Denise C. (dscrawford) reviewed on + 175 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
On July 16 and 17, 1942, 13,152 Jews were arrested in Paris and the suburbs, deported and assassinated at Auschwitz. Those Jews were drug from their homes in France by FRENCH police following orders given by the Nazis. On the day that she was rounded up by French police, 10 year old Sarah Starzynski had locked her little 4 year old brother Michel in a cabinet telling him that she would be back to let him out when the police let them come back home. The families of men, women and children (most between the ages of 2-12 and most BORN in France) were not allowed to return to their homes; instead they were taken to the Voledrome dHiver and sequestered there in abominable conditions. They were separated by sex, husbands taken from wives and even worse -- mothers were torn from their children. These confused, hungry and mistreated citizens were loaded on cattle trains and taken in convoys to the camps.
This fictionalized account of the roundup and of the relationship of two families connected through an apartment on Rue de Saintonge in Paris is haunting and memorable.
The novel shifts from past to present with chapter changes, moving between scenes of Sarah as she is imprisoned in Vel Dhiv to American born, now French citizen and journalist, Julia Jarmond Tezac who is assigned the story when that tragedy is to be memorialized on the 60th commemoration of the Vel dHiv. Julia soon discovers that the French are largely ignorant of this deplorable event and their embarrassment at knowing that this was done keeps them from remembering those lost families and in fact, many French families simply took over the homes and possessions of the former Jewish occupants. Sarahs story affects Julia in ways she never imagined and completely alters her views of herself and her life. Julia becomes consumed with knowing what happened to Sarah and her family and begins a mission of discovery. What she learns provides a lesson and an admonishment for us all: Zakhor. Al Tichkah. (Remember. Never forget.) Highly recommended - read with [[ASIN:0156031663 Those Who Save Us]] by Jenna Blum and [[ASIN:0307394964 Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel]] by Chris Bohjalian -- two other incredible novels that provide additional insight into how the horror of the Holocaust affected all of Europe in those very dark days of World War II.
This fictionalized account of the roundup and of the relationship of two families connected through an apartment on Rue de Saintonge in Paris is haunting and memorable.
The novel shifts from past to present with chapter changes, moving between scenes of Sarah as she is imprisoned in Vel Dhiv to American born, now French citizen and journalist, Julia Jarmond Tezac who is assigned the story when that tragedy is to be memorialized on the 60th commemoration of the Vel dHiv. Julia soon discovers that the French are largely ignorant of this deplorable event and their embarrassment at knowing that this was done keeps them from remembering those lost families and in fact, many French families simply took over the homes and possessions of the former Jewish occupants. Sarahs story affects Julia in ways she never imagined and completely alters her views of herself and her life. Julia becomes consumed with knowing what happened to Sarah and her family and begins a mission of discovery. What she learns provides a lesson and an admonishment for us all: Zakhor. Al Tichkah. (Remember. Never forget.) Highly recommended - read with [[ASIN:0156031663 Those Who Save Us]] by Jenna Blum and [[ASIN:0307394964 Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel]] by Chris Bohjalian -- two other incredible novels that provide additional insight into how the horror of the Holocaust affected all of Europe in those very dark days of World War II.
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