Survey of Authors and Secondary Sources

1) Author: Tatiana De Rosnay   Title: Sarah's Key

2) I was interested in this author because she wrote Sarah's key which is about World War 2 and the events involved. The way she does the point of view in this story is interesting how it goes between 1942 and 2002. I was interested in reading Tatiana De Rosnay's book because I think reading a French view on what the French and Germans did in World War 2 would be interesting to hear.

3) Tatiana de Rosnay was born on September 28^th, 1961 in Paris, France.
She is of English, French and Russian descent.  Her father is French scientist Joël de Rosnay, her grandfather was painter Gaëtan de Rosnay and her great-grandmother was Russian actress Natalia Rachewskïa. She was raised in Paris and then moved to Boston. She moved to England in the early 80’s and got a Bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. She has published eight novels in France in which Sarah's Key is the first novel she wrote in English. Tatiana is married and has two children, Louis and Charlotte and she lives with her family in Paris. She writes for French Elle and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine. 

4) Some other works by Tatiana de Rosnay are A Secret Kept, Moka, La Mémoire des Murs, Spirales, Le Voisin, Boomerang, La coeur d'une autre, Elle s'appelait Sarah, etc.
Some genres that she used are historical fiction/non-fiction, mystery, tragedy, and educational.

5) Since Tatiana has lived in England, United States and France she is fluent in English and French. Some of Tatiana's interests are travelling, art, music and movies. Tatiana is French and yet she hadn't heard about the Vel d'Hiv until her thirties. It took Tatiana 2 years to write Sarah's Key. Tatiana's daughter who was 11 years old at the time she wrote the book, was her  inspiration for Sarah's character. She went to Beaune la Rolande and Drancy many times and also met actual Vel d'Hiv survivors.

6) Some themes favored by Tatiana are role of religion, discrimination, desire to escape, survival, family, love, losing hope, power, war and will to survive.

7) Some authors that Tatiana de Rosnay have been compared to are Diane Ackerman, John Boyne, J.L. Miles, Eileen Goudge and Linda Masemore Pirrung. 

8)  Since Sarah's Key is a French book, there was no critical articles about it on any of the databases.


Simon, Alissa. "SARAH'S KEY (ELLE S'APPELAIT SARAH)." Variety. 20 Sep. 2010: 46. eLibrary.     
                      Web. 17 Oct. 2010.

http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=5&edition=&ts=6A87C1E19A98CAD19F1469359DCFF187_1287342304124&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B184887115&pdfflag=y

In the Cupboard

It made her sick to think he probably thought she'd forgotten him. That's what he believed, locked up in the dark cupboard. He thought she had abandoned him, that she didn't care, that she didn't love him. He had no water, no light and he was afraid. She has let him down.  Pg. 64

This situation made me feel so sick and upset when you think about what Sarah is going through. She thinks that her brother is disappointed in her. She believes that he thinks she doesn't love him and that's why she locked him up and left him there to die. I feel bad for Sarah knowing she isn't able to tell her brother that she is doing everything she can to get home and save him and that she does love him. If I locked my brother is a dark cupboard and never came back for days I would feel so terrible that I wouldn't know what to do. Her brother has no idea what is going through Sarah's head which makes the situation worse. He could think that she just doesn't love him and doesn't care that he is trapped in the cupboard.

This is a picture of my brother and I when we were little sitting in a cupboard in my own house. This relates to the story because me and my brother also used to sit in there and hide from people when we wanted to be alone. I can definitely imagine what Sarah is going through since I have been in the same type of environment. The only difference is I obviously never locked him in there and was taken away by the French police.

"You poor little girl. May God have pity."

A middle-aged woman crossed the street and quickly pressed some thing into her hand. It was a small roll of soft bread. The woman was shooed off by a policeman. The girl had just enough time to see her return to the other side of the street. The woman had said, "You poor little girl. May God have pity." What was God doing, thought the girl, dully. Had God given up on them? Was he punishing them for something she did not know about? Her parents were not religious, although she knew they believed in God. they had not brought her up in the traditional religious fashion, like Armelle had been by her parents, respecting all rites. The girl wondered whether this was not their punishment. Their punishment for not practicing their religion well enough.    Pg. 56

I think this paragraph was interesting because while Sarah was waiting for the train, a Parisian woman came over to Sarah and gave her some food. I think this shows that not everyone was agreeing with what the police were doing. That woman could have been killed for trying to help the Jews but she was willing to risk that to help Sarah even in the tiniest bit. I also think this paragraph is important because Sarah thinks she is being punished because they are "not practicing their religion well enough." The real reason they are being punished is because of their type religion not because they don't practice it well enough. Other than the obvious fact of it being totally horrid and unfair, it was really unfair that the French and German didn't even explain to them why they were doing such horrible things. I think it's kind of ironic how the woman is saying "May God have pity" to Sarah, when Sarah thinks she's being punished for not practicing well enough but then God is going to have pity on her anyways even if she doesn't really believe.

Important Information

This is some important information that helped me to understand the background information about what is really going on in my book.

