 | After the Roundup : Escape and Survival in Hitler's France On the nights of July 16 and 17, 1942, French police rounded up 11-year-old Joseph Weismann, his family, and 13,000 other Jews. They were held for five days at the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium, before being sent by cattle car to the Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp. But where would they be transported to? Separated from his parents, who were deported to Auschwitz and certain death, Joseph remained with 1,000 other separated children, as they waited to discover their fates. But instead of waiting, Joseph and his new friend, Joe Kogan, chose to risk everything in a daring escape attempt. After eluding the guards and crawling under razor-sharp barbed wire, Joseph found freedom. But how would he survive the rest of the war in Nazi-occupied France and build a life for himself? His nightmare had just begun. After the Roundup is a story of hope, friendship, and courage in the face repression, hatred, and fear. This graphic novel, originally published in French, is based on Weismann's memoir of the same name. Joseph Weismann is a survivor of the 1942 Vél' d'Hiv Roundup in Paris. Until he was 80, Weismann kept his story to himself, giving only the slightest hints of it to his wife and three children. Simone Veil, lawyer, politician, president of the European Parliament, and member of the Constitutional Council of France, urged him to tell his story. It would inspire the French film La Rafle . Now 91 years old, he lives in Le Mans. Richard Kutner is an independent literary translator. His translations include Fear of Paradise by Vincent Engel and Cast Away on the Letter A by Fred, for which he was awarded a Hemingway Translation Grant. |
