Description

A riveting, poignant account of two young women-the author’s own mother-in-law, and her sister-and their miraculous escape from the murderous authorities of Vichy France.

When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, Marion and Huguette Muller’s family was torn apart. After their mother was deported to Auschwitz, the two young Jewish women fled to the Alpine skiing town of Val d’Isere, where they were rescued by an incredibly courageous doctor.

Through intrepid reporting, sensitive family interviews, and thousands of records, Rosie Whitehouse traces decades-old mysteries of the Muller sisters’ story, seeking closure and justice for her family and the doctor’s. Why did he shelter them? Who had betrayed their mother? How did this national tragedy happen?

Whitehouse’s discoveries raise deep moral questions about France’s Holocaust, with urgent resonance for today’s politics: questions about French complicity, minority agency, collective culpability, duty to your country and duty to other people. She pieces together not only how the sisters were saved, but how so many others were lost.

From villagers to Vichy officials, antisemitism to resistance, this is a sweeping yet intimate history of French choices before, during and after the Nazi occupation; and a moving, gripping tale of forged documents, narrow escapes, one family’s trauma, and the grace of human connection.

Publisher Review

‘[A] heartrending account… This makes a well-covered historical period feel agonisingly immediate.’ — Publishers Weekly ‘A compelling account of survival and remembrance.’ — Booklist ‘Rosie Whitehouse’s gripping narrative begins with a poignant portrait of a family torn apart, but soon broadens into searing questions of dispossession and betrayal that haunt European politics to this day. In illuminating the unyielding spirit of those who dared to defy oppression, Whitehouse masterfully renders the enduring light of human courage against the encroaching shadows of tyranny.’ * Benjamin Balint, author of Bruno Schulz, winner of a National Jewish Book Award * ‘British journalist Tim Judah was six years old when he asked his mother Marion why she didn’t have a mother. Two Sisters, written by the journalist Rosie Whitehouse (and Tim Judah’s wife) answers that question in a story that reads like a thriller: a family running from the Nazis and their religion, hoping they would find safety in France. Brilliantly researched and beautifully written, Two Sisters tells the story of the Holocaust in France through a family caught in the maelstrom.’ * Edward Serotta, journalist, photographer and filmmaker and Founding Director of Centropa * ‘Two Sisters is a brilliant meditation on family and trauma across generations, a much-needed critical reappraisal of the Jewish experience in France during the Holocaust, and a reminder of just how complicated and nuanced individual stories can be-even, and perhaps especially, the stories of those we feel we know so well.’ * James McAuley, author of The House of Fragile Things *