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

by Rosie Whitehouse

This riveting book is an astonishing testimony of what befell two sisters, Whitehouse’s own mother-in-law and aunt, who managed to escape the killing fields in Vichy France against all odds.

Marion and Huguette Müller’s family was torn apart when the Nazis invaded France in 1940. After their mother was deported to Auschwitz, the sisters fled to the small Alpine ski resort village of Val d'Isère, where they were rescued by a brave young doctor.
            Through intrepid reporting and meticulous research, Whitehouse traces the story of the Müller sisters, solving decades-old mysteries in her attempt to deliver both closure and justice. With skill and urgency, Whitehouse raises moral questions at the heart of the tragedy of the questions about complicity, culpability, about duty to your country and your fellow man. She sifts through thousands of records and pieces together how the sisters were saved, and how so many others were lost.
            It is a tale full of shocking discoveries featuring a bloodthirsty killer, secret operatives of the French resistance, forged documents, narrow escapes, and miracles.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Holocaust, Biography, Jewish

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2025

About the author

Rosie Whitehouse is a journalist specialising in Jewish life after the Holocaust. She writes for BBC Online, the Observer, The Independent, Tablet magazine, The Jewish Chronicle, Haaretz and others. A graduate of the London School of Economics, she is an historical advisor at the Vienna-based Centropa, a Jewish history institute.

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so well-researched and well-written. I couldn't put it down, and was fascinated to learn about the Jewish resistance network in France. The author's MIL was a hero who never claimed a title for herself, but saved as many lives as she could including her own family. The journey began with the MIL's death and the request of Aunt Huguette to find a man who saved her during the Holocaust. She wanted to know why he saved her, and to confer the title Righteous Among Nations on him for his actions. The book also explores other acts of French complicity as well as French resistance, including a whole town that saved thousands of Jewish people, earning the town the title of Righteous Among Nations. I was saddened to learn that there is no title for Jewish people who acted in the resistance, as Marian, the MIL, would surely be considered Righteous as well.

I highly recommend this book for a little-known history of France's involvement in the Holocaust as well as in the resistance. Thanks to Netgalley for the e-arc!

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was inspired to buy this after stumbling upon a review in the newspaper and then seeing it in the window of one of my local bookshops and I am so glad bought this book. I also think I originally read an article on the BBC about these very women... I guess I wasn't the only one and someone must have approached the author asking for it to be turned into a book!

It's a fantastically well researched read that tells the story of wartime France through the lens of two young women and their wider family. The author weaves in necessary historical context throughout the book to help put the family's unfolding story into perspective.

I particularly appreciated the images that help bring the story to life.

I also recommend this for anyone who likes to go skiing in the Alps (Val d'Isere especially) and spends time in the South of France. The book will bring a new perspective to your trips.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC I return for an honest review.

There are many things I appreciated about this book. 1. Whitehouse didn’t have a whole lot of information to go off if. Yet, her determination to find out more about the many who saved her Jewish grandmother’s life as a teen, to get him formal recognition, and just tell grandmother’s story was admirable. 2. I enjoyed both hearing the story of the two sisters, and also the research process Whitehouse used to find out the facts and the context and what is happening currently in some locations in the story, such as the hotel Jews were held in until they were taken to Auschwitz. 3. I was truly invested in learning with Whitehouse her family’s story and I learned things about history I hadn’t before. I didn’t know that Jews had their citizenship taken away in both Germany and France. That was eerie and hit home to me.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a nice change to read about the resistance to World War II. Whitehouse does a great job with her research. I sounds found the organization of the information to jar me.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

British journalist Tim Judah's grandmother Edith Müller perished in the Holocaust, and Edith's daughters (Tim's mother Marion and aunt Huguette) survived by dint of grit, luck, and the kindness of a stranger.


Edith Müller and her baby Marion

In this book Rosie Whitehouse (Tim's wife) tells the well-researched story of Tim's Jewish forebears, who fled from Germany to France before WWII. Jews hoped to be safe in France, but many were victims of the Vichy government's cooperation with the Nazis and/or French citizens who either collaborated or looked the other way.



Even in the midst of this deplorable situation, however, there were French heroes who helped Jews. Righteous Among Nations is an honor given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Author Rosie Whitehouse writes, "Almost 28,000 people across the world have been given the honor, 4,000 of them in France."


Righteous Among Nations Medal

One recipient of Righteous Among Nations is Dr. Frédéric Pétri, whose name will be engraved on Jerusalem's Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous. Dr. Pétri saved the life of Tim's aunt Huguette, and this kindness is what inspired Whitehouse to research and write this book.


