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Chamberet: The True Story of a Jewish Family in Wartime France
"Writing about my childhood today, I have come to see that those were not ordinary times", writes Claude Morhange-Begue. "But for me, as a child, they were; for I had not known any others". The "ordinary times" Morhange-Begue speaks of began when she was not quite eight years old; in April 1944, the SS paused in the French village of Chamberet for some routine business and left with Morhange-Begue's mother. For the rest of the war she was interned at Auschwitz. She returned at war's end, her health irreparably impaired but wanting to talk.Forty years passed, and that child became a woman and a mother in her turn. Chamberet was written, she says, in order that certain things not be forgotten. Unable not to speak when she came home, her mother, having spoken, had been unwilling to record those things for others in writing; the daughter therefore assumed that task and bore witness on her mother's behalf. What she presents is a stirring tale of personal emergence.
115 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 20, 2015
This is the true story of a girl who lives in a small village in France during World War II. Her mother is taken by the Nazi's and she is sent to Auschwitz. The young girl is then taken away by a family friend and her aunt to live with a series of hosts who keep her safe and secret.
The author writes this story many decades later but writes it from the view of the child she was during this horrific time. The story is originally written in French, so the English translation becomes a little difficult to read from time to time. The story itself is very well written as it describes the lingering beauty during a war-torn country through the eyes of a child.
The recollections of her mother's tale during the same point of time are done very well. The story teller does not claim these events as her own experiences, rather she relays the horrors experienced through her mother's point-of-view. The author describes how her mother struggled to talk about such things and over decades eventually her mother would share some of her experiences during the Nazi occupation of France and her time in Auschwitz.
I thank the author for capturing this real-live account in the form of a very well balanced story (the small joys that can be found in terrible times versus the mass genocide committed by the Nazis).
The author writes this story many decades later but writes it from the view of the child she was during this horrific time. The story is originally written in French, so the English translation becomes a little difficult to read from time to time. The story itself is very well written as it describes the lingering beauty during a war-torn country through the eyes of a child.
The recollections of her mother's tale during the same point of time are done very well. The story teller does not claim these events as her own experiences, rather she relays the horrors experienced through her mother's point-of-view. The author describes how her mother struggled to talk about such things and over decades eventually her mother would share some of her experiences during the Nazi occupation of France and her time in Auschwitz.
I thank the author for capturing this real-live account in the form of a very well balanced story (the small joys that can be found in terrible times versus the mass genocide committed by the Nazis).
July 25, 2011
Short, beautifully written and very intense.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews