. Sarah's Key is her first novel written in her mother tongue, English. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel' d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround the painful episode in that country's history. "De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discoversâ"especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to surviveâ"the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down."â"Publishers Weekly (starred review) âThis is the shocking, profoundly moving and morally challenging story . . . It will haunt you, it will help to complete you . . . nothing short of miraculous.ââ"Augusten Burroughs
âA powerful novel . . . Tatiana de Rosnay has captured the insane world of the Holocaust and the efforts of the few good people who stood up against it in this work of fiction more effectively than has been done in many scholarly studies. It is a book that makes us sensitive to how much evil occurred and also to how much willingness to do good also existed in that world.ââ"Rabbi Jack Riemer, South Florida Jewish Journal
âJust when you thought you might have read about every horror of the Holocaust, a book will come along and shine a fierce light upon yet another haunting wrong. Sarah's Key is such a novel. In remarkably unsparing, unsentimental prose . . . through a lens so personal and intimate, it will make you cryâ"and remember.ââ"Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save Us
âA remarkable novel written with eloquence and empathy.ââ"Paula Fox, author of Borrowed Finery
"A story of hearts broken, first by the past, then by family secrets, and the truth that begins to repair the pieces. A beautiful novel."â"Linda Francis Lee, bestselling author of The Ex-Debutante
âSarah's Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book will stay on your mind long after it's back on the shelf.ââ"Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights
âThis is a remarkable historical novel . . . it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul forever.ââ"Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife
âMasterly and compelling, it is not something that readers will quickly forget. Highly recommended.ââ"Library Journal (starred review)
"De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discoversâ"especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to surviveâ"the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down."â"Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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255 of 260 people found the following review helpful:
A unique novel that centers around a tragic incident in WW II France, February 8, 2008
by z hayes
Having been long interested in the Holocaust [and having taught it for about 8 years], I was eager to read this new novel by Tatiana de Rosnay that though a work of fiction, is fact-based.
July 1942 marked a dark period in the history of France where thousands of Jewish families were rounded up and forcibly kept in the Velodrome d'Hiver. They were then sent off to transit camps in France such as Drancy, before being packed off to Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. What is so unnerving about this whole incident is that the rounding up and mobilisation of Jews for deportation was done by the French authorities.
Based upon this seldom mentioned, little known piece of French history, author Tatiana de Rosnay has crafted a well-written novel that alternates between the past in 1942, and the present. The past centers around a 10 year old Jewish girl Sarah Strazynski who is forced to go to the Velodrome d'Hiver with her mother and father, innocently leaving behind a 4 year old brother Michel locked in a secret cupboard with the assurance that she would return to let him out when it was safe.
The present revolves around writer Julia Jarmond, a transplanted American who is married to a frenchman and finds herself being consumed by the story of the Vel d'Hiv incident. As she digs deeper, she uncovers dark secrets surrounding her husband's family which are connected to the deportations of Jews from France. As the truth emerges, the author deftly handles the question of guilt caused by supressed secrets and how the truth can sometimes not only bring about pain and disrupt the regularity of life, yet also have the ability to heal and move forwards into the future.
The method employed by the author, wch alternates between the past [1942] and the present is an effective tool for it ties both periods together and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. I do confess though that I found the story of the past much more dramatic and interesting than the one which deals with Julia in the present. On the whole though, it was an engrossing read and I would recommend it, especially to those interested in the genre. I'd also recommend the following books which deal with the Holocaust and France: "The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews" by Susan Zuccoti (non-fiction), "One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through France" by Fred Gross (memoir), and "France:The Dark Years, 1940-1944" by Julian Jackson (non-fiction and more for those already familiar with the history of the period).
July 1942 marked a dark period in the history of France where thousands of Jewish families were rounded up and forcibly kept in the Velodrome d'Hiver. They were then sent off to transit camps in France such as Drancy, before being packed off to Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. What is so unnerving about this whole incident is that the rounding up and mobilisation of Jews for deportation was done by the French authorities.
Based upon this seldom mentioned, little known piece of French history, author Tatiana de Rosnay has crafted a well-written novel that alternates between the past in 1942, and the present. The past centers around a 10 year old Jewish girl Sarah Strazynski who is forced to go to the Velodrome d'Hiver with her mother and father, innocently leaving behind a 4 year old brother Michel locked in a secret cupboard with the assurance that she would return to let him out when it was safe.
