Sarah's Key Quotes

“When would he realize that it wasn't his infidelity I couldn't bear, but his cowardice?”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“You get attached to places, you know. Like people, I suppose.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“How was it possible that entire lives could change, could be destroyed, and that streets and buildings remained the same, she wondered.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Zakhor. Al Tichkah. Remember. Never forget.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“I wanted to cry, but the tears did not come.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“You're playing with Pandora's box. Sometimes it's better not to open it. Sometimes, it's better not to know.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“I wanted to say sorry, I wanted to tell her I could not forget the roundup, the camp, Michel's death, and the direct train to Auschwitz that had taken her parents away forever. Sorry for what? he had retaliated, why should I, an American, feel sorry, hadn't my fellow countrymen freed France in June 1944? I had nothing to be sorry for, he laughed.
I had looked at him straight in the eyes.
Sorry for not knowing. Sorry for being forty-five years old and not knowing.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“The girl wondered: These policemen... didn't they have families, too? Didn't they have children? Children they went home to? How could they treat children this way? Were they told to do so, or did they act this way naturally? Were they in fact machines, not human beings? She looked closely at them. They seemed of flesh and bone. They were men. She couldn't understand.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“She couldn't imagine why there was such a difference between those children and her. She couldn't imagine why she and all these other people with her had to be treated this way. Who decided this, and what for?”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“The eyes of a woman in the face of a ten-year-old girl.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Michel. In my dreams, you come and get me. You take me by the hand and you lead me away. This life is too much for me to bear. I look at the key and I long for you and for the past. For the innocent, easy days before the war. I know now my scars will never heal. I hope my son will forgive me. He will never know. No one will ever know.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Sometimes, Miss Jarmond, it's not easy to bring back the past. There are unpleasant surprises. The truth is harder than ignorance”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“And so I write this for you, My Sarah. With the hope that one day, when you’re old enough, this story that lives with me, will live with you as well. When a story is told, it is not forgotten. It becomes something else, a memory of who we were; the hope of what we can become.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Finally, the lock clicked and she tugged the secret door open. A rotten stench hit her like a fist. She drew away. The boy at her side recoiled, afraid. Sarah fell to her knees. Sarah could not speak, she could only quiver, her fingers covering her eyes, her nose, blocking out the smell.....She sank to her knees again and she screamed at the top of her lungs, she screamed, for her mother, for her father, screamed for Michel.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“You know what I find most shocking about the Vel'd'Hiv?" Guillaume said. "Its code name."
I knew the answer to that, thanks to my extensive reading.
Operation Spring Breeze, " I murmured.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“She bent her chin to her chest. She mumbled something I did not catch. It sounded like, "Shame on us all for not having stopped it.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“The girl wondered if her parents had been right to protect her from everything, if they had been right not to explain why so many things had changed for them since the start of the war... Nobody would tell her. Nobody would explain. She hated being treated like a baby. She hated the voices being lowered when she entered the room. If they had told her, if they had told her everything they knew, wouldn't that have made today easier?”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“My grandmother was fifteen the day of the roundup. She was told she was free because they were only taking small children between two and twelve with their parents. She was left behind. And they took all the others. Her little brothers, her little sister, her mother, her father, her aunt, her uncle. Her grandparents. It was the last time she ever saw them. No one came back No one at all.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Zakhor, Al Tichkah.' Souviens-toi. N'oublie jamais.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Vous savez, Miss Jarmond, faire revivre le passé n'es pas chose facile. On a parfois des surprises désagréables. La vérité est plus terrible que l'ignorance.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“she would like to see you.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Never cry in front of these men. Never cry. Ever. It’s only hair. Hair will grow back.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“There had been over four thousand Jewish children penned in the Vel’ d’Hiv’, aged between two and twelve. Most of the children were French, born in France. None of them came back from Auschwitz.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror as we glided p. I looked as eroded as the groaning lift. What had happened to the fresh-faced belle from Boston, Mass.? The woman who stared back at me was at the dreaded age between forty-five and fifty, that no-man's land of sag, oncoming wrinkle, and stealthy approach of menopause.
"I hate this elevator, too," I said grimly.
Zoe grinned and pinched my cheek.
"Mom, even Gwyneth Paltrow would look like hell in that mirror."
I had to smile. That was such a Zoe-like remark.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“How long had it been planned for?” “For months,” I answered. “The French government had been working on it intently since April ’42, writing up all the lists of the Jews to arrest. Over six thousand Parisian policemen were commissioned to carry it out. At first, the initial chosen date was July 14. But that’s the national fête here. So it was scheduled a little later.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“She couldn’t imagine why there was such a difference between those children and her. She couldn’t imagine why she and all these people here with her had to be treated this way. Who had decided this, and what for?”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“Był to przyjazny rudy policjant z jej dzielnicy. Ten, z którym dawniej rozmawiała matka. Który zawsze puszczał do niej oko, kiedy szła do szkoły. Do którego pomachała w dniu aresztowań, a on odwrócił wzrok. Teraz był zbyt blisko, aby spojrzeć w inną stronę. Patrzyła mu w oczy, ani razu nie spuszczając wzroku. Miał dziwne żółtawe źrenice, niemal złote. Twarz policjanta poczerwieniała ze wstydu i dziewczynka miała wrażenie, że widzi, jak drży. Nic nie mówiła, patrząc na niego z całą pogardą, na jaką umiała się zdobyć.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“On July 16 and 17, 1942, 13,152 Jews were arrested in Paris and the suburbs, deported and assassinated at Auschwitz. In the Vélodrome d’Hiver that once stood on this spot, 1,129 men, 2,916 women, and 4,115 children were”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“new France. I pity them, and I fear what lies ahead.”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key

“On July 16 and 17, 1942, 13,152 Jews were arrested in Paris and the suburbs, deported and assassinated at Auschwitz. In the Vélodrome d’Hiver that once stood on this spot, 1,129 men, 2,916 women, and 4,115 children were packed here in inhuman conditions by the government of the Vichy police, by order of the Nazi occupant. May those who tried to save them be thanked. Passerby, never forget!”
― Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key