A Dimanche Prochain; A Memoir of Survival in World War II France
Washington, DC [?]: Jacqueline Mendels Birn, 2013. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. 213, [3] pages. Footnotes. Illustrations. Selected Bibliography. Selected Filmography. Inscribed by the author on the photograph page. Inscription reads February 2014 To Harry, With all my hopes for a better future for humanity. Jacqueline Birn. Jacqueline was born on April 23, 1935 in Paris, France. Jacqueline had a normal childhood before the outbreak of the war in 1939, but everything changed in May 1940 when Germany invaded France. In the early days of the invasion the bombardments often forced the family to don gas masks and seek shelter in the cellar of their apartment building. Shortly after the invasion they fled to Deux-Sèvres, but returned to Paris after the armistice was signed and Jacqueline and Manuela were able to attend the local public school that September. In July 1941, the Vichy government instituted a program of “Aryanization” and although her father was forced to sell his share of the business to his non-Jewish partner, he continued to work and would hide in a back room if someone came in. In June 1942 French Jews were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David and the following month 13,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to the Drancy transit camp where most were deported to Auschwitz. Most of the roundups took place in areas of Paris with a high concentration of foreign Jews, but the Mendels lived in a primarily Catholic, French neighborhood where they were one of only a few Jewish families and the authorities did not come for them. More