The present revolves around writer Julia Jarmond, a transplanted American who is married to a frenchman and finds herself being consumed by the story of the Vel d'Hiv incident. As she digs deeper, she uncovers dark secrets surrounding her husband's family which are connected to the deportations of Jews from France. As the truth emerges, the author deftly handles the question of guilt caused by supressed secrets and how the truth can sometimes not only bring about pain and disrupt the regularity of life, yet also have the ability to heal and move forwards into the future.
The method employed by the author, wch alternates between the past [1942] and the present is an effective tool for it ties both periods together and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. I do confess though that I found the story of the past much more dramatic and interesting than the one which deals with Julia in the present. On the whole though, it was an engrossing read and I would recommend it, especially to those interested in the genre. I'd also recommend the following books which deal with the Holocaust and France: "The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews" by Susan Zuccoti (non-fiction), "One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through France" by Fred Gross (memoir), and "France:The Dark Years, 1940-1944" by Julian Jackson (non-fiction and more for those already familiar with the history of the period).
69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
Reliving History, September 27, 2008
by Roger Brunyate
In the first half of this book, two stories interlace with each other in short alternating chapters. Sarah Starzynski, a ten-year-old Parisian girl born to Jewish parents, is captured in the round-up of June 16, 1942, and imprisoned with almost 10,000 others in an indoor cycling arena, the Vélodrome d'Hiver, awaiting transportation to Auschwitz. When the police arrive, she has just time to hide her younger brother in a concealed closet in their apartment, locking him in and promising to return. Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist married to a Frenchman, researching for a story on the "Vél d'Hiv," stumbles on the trail of Sarah's family, and becomes obsessed with trying to discover her fate. She is struck by the fact that the round-up and subsequent disposal was carried out, not by the Gestapo, but by ordinary French policemen, enabled by a citizenry that for the most part looked the other way. A coincidental discovery leads her to question the involvement of her husband's family at the time and to re-examine her own marriage.
Apart from this one coincidence that one has to grant for the sake of the novel, Tatiana de Rosnay mostly avoids melodrama, excessive sentiment, or plot surprises. Sarah's story may be merely a variant on the Holocaust narrative often told before, but its child's-eye viewpoint gives it a moving authenticity, and the short chapters keep it bearable. Especially touching are the glimpses of individual concern and kindness among the general indifference of the French people; the novel honors those unsung saints and heroes who put aside their fear to help in individual ways.
At the half-way point, however, de Rosnay is forced to give up Sarah's direct narrative, telling her story solely through what Julia Jarmond is able to discover about her. Julia is an attractive character, a woman in her forties trying to balance the demands of profession, motherhood, and marriage, while retaining her independence as a foreign female in a chauvinistic society; her story could make an interesting novel all on its own. But it cannot possibly compete with the searing truth of the Holocaust, and for the first half of the book it makes no attempt to do so. When the side-by-side narrative ends, we are indeed invested in Julia's personal concerns, but may feel uneasy about it, as though her questions of personal identity and romance are trivial compared to the horror of where the book started. To de Rosnay's credit, she does not try to tie everything up in an implausibly neat ending, but she cannot stop the book from thinning out at the end, although the final pages are touching and suitably unresolved.
Any novel dealing with the Holocaust is full of echoes of other books. De Rosnay's portrayal of Parisians under occupation chimes perfectly with the picture in SUITE FRANCAISE by Irène Nemirovsky, who herself suffered the same fate as Sarah's family. The transit camps and deportation of French Jews feature in Sebastian Faulks' CHARLOTTE GRAY. And the story of an American in France looking into an earlier time somewhat resembles THE VIRGIN BLUE by Tracy Chevalier, an author whom De Rosnay apparently admires. Readers who enjoyed any one of these would probably appreciate SARAH'S KEY, a book that stands up well to all but the first of them.
Apart from this one coincidence that one has to grant for the sake of the novel, Tatiana de Rosnay mostly avoids melodrama, excessive sentiment, or plot surprises. Sarah's story may be merely a variant on the Holocaust narrative often told before, but its child's-eye viewpoint gives it a moving authenticity, and the short chapters keep it bearable. Especially touching are the glimpses of individual concern and kindness among the general indifference of the French people; the novel honors those unsung saints and heroes who put aside their fear to help in individual ways.
