The Paris Children

Trigger warnings: antisemitism, concentration camps

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Madeleine Levy is the Jewish granddaughter of the famous WWI hero Alfred Dreyfus. Because of her family's status as high-profile Jews, they must change their identities and move to a new location outside of Paris during WWII. Madeleine takes it upon herself to be the guardian and safe passage out of France for Jewish children and works to gather money and supplies to help send children to safe locations. But Madeleine must also survive being a Jew in France during the Nazi occupation.

This book was not as engaging as other WWII fiction I've read, even though it is based on a real person. This could be because Gloria Goldreich was limited by the historical facts that survived.

Spoilers ahead; this is a historical account so if you do not know Madeleine's story, do not keep reading!

My beef with Madeleine is that she keeps making the wrong decisions. Half of her family goes to America for safety, and her immediate family chooses to stay in France, thinking they are safe. It's a miracle that all of them (except Madeleine) survive the war. Madeleine keeps going back into Paris and other cities in France to gather supplies and help the Resistance. This is all to save a group of Jewish children that she is supposed to be escorting into Spain, but she never actually accomplishes this as she gets arrested right before the mission takes place.

Madeleine is arrested at the very end of the book, and in the epilogue it's stated that she died in a concentration camp. That part of the story felt very tacked on, almost as an afterthought. The book focuses on her work with the resistance, not on her ultimate demise. I can understand that the author wanted to focus on the positive, but that's hard with WWII. Many other novels (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale, The Alice Network) focus on the horrors that happen after being arrested and/or deported and do so in a moving and impactful way. Leaving off that part of Madeleine's story feels like a disservice to her bravery.

I would recommend this title to people looking for real Jewish stories from WWII, or those who can't get enough of WWII fiction.

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Length: 432 pages

Release date: September 1, 2020

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I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.