Thursday, June 25, 2015

Where in "Sarah's Key" are there examples of resistance, as well as acquiescence/doing nothing?

Like most Holocaust accounts, Sarah's
Key
details the horrors of WWII for Jews living in Europe.  This book takes
place (mostly) in Paris, France.  Many wrongly believed France to be innocent of
Hitlerian influence.  This book proves otherwise.


Perhaps
the only incident of violent resistence takes place in the Vel' d'Hiv' where thousands
of Jewish French citizens were held before being deported to death camps.  Though most
were compliant for fear of their lives, one woman jumped from a balcony and killed
herself and her child rather than face a unknown death that was out of her
control.


Some of the acts of non-violent resistance include
Sarah's first instinct to hide her brother in the closet.  Another example is when the
boy, Leon, escapes the Vel d'Hiv' by running for the doors amidst confusion.  Later,
Sarah and her friend Rachel escape the camp and a French officer actually aids them by
lifting the barbed wire and giving Sarah money.  Jules and Genevieve of course
non-violently resist by lying to officers, hiding Sarah, and ultimately adopting
her.


The biggest examples of acquiescence are of course the
hundreds (perhaps thousands) of French citizens who simply ignored the roundup of Jews
in their cities and countries in the first place.  Even as they are unloaded from the
Vel d'Hiv' (and clearly have been neglected and abused within), many people turned away
and did nothing.  Though much of this may have been from fear, even more was simply from
a great amount of ignorance and deceit as to what was really
happening.

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