The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in 'Sarah’s Key': A Modern Perspective on a Historical Event Anonymous 9th Grade

Sarah’s Key takes the reader through a split narrative, that of Sarah, the young Jewish girl experiencing the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, and that of Julia Jarmond, the modern day journalist who becomes enveloped by the events of the Vel’ d’Hiv. This essay intends to explore the historical accuracy of the novel Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, specifically, the validity of the portrayal of events during the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup and events taking place at Drancy concentration camp. The legitimacy of the representation of postwar memory in France will also be analyzed.

Sarah’s narrative in the novel begins with her being awoken by French police banging on her door early in the morning. Historically, gendarmes began the operation “at 4:00 AM,” and “banged on the doors of Jewish families. The orders made the arrests swift and quick, without much time for pleading with officers” (Mead 17). The policeman in Sarah’s Key are similarly described as “indifferent, bored” and having a “hard, blank expression in his eyes” (de Rosnay 3). The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup was an unexpected event done under the cover of darkness. The Roundup was an event much of Paris’ Jewish population not only did not expect, but they also did not think women and children would...