Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
A disproportionate share of the novels available in English about World War II celebrate the French Resistance. Of course, it’s true that the maquis helped pave the way for the Normandy Invasion. But most military historians consider their impact on the war to be slight at best. And, in fact, the resistance in France was weak compared to the anti-Nazi forces in Poland and other countries. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of the French people offered little opposition to the antisemitic and pro-Nazi Vichy government of Marshal Philippe Pétain until Allied victory was certain. And police answering to Vichy, not Nazi troops, rounded up 76,000 Jews in France and sent them eastward—most of them toward their deaths in Auschwitz. Bestselling French novelist Tatiana de Rosnay tells the story of one such family in Sarah’s Key. It’s a grim reminder of the Holocaust in France.
Two intersecting stories
De Rosnay’s cleverly plotted novel weaves together the stories of two women. Sarah Starzynski is a ten-year-old Jewish girl in Paris in 1942 when the book opens. And Julia Jarmond, American-born but married to a Frenchman, she has been living in Paris for twenty-five years.
Sarah Starzyński
Sarah, her little brother, Michel, and their parents are woken in the middle of the night, arrested as part of a roundup of Jews living in Paris. But while they’re packing, Sarah hides Michel in a hard-to-find closet and locks it, intending to return to free him. And her determination to do so drives her to escape from the detention camp after the police separate her from her parents. But she learns she’s too late when at length she arrives at the apartment. We follow the course of her tragic life in the years to come.
Julia Jarmond
Julia’s husband, Bertrand Tézac, is an architect from a prominent Parisian family. His grandmother has recently moved to a nursing home and given the couple a spacious apartment. Meanwhile, as Bertrand orders the renovation of their new home, Sarah continues her work as a journalist. Her boss assigns her to write an article about the sixtieth anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, when French police arrested 13,000 thousand Jews in Paris and sent them to their deaths in Auschwitz.
When Sarah digs into the history of the Vel’ d’Hiv’, she eventually learns that the Starzynski family lived in her new apartment when they were arrested. And eventually she discovers the role Bertrand’s family played in Sarah’s life.
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (2006) 295 pages ★★★★★
About the Vel’ d’Hiv’
The notorious events of July 16-17, 1942 remain one of the darkest stains on French history more than eighty years later. Then, French police rounded up 13,000 Jews in Paris and imprisoned them in the Vélodrome d’Hiver, an indoor bicycle racing cycle track and stadium that no longer exists. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, “The Vél d’Hiv was part of a series of roundups codenamed Opération Vent printanier (Operation Spring Wind) that took place across the country in spring and summer of 1942.” The Vel’ d’Hiv’ was the largest single component of that roundup.
After they had lived for days in horrific conditions with little food or water, the police moved the captives to detainment camps outside Paris. There, they separated men and women, and mothers from their children. Later, police loaded nearly all of them into trains and shipped them off to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
About the author
According to her publisher, “Tatiana de Rosnay is the author of over ten novels, including the New York Times bestseller Sarah’s Key, an international sensation with over 11 million copies in 44 countries worldwide. Together with Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer, and Stieg Larsson, she has been named one of the top ten fiction writers in Europe. De Rosnay lives in Paris.” De Rosnay was born in France in 1961. Her father is a French scientist, her mother, English. She is married and has two children.
Wikipedia notes that “Since 1992, de Rosnay has published twelve novels in French and six in English. She is one of the most-read authors in France.
For related reading
You’ll find this book on Good books about the Holocaust and 25 most enlightening historical novels.
You might also enjoy The 10 best novels about World War II or 10 top nonfiction books about World War II.
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