Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Sarah's Key is the story of the Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested and held at the Velodrome d’Hiver before being transported to Auschwitz by, and this is the most important piece of the puzzle, the French police. This was not done by the Germans or the SS or anything like that, this was perpetrated by the French, on the French. The saddest thing  about the Vel d’Hiv roundup is that the majority of those taken were children; and of all of those sent to Auschwitz, none survived. This story is historical fiction – the Vel d’Hiv roundup did occur, however, the characters in this novel are the creation of the author. The main characters in this story are two women in two different time periods. Sarah Starzynski is a 10-year old at the time of the roundup and is taken with her mother and father to Vel d’Hiv, and then to a holding camp outside Paris. Shortly thereafter, the children are separated from their parents and left at the camp, while the adults are sent to Auschwitz. Julia Jarmond is an American writer who lives in Paris and is assigned to write an article commemorating the 60^th anniversary of Vel d’Hiv and becomes consumed by it as she delves deeper into the event. She also uncovers the shocking history of the apartment owned by her husband’s family. As her own life becomes more complicated she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to Sarah. This is a decent WWII novel; nothing amazing, but nothing bad. I did enjoy reading about Vel d’Hiv, which I had never heard of before, but I also felt some of it was a bit much. And I enjoyed Sarah’s story more than Julia’s, but perhaps that’s because I just love historical fiction so much.