At the half-way point, however, de Rosnay is forced to give up Sarah's direct narrative, telling her story solely through what Julia Jarmond is able to discover about her. Julia is an attractive character, a woman in her forties trying to balance the demands of profession, motherhood, and marriage, while retaining her independence as a foreign female in a chauvinistic society; her story could make an interesting novel all on its own. But it cannot possibly compete with the searing truth of the Holocaust, and for the first half of the book it makes no attempt to do so. When the side-by-side narrative ends, we are indeed invested in Julia's personal concerns, but may feel uneasy about it, as though her questions of personal identity and romance are trivial compared to the horror of where the book started. To de Rosnay's credit, she does not try to tie everything up in an implausibly neat ending, but she cannot stop the book from thinning out at the end, although the final pages are touching and suitably unresolved.
Any novel dealing with the Holocaust is full of echoes of other books. De Rosnay's portrayal of Parisians under occupation chimes perfectly with the picture in SUITE FRANCAISE by Irène Nemirovsky, who herself suffered the same fate as Sarah's family. The transit camps and deportation of French Jews feature in Sebastian Faulks' CHARLOTTE GRAY. And the story of an American in France looking into an earlier time somewhat resembles THE VIRGIN BLUE by Tracy Chevalier, an author whom De Rosnay apparently admires. Readers who enjoyed any one of these would probably appreciate SARAH'S KEY, a book that stands up well to all but the first of them.
128 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
Story has great potential, but ultimately not fufilling, July 26, 2007
by S. Hanson
The theme and historical context of this book is certainly compelling and the moral issues raised by the story, though familiar, are still intriguing. However, once the key elements of Sarah's story are revealed, the book looses steam and we are left with the banal life crisis facing our journalist narrator who comes off frequently as more than a little spineless, letting the people around her direct the flow of her thoughts and actions. The angst of modern life over-shadows past tragedy. Most of the author's characters seem stereotyped, merely cardboard cut-outs who are ill-suited to the task of explicating the difficult gray areas between good and evil. When Joshua, Julia's editor, points out to her the fact that she has left out one whole side of Sarah's difficult story, he might as well be describing this novel. It never really does address the issues of responsibility and moral culpability in any deep and meaningful way. When Sarah's voice disappears from the narrative, the book looses its psychological edge and Julia's subsequent quest seems to lack real purpose. The confrontations which do take place towards the end of the novel are not the one's a reader might be anticipating and ultimately, leave the reader feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. Read this book to learn more about the Jewish experience in occupied France but don't expect to be challenged--this book doesn't take readers anywhere near the true tragedy symbolized by Sarah's key.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
A sensitive touch, a tough subject., September 29, 2008
by Silly Sister
Tatiana Rosnay's book, Sarah's Key, is the story of the 1942 Vel d'Hiv roundup of the Jews in Paris, as seen through the eyes of eleven year old Sarah, a French Jew. It is also the story of Julia Jarmond, a journalist living in Paris in 2002 and writing the story about the roundup for a magazine, on the sixtieth anniversary of the event. The two plot lines take turns, one short chapter at a time, and twine together nicely to conclusion.
In the summer of 1942, the Jews of Paris were rounded up for deportation. A common enough story during World War II, only this time it wasn't an action being carried out by German soldiers, but by the French gendarme, in the greatest collaboration of the police in occupied France and the German occupiers during the entire war. Rosnay's story follows Sarah Starzynski, eleven years old and caught with her mother and father in the action later known as the Vel d'Hiv roundup. Sarah's 4 year old brother, Michel, insists that he isn't going anywhere when the police pound on the door of their apartment, and makes Sarah lock him in the hidden cupboard in his bedroom - their secret hiding place. Sarah pockets the brass key to the cupboard door, thinking she will be right back, surely, to let him out again. But no one had told Sarah that the families with children, being herded into the Vélodrome d'Hiver, an unused cycling stadium, were earmarked for transit to Auschwitz and an immediate appointment with the gas chambers.
Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, a journalist and the American wife of a French architect with a family bound by ugly secrets connected to Sarah's fate, is coincidentally drawn to Sarah's story and becomes nearly obsessed with finding out what happened to her after being transported out of the Vélodrome. Sarah's mother and father are listed on memorials to those who died in Auschwitz, but what happened to Sarah and her brother? The truth could destroy her marriage, but the choice of whether or not to follow the trail to its end has little to do with a career decision.
