The Courtyard: A Memoir

by Benjamin Parket, Alexa Morris

The writing is clever and impressive…
A mesmerizing, nightmarish story that has, for once, a happy ending.
–Kirkus Reviews

In the heart of Nazi-occupied Paris, one Jewish family is protected by their working-class community.

It’s 1937, the eve of World War II, and young Bernard lives with his Polish-immigrant family in a working-class courtyard in Paris. While there aren’t many other Jews in the courtyard – a bustling place teeming with a colorful cast of characters – the Parkiets feel welcome and at home. To Bernard the courtyard is both home and playground; a magical place where he watches his father varnish furniture, gets into trouble with cranky neighbors, and splits pain au chocolate with his best friend Titi.

With the German occupation of Paris, Bernard's world changes dramatically. Hours before the Nazis come to arrest the Parkiet family in July 1942, their neighbors band together to protect them. The family is hidden in a vacant warehouse and the courtyard becomes a refuge. With their world turned upside down, it is Bernard’s job, at only nine years old, to leave the courtyard each day to get food for his family. And even with the neighbors protecting them, there is danger lurking everywhere – including in certain corners of the courtyard itself.

This is a Holocaust memoir that finds the good in people at a time of great evil. A gripping tale of courage and kindness, The Courtyard is a timely reminder of how even in the darkest of times, a small group of people can make a difference.

Genres: Memoir, History, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2025

Reviews

[Carolyn Scarcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I’m reading is called “The Courtyard. A memoir” by Benjamin Parket and Alexa Morris. I must admit that this writing is outstanding and intelligent. The photographs were beautiful and painful, and the story was heartwarming. It narrates a story of Ben, a little young boy, and his family, who suffered tremendous fear and desperation in order to survive the war, thanks to the two years of hiding provided by French friends and neighbours. It shows that their survival was a miracle, brought about by kindness rather than chance. Ben was born in Paris after his parents and siblings left Poland in 1933. As a result, what happened to the rest of his family? You can decide.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a matter of policy, I try not to give 5 stars. And I am a little bit biased here: A dear friend wrote this book with and for her father-in-law, a man who survived the Holocaust, so the a story feels a little bit personal for me. But this story should feel personal to everyone. It is clear, generous, and beautifully written. Its characters—real people who loved and cared for each other and many of whom are now gone—are worthy of love. The scenes and sweep of history, chapter by carefully polished chapter, are rich and deeply human. It’s a lovely, sometimes very hard, read about a horrible time for humanity, and the beauty that shines through when we trust and care for each other. And It feels very necessary for these times. So am I biased? Yes. But also, you should read this book.

[Dan Romascanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Parket, the hero and author of the memoir book 'The Courtyard' written in collaboration with Alexa Morris, was born and lived until the age of 16 in a four-story plus an attic building, in Paris in the shape of the letter U, with a courtyard in its center. 'The Courtyard' is a book that gives a new meaning to the word 'courtyard', not so much as a topographical notion as that of an interior space of salvation, a formative space, a paradise (at least for a while) of childhood, a perimeter populated by people with whom over time friendships are established or romances are formed, who end up being your neighbors and, in extreme cases, on whom your life ends up depending. It is a story of survival, a testimony that was published in the 'Holocaust Survivors Memoirs World War II' series by Amsterdam Publishers. It is dedicated to the many and anonymous humans who, at the risk of their lives and freedom, helped and saved Jews during the Holocaust, and has as its motto a quote from the Bible: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'.

The Parkiet family (the vowel 'i' in the family name was lost in the transcriptions of names due to various migrations) had come to France from Poland after the First World War. The rebirth of the Polish nation at the crossroads of Western and Eastern Europe also meant a resurgence of nationalism and anti-Semitism, and France, with its population decimated after the First World War, had opened its doors to imigrants, as it had so many times throughout history, to the persecuted. The father was a furniture varnisher, a sought-after profession that would support the family for decades. Biniem, or Bernard as his French friends and neighbors called him, was the youngest of three brothers and the only one born in France. The parents had never managed to learn French well, Yiddish was spoken at home, but they were fairly well assimilated economically and socially, and proud to feel French and to educate their children as French. One of the first chapters of the book recounts a visit, in 1937, to the great World Exhibition organized that year on the immense esplanade between Trocadero Square and the Eiffel Tower. The six-year-old child gets lost in the crowd and is found, playing and being taken care by friendly policemen at the exhibition's police station. Could they have guessed that just a few years later, from that esplanade, Hitler would admire occupied Paris, and that the sympathetic policemen of 1937 could be the same ones who, during the occupation, were accomplices of the Germans, carrying out raids in which they hunted down and arrested those whose only fault was being Jewish?

The courtyard is described in the book, according to the child's memories, above all as a space for play, for discoveries, for the formation of friendships and even for the first love. Everything changes when the war breaks out. The child's memories first include tense discussions between his parents and the previously unknown feeling of fear, of the incomprehensible fact that the parents can no longer protect their children, losing control over what is happening around. They are tormented by worry for the family left in Poland, now occupied by the Nazis, a family that would almost entirely perish in the horrors of the Holocaust. Then their lives begin to change with the occupation, the racial laws, the prohibitions and restrictions imposed on Jews and especially with the arrest of the father, who is a prisoner for several months in the infamous Drancy camp which was the last enprisonment station for Jews in France before the deportations to the death camps, escaping from there by a miracle. In 1942, the imminent danger reaches the doors of the building on Rue de Charonne. And then something extraordinary happens. The residents of the building, the French neighbors of the Polish Jewish immigrant family, hide them in an uninhabited apartment. A neighbor who works for the police warns the Parkiet family that they are on the lists of those who will be arrested and deported. Other neighbors will help the family with food for two years and will provide work for the father, so that he can continue to earn a living.

The book is a combination of narrative and historical prose, written with talent and carefully documented. Some of the episodes can be read as true pages of suspense literature. A German officer enters the yard, looking for something or someone, to the terror of the hidden Jews. It turns out that he is waiting for the mechanic who was going to fix something on his car. Several times, the ten-year-old boy leaves the house to buy food or, together with his protective neighbors, for a short escapist interlude at the movies or at a picnic on the bank of a river. The risks are immense, but so is the longing for freedom and the need to breathe fresh air. When a collaborationist neighbor, a militiaman of the Vichy regime, moves into the building, the Resistance is alerted and 'takes care of him'. The neighbor disappears and no one asks questions. The documentary insertions are precise, made from the perspective of the mature man who will become Ben Parker. They provide important information to understand the context of the memoirs. Coming to age is fast and tough. The narrator's childhood and his siblings' adolescence are stolen forever.

A few moving pages describe the days of the Liberation. The courtyard had been forbidden for two years to those who had lived day and night, hour by hour, under the threat of arrest, deportation, death. The very regaining of the right to step into familiar space is a victory. The years after the war were not easy for the Parkiet family. They returned to their apartment, but it had been completely ransacked. They found only a small part of their family, those who had been refugees in Belgium, but learned that all those who remained in Poland had perished in the Holocaust. The feeling that a large part of those they lived among had collaborated with the occupiers and had a part in their suffering and that of all the Jews in France constantly followed them. A new war, the one in Indochina, threatened France and the young people of the family were of the age when they could be called up to arms. All of this contributed to the family's decision to emigrate to Israel. There too, accommodation was not easy, the Hebrew language was equally difficult for the parents, but the three brothers adapted much more easily. Bimen went to study in America, where he met his future wife, and the two, after an attempt to live together in Israel, decided to stay in America. Becoming Ben Parket, building a family and a beautiful career as an architect, he will never forget the Courtyard. Having reached the age of memories, he will evoke his experiences in this book.

Testimonies about survival in the Holocaust have a common model and reference and comparisons are difficult to avoid. 'The Courtyard' tells the true history of a family whose fate could easily have been similar to that of Anne Frank's family. The difference, that is, survival, was due to chance, but especially to the people to whom this book is dedicated. To these anonymous people Ben Parket and Alexa Morris have built a monument in words. 'The Courtyard' is a document and a tribute to these anonymous Righteous Among Nations. Those of Ben Parket's generation are becoming fewer and fewer, but their stories stand as proof that humanity can defeat Evil, but also as a warning to the generations that followed them and those to come.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a captivating book; I read it all in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. They did an excellent job of taking a child's understanding of what was happening at the time and adding context and color where it was necessary to fill in a more complete picture of his memories.

I don't think I've ever read a Holocaust memoir like this one. I've read lots of stories of unrelenting torture and death in the camps, and of huge, heroic acts by others to hide or transport people away from the Nazi regime. By comparison, this story is much quieter and simpler; but, it's just as engaging and relevant. Rather than one or two people committing big heroic rescues, this story has dozens or maybe even hundreds of people doing much, much smaller everyday things that all worked together to save this one family. Putting aside an extra head of cabbage, or giving a heads up about police activity, or even just looking the other way and *not* doing anything -- those actions wouldn't necessarily make headlines, but they were heroic all the same because they were crucial to this family's survival. In a current reality where we are hurtling towards more global instability every day, it's a good reminder that we must work together with our neighbors to take care of each other, and that small neighborly kindnesses truly can add up to save lives.

[Andrea George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel both honored and fortunate to have been one of the 50 reviewers that received an arc of this novel. There were just shy of 4,000 reviewers that requested a copy of "The Courtyard: A Memoir". This amazing memoir was co-written by Benjamin Parket and his daughter-in-law, Alexa Morris. The memoir takes place from 1937 - present day, the setting follows Mr. Parket's life from Paris, Tel Aviv, and finally Northern California.
"The Courtyard: A Memoir", is one of those memoirs that will have you thinking about this dark time in our history, long after you've finished reading this book. As time continues to move forward, there will be even fewer Holocaust survivors around to share their experiences with the world. Yes, students and adults can read about this time in our history. However, reading a memoir adds a very personal aspect to the history of World War II and the Jewish perspective.
Mr. Parket's personal accounts, his thought and feelings, his memories of his mother, father, brothers, aunts, uncles, friends and neighbors were so well written, that I felt a connection with all of these wonderful people. This memoir became available in June of this year. I would highly recommend adding it to your tbr list. This would be a great read for middle school/ high school students. I would also recommend as a book club addition.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly powerful and beautifully written memoir of a small boy named Binem and his family during a truly evil and depraved time in our world history.

It is told in slow motion, with core memories of day-to-day life as seen by a young boy and through the eyes of that same boy, years later, reflecting on all that had happened.

I have read many books on the holocaust and been moved by them, but this one shows you the definitive steps and levels, the increments in how things went from point a to point b. Even then, I still wonder how it could happen, even though I'm seeing patterns similar, in our present time.

This is a holocaust book with a happy ending, a rarity indeed. Yet, still, it shows the toll taken on the human psyche.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. You should absolutely read it.

Y'all know I also love a book that recommends other books and there are a ton listed at the end of it, should you decide to educate yourself further.

Thanks to the authors of this book for educating me to things that my history teachers did not and for sharing family memories and stories of this beautiful family.

Thanks to the publisher for selecting me as a winner in the giveaway.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Courtyard is an outstanding piece of oral history from a living survivor in his 90s, brought to life nearly eight decades later with the help of his daughter-in-law and co-author. The level of detail recalled and captured here – much from several years that the author, as a young child in Paris, spent hiding in a confined space from the Nazis) is impressive and makes this book an important addition to the historical record. The book is full of captivating and poignant details (in one touching moment before their hiding, for instance, the narrator’s father comforts him by saying that the Star of David he’s forced to wear is the same star worn by sheriffs in the wild west). Personally, I didn’t know much about Jews’ treatment in Paris or France’s role, and although I’ve read many books about the Holocaust, that was a gap in my knowledge. The Courtyard effortlessly blends this narrator’s personal account – which includes his father being taken to a concentration camp – with the historical context needed to make this so much more than just one family’s experience. Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of The Courtyard!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel starts in 1937 when a Polish immigrant family lives and works at a working class courtyard in Paris. Even though they are the only Jewish family who live and work there, they are accepted by the rest of the families. Bernard is the youngest of the three brothers in the family and isn't ready to start school so for him the courtyard is his home and his playground. Life continues on until 1942 when one of their neighbors. who works for the police, tells them that their family is on the official list to be arrested by the Nazis that day. Some of the residents help find them an empty warehouse to hide in and helps them bring some furniture to make them comfortable. Their neighbors continue to protect them for the two years that they stay in the warehouse. Even with their protection, there is always danger and they need to stay vigilant. Bernard at 9 years old is sent out to get food for the family which is always dangerous. This memoir by one of the boys in the family is a true testament to people who are willing to risk their own lives to help others. It's a look at how even in the darkest times, a small group of people can make a difference.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful story was so fascinating to me because it’s about a community of people not often considered: outside of Poland or Germany during the Holocaust, the people who were concealed to save their own lives, as well as the people who helped conceal them. It shows everyday heroes: ones who saw to the care of others, even when a risk to their own safety— it might seem small what each of them did, but it literally saved lives. It’s also about family closeness and deep commitment to the other. There is loss, but there is also light at one of history’s darkest tunnels. I loved learning about Benim and his family and followed along with trepidation to learn about their fate. The pictures that accompany are fantastic to see.
(I also really love the cover art!)