•  The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and ended in 1945 when the Nazis were defeated by the Allied powers.
• It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Six million of these were Jews.
• The Nazis killed approximately two-thirds of all Jews living in Europe.
• An estimated 1.1 million children were murdered
• After World War II started in 1939, the Nazis began ordering Jews to wear a yellow star of David on their clothing so that Jews could be easily recognized and targeted.
• After the beginning of World War II, Nazis began ordering all Jews to live within certain, very specific, areas of big cities, called ghettos.
• To get them to cooperate, the Nazis told the Jews they were being transported to another place for labor
• The term "Holocaust," originally from the Greek word "holokauston" which means "sacrifice by fire," refers to the Nazi's persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people. The Hebrew word "Shoah," which means "devastation, ruin, or waste," is also used for this genocide.
•  There were only about 200,000 Jewish survivors by the end of the liberation and the death counts from the holocaust were estimated to be around 6 million Jews and millions of other people who did not fit the Aryan mold. [Blonde hair, Blue Eyes (Germans- Racially Superior)]
• The greatest mass-arrest of Jews ever carried out on French soil is known as the Vél’ d’hiv’ Round-up. It involved 13 000 victims from Paris and its suburbs. 
• Over slightly more than two days, the Round-up involved nearly a third of the 42,000 Jews deported to Polish death camps in 1942. The statistics for this terrible year account for over half of the total 76,000 Jewish deportations from France
• The initial establishment of concentration camps in France was a result of the French government, not because of pressure of the Germans
  Concentration and Extermination CampsConcentration camps- work and starve to death
  Extermination camps- the actual execution of the prisoners
  
  Places in Europe where Concentration and Extermination camps were:

Rosenberg, By Jennifer. "Holocaust Facts - 33 Facts You Should Know About the Holocaust." 20th Century History. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm

Fact vs. Fiction

"My grandmother was fifteen the day of the roundup. She was told she was free because they were only taking small children between two and twelve with their parents. She was left behind. And they took all the others. Her little brothers, her little sister, her mother, her father, her aunt, her uncle. Her grandparents. It was the last time she ever saw them. No one came back. No one at all." Pg. 44

This quote is said by Guillaume at the dinner table when Julia was visiting with Hervé and Christophe. Julia, Hervé, and Christophe were talking about the Veldrome D'Hiver when Guillaume told them that his grandmother was part of it and you could tell it made him very emotional. If you were only 15 years old and everyone in your family left and never came home to you that would leave you such a mess. Before reading this book I thought that Jewish people of all ages were taken to the camps but were killed in orders based on how helpful they were. After reading this it seems they only took the old, young and weak and killed them. I once saw a movie called The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski. In that movie it shows they take all the Jewish people but once they get there they kill all the really old men quickly. It never shows what this book tells you, which is only taking the ages 2-12 and their parents. I'm not sure what one is really the truth because Sarah's Key is written by a French Woman while The Pianist was made by a Polish-French man who's parents as well as himself were actually involved in the Holocaust. This book implys that they only took the young and their parents however I think I would believe what Roman Polanski says about the Holocaust over Tatiana de Rosnays only because he was actually a surviver and lived through the real thing.

Taken

Sarah and her family have been taken away from their home and taken to a giant arena with tons of other Jewish people by the French police. Beforehand Sarah had locked her younger brother in a cupboard thinking it will save him and she'll just come back for him later that night. Sarah then found out she was not going to be going home. This situation made me feel so bad for Sarah. She thought she was doing something good for her brother by trying to protect him from the police. However locking him in the cupboard may have been just as bad. If Sarah doesn't get back to her brother in time he may die anyways. If I were in Sarah's position I would feel so guilty and angry with myself knowing I may have been the reason my brother died. I can't imagine how I would if I were Sarah in the moment she found out she wasn't going to be going home to get her brother. Sarah realized she may never see her brother again and that thought just makes me sick knowing you'd never be able to see someone you love ever again.

The Jewish Roundup

These are real pictures that show the kinds of things the Jewish people had to endure. I put these pictures up because I think by seeing what the actual setting of the event looks like it helps me understand the setting of the novel and what it would look like to be a Jew in that time of the world. The first picture is showing that all the Jewish men were taken away from their families and guarded by the police. The second picture is when all the Jewish people were first taken from their homes and are all waiting around to be taken to their next location. The third picture isn't a real picture from the Holocaust but it shows 3 young Jewish boys who are trapped in their prison and are praying to get out (alive).  The third shows the women and children of the Holocaust and how they were absolutely terrified and confused. All of these pictures resemble the part of the novel I'm at so far because they are still being taken from their homes and sitting around waiting to hear what exactly is going to be happening to them.

Book Covers

#1
#1 This version of the novel cover is the French version so it shows the Nazi symbol on the key. I think it's trying to show that the Holocaust was the fault of the Germans and not the French who actually did alot of the killing. I think it's trying to say that the reason Sarah can't get back to save her brother is because the Nazis won't let her, but really the French are not allowing her to go home.

#2
#2 This version of the novel cover I think shows freedom. I think it shows how Sarah was free to be a little girl and live her life until the Jewish roundup occured. I think it is supposed to show how Sarah's life was free of stress and worry of survival and that is how she wants her life to get back to.

#3
#3 This version of the novel I think tries to show you the kind of person Sarah is. It shows her jumping a ditch or something, showing she has no fear. Also the text underneath her feet speaks really strongly. It's saying that Sarah has so much love for her brother that she is willing to do pretty much anything to save him even if it means risking her own life.

#4
#4 This version of the novel shows probably Sarah and her brother running down a path. I think this is supposed to show Sarah and her brother running to freedom away from the Nazis and the French Police. In the  novel Sarah and her family live in a nice French apartment and maybe that is what they are running to in this picture.

Tatiana de Rosnay: Author

Tatiana de Rosnay was born on September 28^th, 1961 in Paris, France.
She is of English, French and Russian descent.  Her father is French scientist Joël de Rosnay, her grandfather was painter Gaëtan de Rosnay and her great-grandmother was Russian actress Natalia Rachewskïa. She was raised in Paris and then moved to Boston. She moved to England in the early 80’s and got a Bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. She has published eight novels in France in which Sarah's Key is the first novel she wrote in English. Tatiana is married and has two children, Louis and Charlotte and she lives with her family in Paris. She writes for French Elle and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine.