Sarah's Key - By Tatiana de Rosnay

This book is a very touching one. For someone whom read so much and wondered on the sciences of the terrible WWII, Sarah's Key makes impossible for you not to be horrified with the realities of War. This book, is about the Velodrome d'Hiver roundup in France, July 16, 1942, where in the middle of the night more than thirteen thousand Jewish victims were arrested and held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver and the Drancy internment camp nearby, then shipped by rail to Auschwitz. From these Thirteen thousand, over four thousand were children, between the ages of two (two!) and eleven.
What's outstanding about Sara's character, is the after-war persona. It goes to show us, how in some cases, when we go through such horrible things, surviving sometimes is really not enough. How much can we endure? - and more importantly, how normal can we lead a life after such pain?
Sarah is a Jewish eleven year old girl. She and her family are taken by the police in the middle of the night, in very cruel fashion.
For protection, she'd hidden her little brother under a cupboard locked with a key, obviously believing this is the best way to keep him safe. Her innocence is such, that she's convinced she'll be back very soon, maybe even in hours! to get him back...
We can see surviving with very different angles. It's complex. And for some people unfortunately it isn't sufficient. What sort of Sara would you be?
Going through the impossible and enduring inhuman surroundings of concentration camp, holding dear to that big key close to her heart, day after day, thinking fervently on her little brother...how long has it been? weeks? months? he must be very thirsty by now... can he still be alive?
Then after a very, if you may, "lucky" chance to scape, running back at her old apartment, now having total strangers living in, on her house! with all vestiges of her prior life gone forever, And then the already expected but still unthinkable...to open the cupboard to the already very decomposed body of your little brother.
What to say about guilt? what to say of carrying on?
On Sara's case, she gives up. Later in life, she runs into a tree with her car and ends it, she can't stand life, she lacks the strength.
Who's to say how life would go on after something like that? I honestly can't tell that you I wouldn't follow Sara's path. I would like to say I'll have done things differently, be a strong survivor, take life with both hands and be ready for anything that might come my way after what I've been trough, but really, I couldn't say it for sure.
I like to think that we had more people like Genevieve and Jules Dufaure out there at that difficult time. People who would just for the sake of kindness, helped to save lives, even if endangering they own. Kindhearted folks who rescued others by giving shelter, food and compassion to those poor souls.