Sarah's Key

The New York Times best seller, Sarah's Key, is a story filled with sorrow and mystery. Written by Tatiana De Rosnay this profound novel was published in 2007 and has brought light to a Parisian tradedy of the past, the Jewish round-up that took place at the Velodrome d'Hiver on July 16th, 1942. This historical event is the only non-fiction element portrayed in De Rosnay's novel and it is important to understand what exactly happened in Paris at that time in order to be fully empowered by this epic novel.

Velodrome d'Hiver a.k.a La Grande Rafle

Early on the morning of July 16th, 1942, the French police, acting under orders from the German Gestapo, took over 13,000 Jewish men, women, and children from their beds. Most of the adults were sent directly to the concentration camp at Drancy, while parents with children remained at the Velodrome d'Hiver, an indoor stadium used for bicycle races and other various events, for days without food. While the Jewish families waited inside the hot stadium with no washrooms or places to sleep the French police scanned the city of Paris for the remainder of the Jews that were to be brought to the stadium. For six days straight the horrified prisoners of the Velodrome d'Hiver endured physical indignity while French police stood by doing nothing to prevent the future genocide. After a week at the stadium all Jews were shipped to different concentration camps across France and Germany where they were seperated from their families and murdered.

This was a shameful time in history for France that is rarely talked about today, and will always be remembered through De Rosnay's story, Sarah's Key.