Dr. Frédéric Pétri


Garden of the Righteous in Israel

Dr. Pétri's brave deed happened like this: In the fall of 1943, during the German occupation of France, Edith Müller was sent to a concentration camp. Her daughters, 15-year-old Huguette and 20-year-old Marion fled from Lyon to hide out in the mountain town of Val d’Isère. Huguette slipped and broke her leg, and Dr. Pétri was called to help.


Huguette (left) and Marion Müller


Val d’Isère, France

Dr. Pétri said Huguette needed to be moved to the hospital, but Marion knew the Germans patrolled the hospital, and she punched Dr. Pétri in the face. Dr. Pétri realized the girls were Jewish and immediately said he would look after Huguette himself in his own house. Dr. Pétri warned Marion to leave the village immediately and come back in six months, by which time Huguette's leg would be healed.


Dr. Frédéric Pétri's chateau

After six months Marion and Huguette were re-united, and though they faced more danger, both girls survived WWII.

This is the bare bones of the story, which Whitehouse begins back when the Müllers' forebears lived in Berlin. To research the book, Whitehouse (who lives in Britain) traveled to Germany and France; went to addresses and sites related to the family; visited museums and archives; found photos and papers among Marion and Huguettes belongings; did research on the internet; interviewed people; and more.


Berlin in the early 20th century

Whitehouse's narrative is very detailed, and includes the history and politics of western Europe; stories about roundups of Jews; descriptions of resistance groups; anecdotes about radio broadcasts; portrayals of Nazis and other relevant people; and much more. Whitehouse also imaginatively re-creates events, and describes them as they might have happened. For this review, though, I'll just provide a glimpse of the Müllers' personal tale.

Before WWII, the Müllers - Edith, her husband Johannes, and their daughters Marion and Huguette - lived in Berlin, where Edith's family owned a large textile factory. After Hitler came to power in 1933, stormtroopers beat up Jews and denounced them, and the Müllers moved to France.


Johannes Müller


Nazi Stormtroopers

Once WWII broke out, France was no haven. Xenophobic language filled newspapers, and right-wing leaders inflamed the population's anti-Semitism. Marion and Huguette were told not to tell anyone they were Jewish. The family pretended to be Catholic, and became "as French as they possibly could in their tastes, in the clothes they wore, and even the food they ate."

In 1940, Germany forced the capitulation of France, and a new anti-democratic, anti-Semitic government was formed in the town of Vichy. German troops poured into France, hunted down Jews, and sent them to concentration camps. The Müllers had forged identification papers, but these were no guarantees of safety.


Marion Müller's forged papers

To exacerbate the situation, Johannes Müller was an unfaithful husband and neglectful father who abandoned the family to be with his mistress Lucette. This left the female Müllers on their own, which amplified their problems.

In September 1943 Marion was in Lyon, and Edith and Huguette were in Nice. An informer reported Edith, who was arrested while Huguette was in school.

In Whitehouse's imagination, this was Edith's fate: Edith was taken to the Hôtel Excelsior, which was crowded with apprehended people waiting under a huge Swastika flag. Edith was then interrogated by frightening and shouting SS officers, who wanted the names of family and friends. Edith was made to give up her valuables and - on transport day - she and other prisoners were marched to the train station, crowded into a carriage, and taken to the transit camp at Drancy. The trip took 48 hours, and the prisoners had no room to sit, no food, and no water. From Drancy, Edith was sent to Auschwitz and gassed.


Drancy Transit Camp

When Huguette returned from school to find an empty house, she was told her mother had been arrested. Huguette then made her way to Marion in a roundabout way, and the girls went to Val d’Isère and were assisted by Dr. Pétri, as described above.

Marion and Huguette survived the war, as did their father Johannes, and Whitehouse writes about their lives after the conflict.


Marion Müller and two friends


Huguette Müller

France's role in exterminating Jews is probably less well known than Germany's, and Whitehouse's explication is edifying and horrifying. I'll give a few examples.

► In 1940, Marshal Philippe Pétain became head of the collaborationist regime in Vichy. Under his leadership, a commission revoked the citizenship of over a million naturalized French citizens, many of whom were Jews. This led to innumerable arrests and murders.


Marshal Philippe Pétain

► In 1942, SS Officer Theodor Dannecker ordered a roundup of all Jews in France, René Bousquet - Vichy's French head of police - agreed that his men would round up 22,000 foreign Jews whose names the police held in a register.


René Bousquet

► In summer 1942, there was a wave of denunciations as French people wrote to local officials and even to Marshal Pétain, denouncing Jews. One person wrote to say 'we want a French Cannes and not an international town where the Jews are the masters in control...Jews should be forced to wear a yellow hat, condemned to forced labor and their money confiscated. Ideally they should be made to disappear in bottomless boats to feed the fish they deprive us of.'



► In 1943, a violent roundup took place in Marseille. The city was full of Jewish refugees, and on René Bousquet's orders, 12,000 French police were brought into the city to help the Germans carry out a major operation against the Jews.


The Marseille Roundup

► In 1945, shortly before VE Day, disputes over housing shortages in Paris prompted 500 demonstrators to march through the city shouting 'Death to the Jews' and 'France for the French.'



After the war, the Jewish experience in France was pushed aside as people attempted to whitewash the horror. Whitehouse notes, 'Thousands of Jewish businesses had been sold to non-Jews during the war, who were now reluctant to return them. There was little sympathy for Jewish survivors. French stateswoman Simone Veil was called 'Dirty Jew' by a doctor in a medical examination after she returned home from Auschwitz.' And on and on.


Stateswoman Simone Veil

To be fair, in 1995, President Jacque Chirac, referring to the persecution of Jews, admitted: "These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions. Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state."

Chirac also recognized the Righteous Among Nations as new national heroes. Then in 2000, July 16 became a day "of commemoration of racist and anti-Semitic crimes committed by the French State and of tribute to the Righteous of France."


President Jacque Chirac

Whitehouse and her relatives met some of Dr. Frédéric Pétri's descendants, and attended the ceremony when Dr. Pétri was posthumously awarded the Righteous Among Nations. This is an uplifting finale to an often dark story.

Two Sisters would appeal to readers interested in history, WWII, and the Holocaust.

Thanks to Netgalley, Rosie Whitehouse, and Union Square & Co. for a copy of the book.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Kitsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It never ceases to amaze me, that despite having read numerous books on WWII and the holocaust, and watching so many documentaries there is always more to learn & know.
While I had of course heard of Kristellnact, I had never heard of Herschel Grynszpan, nor just how much the French police had aided & abetted the Nazi's in the rounding up of Jews, by the way, Fellow French citizens. Charles De Gaulle didn't come up, smelling like a rose either, despite what you may have heard.
The only minus to the book for me, was the skipping around in the timeline, if I was reading the book, it might have been easier to follow. Very well done.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and very well researched! A bit of a dry read at times though and feels very long. Amazing detail of all the people involved.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two Sisters is a harrowing, gut wrenching and poignant true story about the journalist author's Jewish mother-in-law Marion and her two daughters, Edith and Haguette during World War II mainly in the area of Vichy, France. Little did she know these women were heroines!
Meticulously and personally researched, the impact of what the family went through hit my heart. Comfortably off, the girls wanted for nothing growing up. Their father forced them to become as French as they could, from wearing certain clothes to eating a certain way. Little did they know this would serve them well in their futures when Nazis occupied Germany. After their mother was taken to Auschwitz, the two young ladies fled to a French ski resort where Haguette broke her leg. The kindness of Dr. Frédéric Pétri saved their lives...and others. Until her last days, Haguette wondered why a non-Jew would risk his life to save theirs. The author wanted to put her mind to ease in her old age and recognize the doctor's family so did what was necessary through a complex process to get the doctor recognized as Righteous Among Nations, an honour given only to non-Jews who saved Jews. What a beautiful thing to do for his proud family!

Not only does the author describe the necessary subterfuge of Resistance, forgeries and the black market but also French collaborators and betrayal. She described the sisters' roles and Edith's fate. Formal and informal personal family photographs bring the story to life as do lists of those who were rounded up and murdered from the area. Drancy is a seldom-written about camp, one I read so little about. We are reminded that police had the choice whether or not to take the high road, though difficult. Realities after the end of the war set in and were grim as well. But amidst the cruelty and devastation were snippets of hope.

What a fascinating book! I have read countless books on the Holocaust and am always amazed by the resilience, perseverance and determination. Not only that but each story is different in its unique perspectives, locations and backgrounds. Well worth reading.

My sincere thank you to Union Square & Co. and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this powerful book.

[Aubrey Bass · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always hard to rate biographies because I never want to critique someone's perception of their life's events. Especially ones as sensitive as those involving the Holocaust. This one was no different, but as much as I found the account interesting, there was a little too much tactical information for my interest. I found my mind wandering often and would reread pages, or continue on without any impact on the retelling.

