After being held in the Vélodrome d’Hiver for many days without food and water, Sarah and her family were taken to a transit camp in France. While at the camp, known as Drancy, Sarah was separated from her father at first, and then her mother as well. She was finally able to escape by slipping underneath the fence with Rachel, a girl who was kind and helpful to her, and with the help of the red-headed French police officer who had recognized her from back in Paris.
Although Sarah’s character is completely fictitious, her situations and experiences were very much true. Within August of 1941 and August of 1944, nearly 70,000 people passed through Drancy, most of them being Jews. Soon after their arrival at Drancy, prisoners were shaved, fed very little amounts of food, and, according to Sarah’s Key, separated from their families. Currently, I am curious as to where Sarah’s mother was taken. Was the taken to Auschwitz? Or was she killed upon arrival? The first transport from Drancy to Auschwitz-Birkenau took place on June 22nd, 1942. They transported 1,o00 Jews out of the total 64,759 Jews at the camp.
While searching through many articles, this one seemed like it related the most to Sarah’s Key. I inferred that this is the camp they were first taken to after the Vel d’Hiv roundup. The camp that is described in the book has many similarities to Drancy. For example, they were in France, and both served as transit camps. Thousands of French citizens and foreigners lost their lives during their time at Drancy.
Source:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Drancy.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005215. Accessed on December 2nd, 2011.
Well done!Thanks for citing your source.
ReplyDelete5/5 points.