Every time I pick up a book about the Holocaust, I sit and wonder how on Earth anybody allowed it to happen. It just blows me away.

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay covers a part of the Holocaust that I wasn’t aware of. It is about the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups of Jews in Paris in July of 1942. 13,000 people were rounded up only to be shipped to Auschwitz.

Sarah is a 10-year-old girl in Paris in the summer of 1942. When the police come knocking, she locks her 4-year-old brother in their secret cupboard hiding place to keep him safe. But, she had no idea what the police had in mind for the family.

The story jumps back and forth between Sarah’s plight and Julia Jarmond, an American born journalist living in Paris that is writing a story about the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. A Julia does more research on the events of that summer, she begins to unravel the story of Sarah and how their lives connect.

Sarah’s Key is a heartbreaking story of one of humanity’s darkest times. It’s a page-turner that keeps you up, wanting to find out whatever became of Sarah. I highly recommend this book.