Two Sisters: Betrayal, Love, and Resistance in Wartime France Betrayal, Love, and Resistance in Wartime France

When Whitehouse (The People on the Beach, 2020) discovered that a stranger saved the lives of two of her in-laws, Marion and Huguette, during the Holocaust, she decided to find the family of the now-deceased man to learn more about him, uncover his reasons for risking his life to save her relatives, and properly honor his actions. Whitehouse relates Marion and Huguette's lives in Germany and France as everything changed with the rise of the Nazis, and they had to flee and hide their Jewish identity to survive. Marion became an operative in the French Resistance, which led Whitehouse to look at Resistance operations in Vichy France. Huguette encountered more danger when her mother was captured and deported to Auschwitz. In the present day, Whitehouse searches archives, conducts interviews, and visits historical sites for clues to fill in Marion and Huguette's story. While researching, she muses on the importance and character of memory, accountability, and the complicity of the French government in the Holocaust. A compelling account of survival and remembrance.

Journalist Whitehouse (The People on the Beach) delivers a heartrending account of her mother-in-law's experiences during the Holocaust. Huguette Müller and her sister, Marion, escaped the Nazis with the help of a French doctor named Frédéric Pétri in 1943. To flesh out that story beyond Huguette's memory of it, Whitehouse tracked down the doctor's relatives in California, conducted interviews, and combed through historical records in hopes of adding Dr. Pétri to the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. Interwoven with the details of Whitehouse's reporting is a portrait of the white-collar Müller family, professionals who distanced themselves from their Judaism in 1920s and '30s Berlin. When the Nazis came to power, the Müllers fled to France, where Huguette and Marion's mother was captured and sent to Auschwitz. The sisters escaped to a ski resort in the French Alps, where Huguette broke her leg and was treated by Dr. Pétri, who took her into his home so they could avoid detection by the Gestapo at a local hospital, and eventually helped them leave France. Whitehouse nimbly balances a white-knuckle wartime narrative with a trenchant examination of the politics of Vichy France. This makes a well-covered historical period feel agonizingly immediate. Photos. (Jan.)

Excerpt Chapter 3: The Exodus At five o'clock in the morning on May 10, 1940, the high-pitched wail of the sirens on the Eiffel Tower cut through the air. Edith and Johannes ran to the window and looked up in fear at the empty sky. The Germans had invaded Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg. Three days later came the terrifying news that the Wehrmacht had broken through the thick forests of the Ardennes.             Bedraggled refugees were soon seen on the streets of Paris pushing carts and prams loaded with suitcases and pots and pans. The smell of burning paper wafted in thorough the French windows of the sitting room on rue de Miromesnil as officials in the ministries burned files and documents. Rumors flew around--all of them contradictory--as the German army pushed towards the Channel ports to take the fight to the British army stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. Life in Paris, however, went on with a veneer of normality until just before lunch on June 3 when a low buzzing sound could be heard through Edith's kitchen window. It grew louder until it became a persistent menacing drone. There was a rattle of antiaircraft guns and then came the deep reverberating echo of explosions. The Citroën armaments factory on Quai de Javel was blown to pieces. The tension inside the apartment must have been palpable. Marion was in the south of France working for her father and only twelve-year-old Huguette was at home. Even if her parents hid their fear from her, there must have been arguments and recriminations behind closed doors. Excerpted from Two Sisters: Betrayal, Love, and Resistance in Wartime France by Rosie Whitehouse All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.