The Postcard by Anne Berest is written as a novel but is nonetheless the true story of Berest’s great grandparents and two of their children who all perished in the holocaust.
In the early years of this century the author’s mother received a post card with a photo of a Parisian landmark on the front and on the reverse all that was written were 4 names, those of her relatives who were murdered at Auschwitz.
No one in the family could imagine who could have sent the postcard nor why they would have but it raised so many questions in the mind of Berest that she undertook an investigation into her family’s recent history.
She tells the story of the need for the Rabinovitch family to have moved homes and countries several times in the early years of the 20th century before coming to establish themselves in France in the 1930s and never believing that what was happening in Germany could threaten them. It illustrates the small constraints that were imposed on the French Jewish population, little by little that finally rendered them powerless and with nowhere to turn.
One member of the family escaped deportation and her life during the war years is told in parallel to the fate of her family. The author enlisted the help of private detectives and handwriting experts to unravel the history of just one family caught up in the history of Europe that we are so familiar with. The resulting book is unputdownable, a compelling and exciting read.
Available for £10.99 in paperback from Old Hall Bookshop in Brackley.