Just as the American confinement of the US citizens of Japanese descent during WWII is not something proudly taught in our classrooms, the Vel d'Hiv roundup is a subject about which an astonishing number of French people are ignorant or oblivious. Of the Jews rounded up in Paris and herded to the Vélodrome on July 16th and 17th, more than half - 4,115 to be exact - were children under fifteen years of age. Unlike our own shameful action against Japanese-Americans however, the roundup of Jews was not limited to internment and the confiscation of property. Sarah's story is, by its very subject matter, a heart wrenching one. I fought tears several times as I read the book, and I am not a newcomer to the subject. I have read countless books about the German atrocities during the war, but this fictionalized account of one girl's journey, and the woman determined to follow her to whatever end awaited her, exposed me to a piece of history I am ashamed to say I had previously overlooked.
Early in the book, Julia Jarmond interviews an old Parisian woman who witnessed the deportation of the Jews from the Vélodrome d'Hiver, who tells Julia, "Nobody remembers the Vel d'Hiv children you know. Nobody is interested." After reading Tatiana Rosnay's book, I personally will never forget them.
In the summer of 1942, the Jews of Paris were rounded up for deportation. A common enough story during World War II, only this time it wasn't an action being carried out by German soldiers, but by the French gendarme, in the greatest collaboration of the police in occupied France and the German occupiers during the entire war. Rosnay's story follows Sarah Starzynski, eleven years old and caught with her mother and father in the action later known as the Vel d'Hiv roundup. Sarah's 4 year old brother, Michel, insists that he isn't going anywhere when the police pound on the door of their apartment, and makes Sarah lock him in the hidden cupboard in his bedroom - their secret hiding place. Sarah pockets the brass key to the cupboard door, thinking she will be right back, surely, to let him out again. But no one had told Sarah that the families with children, being herded into the Vélodrome d'Hiver, an unused cycling stadium, were earmarked for transit to Auschwitz and an immediate appointment with the gas chambers.
Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, a journalist and the American wife of a French architect with a family bound by ugly secrets connected to Sarah's fate, is coincidentally drawn to Sarah's story and becomes nearly obsessed with finding out what happened to her after being transported out of the Vélodrome. Sarah's mother and father are listed on memorials to those who died in Auschwitz, but what happened to Sarah and her brother? The truth could destroy her marriage, but the choice of whether or not to follow the trail to its end has little to do with a career decision.
Just as the American confinement of the US citizens of Japanese descent during WWII is not something proudly taught in our classrooms, the Vel d'Hiv roundup is a subject about which an astonishing number of French people are ignorant or oblivious. Of the Jews rounded up in Paris and herded to the Vélodrome on July 16th and 17th, more than half - 4,115 to be exact - were children under fifteen years of age. Unlike our own shameful action against Japanese-Americans however, the roundup of Jews was not limited to internment and the confiscation of property. Sarah's story is, by its very subject matter, a heart wrenching one. I fought tears several times as I read the book, and I am not a newcomer to the subject. I have read countless books about the German atrocities during the war, but this fictionalized account of one girl's journey, and the woman determined to follow her to whatever end awaited her, exposed me to a piece of history I am ashamed to say I had previously overlooked.
Early in the book, Julia Jarmond interviews an old Parisian woman who witnessed the deportation of the Jews from the Vélodrome d'Hiver, who tells Julia, "Nobody remembers the Vel d'Hiv children you know. Nobody is interested." After reading Tatiana Rosnay's book, I personally will never forget them.
71 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
It's called Elle s'appelait Sarah in the French Version, July 8, 2007
by Marianna R. Steriadis
I'm here in Paris for the summer for an NEH Seminar entitled Visions of the Dark Years: World War II and its legacy in France, and I'm doing a project on the "rafle du Vel d'Hiv"- the massive round-up of Jews that took place in Paris on July 16th, 1942. I purchased this book in French at the bookstore at Le Memorial de la Shoah, not knowing that it had been translated from English. The story is haunting, and interesting, as we follow it in flashbacks. I am doing an annotated bibliography of books on the subject for my seminar project. This story will appeal to my younger students, teaching them at the same time of this shameful episode of French collaboration with the German occupiers, under the Vichy government. France was the only occupied European country to pass its own laws regarding Jews, which were even stricter than those of the Third Reich. By looking the other way,and pretending not to know where the Jews were being transported after the local French camps at Drancy and Pithiviers (they were immediately transported to Auschwitz) some 9,000 French police catalogued and arrested over 13,000 French and foreign Jews residing in France, and sent them to the Velodrome d'Hiver, a large stadium in Paris. This is a shameful episode in French history, retold in a poignant and gripping fashion.
