Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (2008, Paperback, Reprint)

A powerful story of the arrest and deportation of the Jews from France to German concentration camps in July 1942 by the French police. The story centers on 10 year old Sarah. Knowing something was wrong but not understanding it fully, when the French police arrive at her door, she hides her younger brother in a cabinet, locks it and puts the key in her pocket. Sarah has no comprehension that she will not return home in a short peroid of time. Her only thought is to keep her brother safe from the police and to come back and get him later. Of course, this never happens and Sarah is left with the truths of that night and the need to know what happened to her brother. It is her story during the war and, 60 years later, the story of a young American journalist who unravels Sarah's story. The Vel d'Hiv, as this event is known, is truly a sad and alarming part of French history. One can't help but wonder if, in fact, how many French Jews would have survived if the Nazi's had not received so much help from the French police. As books like this are written, one gets the impression that the Nazi's would not have had the success they had in the extermination of the Jews had it not been for the aiding and abetting of their horrendous crime by people like the ones in this story. Ms. De Rosnay delivers the poignant story with historical accuracy and a sensitivity for those families who survived and mourn those they lost.