THE POSTCARD by ANNE BEREST
I have read dozens of books about the Holocaust and WWII. Meticulously researched and deeply profound, ‘The Postcard’ is among the best. Anne Berest has written an autobiographical novel that details the emotional wounds and persistent pain of Holocaust survivors and their progeny. The story describes how France’s Vichy government, in collaboration with the Nazis, sent tens of thousands of French Jews to die in concentration camps, including the author’s great-grandparents. The book also explores religious identity, family secrets, persistent silence, intergenerational trauma, and the healing power of stories.
In 2003, the narrator’s mother, Léila, receives a postcard in her Paris home. On the front is a photo of the Opéra Garnier. Four names are written on the back: Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie and Jacques. These are the names of Léila’s grandparents and two of their three children. They all died in the crematoriums of Auschwitz in 1942. The sole survivor was Noémie and Jacques’ older sister, Myriam. Myriam is now deceased and shared almost nothing with her daughter Léila about her wartime torment.
When this faded postcard arrived in 2003, Anne Berest was in her twenties and not interested in determining the postcard’s sender. Fifteen years later and now a mother, Anne and her mother Léila decide to investigate. Who sent this postcard? And why now, 58 years after WWII’s end? Due to their forensic level of research and professional help, Anne and her mother, Léila, discover letters, forms, applications, diaries, names, addresses, and logs from government entities, allowing them to learn the story of their family’s deportation from France to Auschwitz. Meanwhile, their search for the sender of the postcard continues.
This novel explores intergenerational trauma. Myriam did not speak of her murdered parents and siblings. This does not appear to have been a conscious decision but rather a survival mechanism. Anne says of her grandmother, “I think she kept silent out of guilt for being alive.” And though Myriam did not share any details, Anne and her mother, Léila, discover the dates, places and people involved in Myriam’s escape from the unfathomable terror of that time.
As a child, Anne Berest was conscious of not tripping on the invisible barbed wire when people spoke of the war. So much about her family’s prior lives was unspoken. And yet, despite missing the mayhem and murder, Léila and Anne experienced their own fear and anxiety for all that was unspoken and unknown. Research now shows that trauma can be transmitted cellularly in the womb. Berest quotes Alejandro Jodorowsky: “There are, in the genealogical tree, traumatized, unprocessed places that are eternally seeking relief. From these places, arrows are launched toward future generations. Anything that has not been resolved must be repeated and will affect someone else, a target located one or more generations in the future.”
Anne Berest’s superb storytelling makes the book compelling. She writes with passion, love and curiosity about her family. Not only is the mystery of the postcard solved, but she also uncovers in granular detail what happened to her great-grandparents, aunt, uncle and grandmother during the war. Knowledge of her family’s past makes her present life and the lives of her mother and grandmother more understandable. Berest’s references to intergenerational trauma are intriguing and thought-provoking. ‘The Postcard’ shows us how a seemingly civilized society allowed the murder of their fellow citizens. Antisemitism is still rampant. And books like ‘The Postcard’ show us what can happen if bigotry is not contained. I highly recommend this book. 5/5