[David Acord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly written, timely and important. Ms Morris has magnificently co-written Mr. Parket’s memoir largely about his time as a boy living in Paris during Nazi occupation. The Parket’s are a Hungarian-born Jewish family who live in hiding, aided by their friends and neighbors, from the Nazis, Vichy French soldiers, and collaborators.
Told through the lens of a young boy (Parket), The Courtyard expertly examines the adaptability and resilience of human spirit in a time of extreme crisis. Both heart-rending and moving, The Courtyard shows us the importance of family and true friendships in a time of extreme crisis.

[Stephanie Peterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the authors, publisher, and Goodreads for the ARC! This book was difficult to read – figuratively and literally. Parket's detailed memories of his experience living in hiding for 3 years in Nazi-occupied Paris are chilling, to be sure... and it took me way too long to finish since my ARC was printed in extra-small font (eek!)

Most Holocaust memoirs allude to the sentiment of feeling exceptionally lucky to have survived, and had any one thing been different, it would have led to their demise. The same is true of this tale. It's a story that needed to be told, buoyed by the kindness of strangers making big sacrifices to save their Jewish neighbors.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir evoked Anne Frank with its portrayal of a child who finds himself and his Jewish family in danger of being taken from their Parisian home to a death camp in the early years of World War II. The Parkiets, like the Franks, go into hiding. Despite being foreigners (having left their Polish homeland earlier) their French neighbors conspire to hide them in the apartment building they share. There are numerous dangerous moments and close calls with betrayal a constant worry. Bernard’s story flows easily with the aid of his co-writer and the reader can’t help but be amazed by this tale of survival and the kindness shown by the neighbors. The book is a short read but rich in details.

[Meilech · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir was written by the author who was about 9 years old when the war started. Living in Paris, France the author tells the story in amazing details how with the help of their neighbors they hid from the nazis and eventually migrated to Israel.

the author does a good job filling in the historical context to give a better understanding of what they went through.

Very well written and reads like a novel.

p.s. I don't know why some reviewers call this a novel. this is the true story of how the author and his family survived the holocaust.

would highly recommend this one!!

[Gail Hankins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written, touching story that was simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. The details painted a picture that made me feel like I was right there with him during a time in history that far too many know very little about. Highly recommend adding this to your reading list and being part of your own “courtyard”.

[MARY BYERS-GROSE · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read many books about this time of world crisis, and this one is just as fascinating—not only because Ben Parket is still with us to tell his story, but because the odds against his surviving the Nazi reign were so great. Alexa Morris was also with him at the right time to help him share it with us all.

[Nancy Gisvold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly remarkable story of survival through one of the worst times in history. It shows that if a community can work together they can accomplish great things. Through the help of certain members of this small enclave a family was saved through the acts of kindness and bravery. it is a story with a happy ending. I highly recommend this book.

[FRANK BYERS · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Courtyard is the story of a Jewish family that survived the Holocaust against almost impossible odds. A story of resilience and gratitude. A story of how individual people put themselves at risk to help Benjamin Parket, his parents and siblings -- individuals who had little in common except their shared humanity, decency, and courage. The Parket family continues.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parket and Morris have crafted an inspiring story of family and community. The minute details of day-to-day life create a vivid picture of Parket's childhood, while at the same time the memoir provides a concise overview of the Nazi occupation of France and the aftermath of the war.

[Laura Nugent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply inspiring and thoughtfully crafted story that highlights the importance of community. It serves as a powerful reminder of the lasting value in working toward the greater good. Highly recommended!

[Shirley Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

see history thru eyes of someone who lived it

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Parket's memories are vivid --- readers feel included in this harrowing but ultimately victorious story.

[Mary Tharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad but wonderful book.

[Elaine Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, horrible, thought provoking, insightful and amazing. Well written!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Courtyard is a wonderfully written book. I enjoyed every word. It was uplifting, sad, and educational. Thank you so much for sharing this incredible story with all of us.

[Laura Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a touching memoir from a Holocaust survivor. I've read many historical fiction books about WWII, which have been interesting and informative, but other than the Diary of Anne Frank, this is the first I've read from a Jewish person who lived during this time. The older I get, I've come to realize that historical events like the Holocaust that had at one time seemed so far in the past, actually happened not that long ago. To read this account from a still-living survivor really reinforces that.

This memoir is more than the Holocaust, though. It covers a lifetime (thus far), and is a story of community and family.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very touching story, and a well written book.

I've read lots of historical fiction about World War II, but the only non-fiction I'd read before this was "The Diary of Anne Frank." It was refreshing to read a direct account from a survivor of the holocaust.

I finished reading this with a sense of hope, even though the ending paragraph made me cry. It's a true reminder of what we need in this world, and what good things can happen when people put themselves on the line for others.