Sarah's Key

My mother was anxious for me to read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay so that we could discuss it. In hindsight I wish I had not read it right after The Boy in the Striped Pajamas as it also deals with the subject of the Holocaust. Sarah's Key however focuses on another group of victims not much talked about: Parisan children. The story follows present day American journalist Julia Jarmond as she discovers the story of a young Parisian child caught up in the Vel'di'Hiv' roundup in July 1942 when thousands of Jewish families who were French citizens were arrested by the French police and eventually sent to their deaths at Auschwitz. Although the story is fiction the horror of the roundups is fact. Sarah's story becomes intertwined with Julias and the result has a profound impact on both the journalist and the reader. There are no happy endings here and I think it would be disrespectful to the true victims and survivors of those tragic events if there was. More than 6o years after the Holocaust people still do not want to talk about it. I have learned more reading these last 3 books (2 fiction and one true story) then I ever learned in school. My fifth grade son was assigned a project on the Holacaust and in helping him research I read more than most of us would ever want to know on the topic. It is difficult to put yourself in the time frame and mindset of the people who stood by and watched this happen. Now that I am aware of many of these tragic events like the journalist in Sarah's Key, I will never forget.