Conflict
- Hriju Adhikari
In Memoriam - Jewish Music from Holocaust - Klezmer pt.1 - {Music}
Conflict in Sarah's Key mirrors the time period of the Holocaust in such that the audience can see how the Holocaust took place, how it affected people's lives during the actual Holocaust time period, and what happened during that time. Holocaust was a time of terror for the Jews, and the author, Tatiana de Rosnay has portrayed Holocaust as the main conflict of her book mirroring the time period it represents by presenting various true events. Sarah losing her family, and being conflicted about betrayal, loss, and sadness accurately shows the loss and sadness the Jews had to go through during the holocaust. Despite Sarah's key being a historical fiction, it has a lot of historical evidence hidden deep within the words, and most of the events happening to Sarah during and after 1942 gives an accurate description of the actual conflict of the time of Holocaust, especially in Paris.
Conflict in Sarah's Key mirrors the time period of the Holocaust in such that the audience can see how the Holocaust took place, how it affected people's lives during the actual Holocaust time period, and what happened during that time. Holocaust was a time of terror for the Jews, and the author, Tatiana de Rosnay has portrayed Holocaust as the main conflict of her book mirroring the time period it represents by presenting various true events. Sarah losing her family, and being conflicted about betrayal, loss, and sadness accurately shows the loss and sadness the Jews had to go through during the holocaust. Despite Sarah's key being a historical fiction, it has a lot of historical evidence hidden deep within the words, and most of the events happening to Sarah during and after 1942 gives an accurate description of the actual conflict of the time of Holocaust, especially in Paris.
Fig. 1. La Rafle
One way conflict in Sarah’s Key helps to mirror the Holocaust time period is through the betrayal faced by the victims, the Jews. The book especially shows the truth of the round-up in Paris. The Jews in France faced immense betrayal from the French police because it was "the French police who arrested all those Jewish families. Not the Nazis", and the roundup presented in the book represents the "Operation Spring Breeze" in which the "execution itself was led by hundreds of French police officers and gendarmes, who operated according to lists of addresses given by the municipality" (Rosnay 73 and Klieger). When the French policemen first turned on their own people, the Jews living in France felt betrayed, and the betrayal is finely portrayed in the book when the readers learn about Sarah's trust towards the French police during the roundup. Most Jews living in France probably trusted at least their own men, who they had been getting along with, to not turn them in, and take them to their death. Betrayal was one of the leading conflicts, which lead to all the other conflicts faced by the Jews, and this truth of history is relevantly incorporated in the book.
One way conflict in Sarah’s Key helps to mirror the Holocaust time period is through the betrayal faced by the victims, the Jews. The book especially shows the truth of the round-up in Paris. The Jews in France faced immense betrayal from the French police because it was "the French police who arrested all those Jewish families. Not the Nazis", and the roundup presented in the book represents the "Operation Spring Breeze" in which the "execution itself was led by hundreds of French police officers and gendarmes, who operated according to lists of addresses given by the municipality" (Rosnay 73 and Klieger). When the French policemen first turned on their own people, the Jews living in France felt betrayed, and the betrayal is finely portrayed in the book when the readers learn about Sarah's trust towards the French police during the roundup. Most Jews living in France probably trusted at least their own men, who they had been getting along with, to not turn them in, and take them to their death. Betrayal was one of the leading conflicts, which lead to all the other conflicts faced by the Jews, and this truth of history is relevantly incorporated in the book.
Fig. 2. This is the reality of the Western world every day. You just don’t get to see the corpses.
Furthermore, loss was one of the other main conflicts presented in the book, which corresponds to the tragedy of the Holocaust faced by many Jews. The roundup in the Vel d'Hiv during the Holocaust made it impossible for many Jews to hold on to the thin strand of hope, and caused them to give up, and the loss of hope is homogeneously represented in the novel as Rosnay describes what Sarah sees and feels during the roundup in the Vélodrome d'Hiver. As people began to lose hope during the roundup, there were many people who were jumping “over the balconies” and “there were people killing each other” and “themselves. They were committing suicide. They were jumping to their deaths”, and many witnessed the death, and many were too distressed to notice anyone else’s death ("The Vel d'Hiv Roundup"). This struggle of the Jews is delineated in the book, Sarah’s Key, when Sarah herself witnesses suicides in the garage when a “woman had jumped, her child held close, from the highest railing”, and sees the hope in people seeping away from them (Rosnay 57). Many people, especially the survivors held on to the hope and didn't give up until the end, but there were many who thought of ending their life since they had lost every hope they had. They gave up because they didn't want to suffer in the future, and for many, giving up on life was the easiest choice, or at least a better one than suffering an insufferable pain in the future.
Furthermore, loss was one of the other main conflicts presented in the book, which corresponds to the tragedy of the Holocaust faced by many Jews. The roundup in the Vel d'Hiv during the Holocaust made it impossible for many Jews to hold on to the thin strand of hope, and caused them to give up, and the loss of hope is homogeneously represented in the novel as Rosnay describes what Sarah sees and feels during the roundup in the Vélodrome d'Hiver. As people began to lose hope during the roundup, there were many people who were jumping “over the balconies” and “there were people killing each other” and “themselves. They were committing suicide. They were jumping to their deaths”, and many witnessed the death, and many were too distressed to notice anyone else’s death ("The Vel d'Hiv Roundup"). This struggle of the Jews is delineated in the book, Sarah’s Key, when Sarah herself witnesses suicides in the garage when a “woman had jumped, her child held close, from the highest railing”, and sees the hope in people seeping away from them (Rosnay 57). Many people, especially the survivors held on to the hope and didn't give up until the end, but there were many who thought of ending their life since they had lost every hope they had. They gave up because they didn't want to suffer in the future, and for many, giving up on life was the easiest choice, or at least a better one than suffering an insufferable pain in the future.
Fig. 3. Vel d’Hiv Roundup
Likewise, when people lost hope, it caused many of them to lose their family, too. In addition, losing family was also caused by the betrayal of the French policemen. There were many victims of this devastating tragedy of losing a family member during the Holocaust, which is similar to Sarah's distress of her being abandoned in the world with no family members except her caretakers. When "you lose your parents at any age, it hurts", and "to be alone in the world" is one of the worst feeling you can have (Galler). Furthermore, "if you cannot grieve right away, it stays with you for your whole life" (Galler). Many Jews, who were taken to the concentration camps, were separated from their family either due to some of the members escaping or many dying in the camps. In Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay shows the reader the grievance of losing one’s family through Sarah’s emotions and expressions. Although people tried to believe that the police “couldn't possibly ... separate the children from the parents”, they were forced to separate, and that was one of the biggest tragedy for the victims of the Holocaust (Rosnay 161). In some cases, people “didn't know what had happened to” their “parents” either after they ran away, or after their separation, and this similar situation is described in the book as Sarah runs away from her terrible future to save her brother, but with no idea of what could happen, or had happened to her family (Kaufer). The tragedy of losing family members is significantly portrayed in the book with the use of Sarah’s character when she is separated from her father, then her mother, and later, when she finally witnesses her brother’s death. The conflict of losing family is very tragic, and it does hurt a lot, and can affect one’s life immensely.