I commend this author for her quest to find her husband's mom's savior when he hid her and didn't turn her in while she healed from her broken leg. I would have appreciated more details about that, but like so much of this time period, the details are often lost with the deceased. Edith, the author's husband's grandmother, was loaded into a cattle car and never seen again. It was horribly grounding to read about some of the names of other people on convoi 61 to their destination to Auschwitz. So many of them highlighted conclude with "nothing else is known about her/his life." It is sobering that these were only a portion of so many who have never been identified and have been lost in history.

[Ryan Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personable tale about a story that was almost forgotten. The author searches for a doctor that saves the life of her Great Aunt and mother-in-law in WW2 France and pieces together their story. It’s a painful recounting of the past that also includes the painful experience of not knowing what happened to those that died in concentration camps until years later. It’s also quite powerful to know that regular people resisted the Nazis, dispelling the myth that they were all powerful, and everyday people reached out to help people in need. If you change one person, you change the world. If you save one person, you saved their entire world.

[Erika P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - what a truly powerful book. I appreciated learning more about the sisters and their stories. As someone who has visited many Holocaust-related sites in France, I cannot stress enough how important it is that this story is out there for people to read - the impact of the Holocaust on France isn't discussed enough, so this is an extremely valuable book. Highly recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for an advance copy of this book.

[LaVon Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is incredible and needed to be found and told! Thank you to author and researcher Rosie Whitehouse! I gave it four stars instead of five because I was sometimes confused by all the different names and which names referred to listed activities. I also wished some of the words written in German, French or Italian were translated to English in the text. But it did get me back into the habit of "looking things up," thus I stretched my brain.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true and extremely well-researched story of two sisters who survived the Holocaust in France, in part thanks to a physician who sheltered the younger sister after she broke her leg. It's a devastating story, but also an exciting one that details the awe-inspiring work of the French resistance. The flip side is the horror of French acquiescence to the Nazis; it was shocking to learn that even today, the idea of sheltering a Jewish woman was controversial in one Alpine town.

[Cheryl Sokoloff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happened in France 🇫🇷 under occupation between 1940 and its liberation? Who ultimately was responsible for the deportations and round ups? Who are the Righteous among Nations?

This book is an in depth recounting of the days of occupation and the toll it took on the author’s family in particular, and the people of France.

Incredible read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was both engaging and informative. I liked that the setting was France and found the parts about the resistance and underground to be the most interesting storyline. I know it was a different time and circumstance but I found it disturbing to read the reactions of some of the French people, before, during, and after WWIi.

[Wendi Dusseault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent narrative about two amazing sisters who survived WW2 in France. The book is heavy and sad, but needs to be read. The story leans heavily into the younger sister, Hughette's memories as Marion said almost nothing to her family about her work in the Resistance. They were fortunate in that they avoided concentration camps and went on to lead beautiful lives.

[Jayde Veon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a very informational book that told a story about the Holocaust I haven’t done much reading on rather than being a telling of the experiences in the concentration camp. Hearing more about the resistance was very interesting.

[Lynn Bartrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully researched book - a fascinating and moving story of great importance, not only for the author's family but for all of us.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non fiction, meticulously researched WW2 story. So glad Rosie Whitehouse decided to tell this one. With ICE running extreme rough-shod over US citizens (recently the mayor of Newark NJ, accompanied by 3 congressmen, was arrested while on an oversight visit of a new detention center) it was especially relevant to learn more about the resistance in France, and the role of the police in enforcing, or not enforcing, Nazi directives.
The sisters' story is powerful, heartbreaking, and inspiring, includes tragedy as well as triumph.

[Danielle Gantt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so well researched and relatively easy to follow the timeliness, people, and places. The homage paid to those who were murdered is a testament to those who survived.

[Alicia Primer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done family history that reminds us that the French have a lot to answer for in terms of the Nazis and their Final Solution. But the survivors and the heroes shine so brightly!

[Monica Shankle · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was very dry and boring. I did read the ARC so that may be it but it had a lot in there that didnt go with the story and could have been left out.

[Lifleury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coincidentally, this book popped up in my Amazon suggestions as I came home from Val d'Isère, where I have spent a lot of time, but not knowing the full story of Dr Pétri, the young Jewish girl he cared for, and the Resistance activities in the alps. Like most people who spend time in this world class ski resort, never suspecting there is an important story there that happened not that long ago during WWII.

Rosie Whitehouse does an excellent job embedding the unraveling of her family's history and narratives in the larger context of France and the Shoah during WWII, and larger ethical questions of authoritarianism and resistance. The book weaves in and out of the past and present lives of the two sisters and Whitehouse's current relatives. It also shows us how even today, in present day France and in Val d'Isère, the events and activities during Occupation, the choices people made to resist, collaborate, survive, remember or deny are still touchy topics.