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A review by kerri_m
The Postcard by Anne Berest
5.0
I've read many books about the catastrophe, and this is one of the best.
It's a story about identity, survival, memory, responsibility, hope. It's about telling their story. It's about not looking away (even when the telling makes you shake and feel sick).
While many of the details may have been imagined and the research process likely went in a slightly different order, it's miraculous that the Rabinoviches got as much information as they did. We will never hear countless stories of other lives that were stolen.
Reading it now, in 2024, feels like a call to action.
It's a story about identity, survival, memory, responsibility, hope. It's about telling their story. It's about not looking away (even when the telling makes you shake and feel sick).
While many of the details may have been imagined and the research process likely went in a slightly different order, it's miraculous that the Rabinoviches got as much information as they did. We will never hear countless stories of other lives that were stolen.
Reading it now, in 2024, feels like a call to action.
Indifference is universal. Who are you indifferent toward today, right now? Ask yourself that. Which victims living in tents, or under overpasses, or in camps way outside the cities are your ‘invisible ones’? The Vichy regime set out to remove the Jews from French society. And they succeeded.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Deportation
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicide, Grief, and Abandonment