COVER TO COVER: Sarah’s Key tells the tale of a historical artifact

In Paris, during 1942, approximately 13,000 Jews were arrested and sent to so-called work camps — but not by German Nazis.

In the Parisian-Jewish community, the French police sent thousands to concentration camps, which eventually took them to Auschwitz. The majority of the Jews killed due to the Velodrome d’Hiver roundup were women and children.

Tatiana De Rosnay’s novel, “Sarah’s Key,” tells the story of Sarah Starzynski, a French Jewish girl, and Julia Jarmond, the journalist that uncovered the child’s horrific story.

De Rosnay’s book takes readers through the events of the little-discussed French occurrence, code-named Operation Spring Breeze. The New York Times best-seller begins with the night that Sarah and her family were arrested. Told by her parents they would be back home before she realized, Sarah locked her younger brother Michel in a secret cubbyhole in an attempt to protect him. She eventually escapes from Auschwitz, but does not make it back to Paris in time to save her brother.

Throughout the first half of the novel, De Rosnay switches between the story of Jarmond and Starzynski — and she kept my attention by doing so. The author also keeps her chapters short and sweet; each chapter was about three to four pages. By breaking up the story in this way, she keeps the reader captivated.

De Rosnay uses the approach many drama television programs use: she turns your attention away from the story of one character at moments that leave you dying, which causes you to continue turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Jarmond stumbles upon the girl’s story while working on an article for the fictional American magazine she writes for, Seine Scenes. She finds out that Sarah eventually went back to the home where she left her brother, only to find his rotting body in the cupboard; she had held the key in her possession for weeks. To top off the intricate plot, Jarmond’s in-laws have been living in that very house for years.

De Rosnay’s prose is merciless: “He was stiff, curled up, his face resting upon his hands. He had gone a horrible, green color.” The conclusion is tied up neatly. William, Sarah’s son, reveals to Julia that his mother killed herself because she was continuously haunted by the pain of Auschwitz and the memory of her brother. The story closes with the two of them crying together; they reflect the pain that has gone unrecognized for so long by so many — including the French.

Although all of the characters in the novel are fictional, the event discussed, now referred to as the roundup of Vel’ d’Hiv, did take place in Paris in July 1942. The event occurred due to an alliance the French and Germans had at the time.

The Jews in Paris suspected that the French police would come to arrest the adult men, so the women and children did not hide. However, they did not expect that every Jew would be a target.

With quotas to fill and not enough bodies to count, the French police turned to collecting women and children, like Sarah Starzynski.

The haunting novel left me feeling disheartened not only for the tragedy of the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup and Auschwitz in general, but because I had no previous knowledge of the event.

In any history or international relations class I have taken, the subject has never come up. According to the novel, it is a topic that even many young Parisians are not familiar with.

Because of the unfamiliarity to this historic event, I believe those at the University and all others elsewhere should read “Sarah’s Key” in order to learn more about the horrific and important event they might not know about. Besides that, this book should be read simply because it is an excellent read.