Sarah's Key

I just finished reading Sarah's Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay and feel like it has changed me at my core. Any time a book impacts me like that I feel compelled to share it.

It is about a little known event that took place during the Holocaust. The Velodrome d'Hiver roundup took place the summer of 1942 in Paris. The French police rounded up thousands of French Jews for deportation to two different death camps. The majority of these Jews were children and very, very few of them survived.

I know reading about the Holocaust is not easy, but I strongly believe that it is important to not forget where we have been. To not forget the horrors, mistakes, changes, triumphs, and growth we have experienced as humans, individuals, couples, families, nations and the world. I don't believe in dwelling on the past, but rather not forgetting so that we don't keep making the same mistakes over and over, and so we can keep doing what works.

I would like to think that another Holocaust will never happen again, but sadly it does every day just with different names such as genocide and racism. I am not trying to take away anything from those that suffered during the Holocaust, but people are still suffering similar injustice because of their race or religious beliefs. Just because it may be on a smaller scale or a part of the world that is removed from our reality doesn't make it ok.

One of the things 9/11 taught me was that we as a country and individuals are only one attack or tragedy away from going down a very dangers path of hatred. Fear and the desire for retaliation or so called justice can lead people to think and do horrible things.

If you can't or won't read the book at least Google "Velodrome d'Hiver roundup" so we don't forget what atrocities humans are capable of committing against each other.