When I started reading Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key (one of our April Picks) I did not know what the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup was. It may have been mentioned in a history class at one time or another, but I do not remember studying it. 
For those of you who (like me) do not remember learning about it in school, here is a Wikipedia synopsis:
The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup was a Nazi directed raid and mass arrest of Jews in Paris by the French police, code named Opération Vent printanier (“Operation Spring Breeze”), on 16 and 17 July 1942. The name “Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup” is derived from the nickname of the Vélodrome d’Hiver (“Winter Velodrome”), a bicycle velodrome and stadium where a majority of the victims were temporarily confined. The roundup was one of several aimed at eradicating the Jewish population in France, both in the occupied zone and in the free zone. According to records of the Préfecture de Police, 13,152 Jews were arrested, including more than 4,000 children. They were held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver in extremely crowded conditions, with little water and food and no sanitary facilities, as well as at the Drancy, Pithiviers, and Beaune-la-Rolande internment camps, then shipped in rail cattle cars to Auschwitz for their mass murder.
In Sarah’s Key, de Rosnay crafted a heartbreaking story about a fictional girl named Sarah and her family who were subject to the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. The reader witnesses the horror of the roundup through the eyes of a terrified ten-year-old girl.
While the reader is getting to know Sarah, her family, and her tragic circumstances, de Rosnay introduces the reader to Paris in 2002. The reader meets Julia Jarmond, an American journalist living in Paris who is investigating the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in anticipation of its sixtieth anniversary. Julia Jarmond learns about the horrors of the roundup and finds an unlikely connection between her family and Sarah’s. The majority of the book covers Julia’s journey to unearth the details of Sarah’s life in Paris and what happened to her and her family after the roundup.
This book was heavier than I expected it to be and I found myself physically cringing at some of the events in the story. I was so moved by Sarah’s story and how her story affected Julia. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction about World War II and the Holocaust. de Rosnay’s words will stick with you long after you finish the last chapter.
Live, Love, Learn,
Candice & The Write Teacher(s)
PS – Late to the book club party!? Get your copy of Sarah’s Key here.