*
“What could it mean?”
Isabelle peered past the blackout shade in the apartment, staring down at the avenue. Papa sat at the dining room table, nervously drumming his ink-stained fingers on the wood. It felt good to be here again—with him—after months away, but she was too agitated to relax and enjoy the homey feel of the place.
“You must be mistaken, Isabelle,” Papa said, on his second brandy since her return. “You said there had to be tens of thousands of cards. That would be all the Jewish people in Paris. Surely—”
“Question what it means, Papa, but not the facts,” she answered. “The Germans are collecting the names and addresses of every foreign-born Jewish person in Paris. Men, women, and children.”
“But why? Paul Lévy is of Polish descent, it’s true, but he has lived here for decades. He fought for France in the Great War—his brother died for France. The Vichy government has assured us that veterans are protected from the Nazis.”
“Vianne was asked for a list of names,” Isabelle said. “She was asked to write down every Jewish, communist, and Freemason teacher at her school. Afterward they were all fired.”
“They can hardly fire them twice.” He finished his drink and poured another. “And it is the French police gathering names. If it were the Germans, it would be different.”
Isabelle had no answer to that. They had been having this same conversation for at least three hours.
Now it was edging past two in the morning, and neither of them could come up with a credible reason why the Vichy government and the French police were collecting the names and addresses of every foreign-born Jewish person living in Paris.
She saw a flash of silver outside. Lifting the shade a little higher, she stared down at the dark street.
A row of buses rolled down the avenue, their painted headlamps off, looking like a slow-moving centipede that stretched for blocks.
She had seen buses outside of the prefecture of police, dozens of them parked in the courtyard. “Papa…” Before she could finish, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs outside of the apartment.
A pamphlet of some kind slid into the apartment through the slit beneath the door.
Papa left the table and bent to pick it up. He brought it to the table and set it down next to the candle.
Isabelle stood behind him.
Papa looked up at her.
“It’s a warning. It says the police are going to round up all foreign-born Jews and deport them to camps in Germany.”
“We are talking when we need to be acting,” Isabelle said. “We need to hide our friends in the building.”
“It’s so little,” Papa said. His hand was shaking. It made her wonder again—sharply—what he’d seen in the Great War, what he knew that she did not.
“It’s what we can do,” Isabelle said. “We can make some of them safe. At least for tonight. We’ll know more tomorrow.”
“Safe. And where would that be, Isabelle? If the French police are doing this, we are lost.”
Isabelle had no answer for that.
Saying no more, they left the apartment.
Stealth was difficult in a building as old as this one, and her father, moving in front of her, had never been light on his feet. Brandy made him even more unsteady as he led her down the narrow, twisting staircase to the apartment directly below theirs. He stumbled twice, cursing his imbalance. He knocked on the door.
He waited to the count of ten and knocked again. Harder this time.
Very slowly, the door opened, just a crack at first, and then all the way. “Oh, Julien, it is you,” said Ruth Friedman. She was wearing a man’s coat over a floor-length nightgown, with her bare feet sticking out beneath. Her hair was in rollers and covered with a scarf.
“You’ve seen the pamphlet?”
“I got one. It is true?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” her father said. “There are buses out front and lorries have been rumbling past all night. Isabelle was at the prefecture of police tonight, and they were collecting the names and addresses of all foreign-born Jewish people. We think you should bring the children to our place for now. We have a hiding place.”
“But … my husband is a prisoner of war. The Vichy government promises us that we will be protected.”
“I am not sure we can trust the Vichy government, Madame,” Isabelle said to the woman. “Please. Just hide for now.”
Ruth stood there a moment, her eyes widening. The yellow star on her overcoat was a stark reminder of the way the world had changed. Isabelle saw when the woman decided. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Less than a minute later, she guided her two daughters toward the door. “What do we bring?”
“Nothing,” Isabelle said. She herded the Friedmans up the stairs. When they reached the safety of the apartment, her father led them to the secret room in the back bedroom and closed the door on them.
“I’ll get the Vizniaks,” Isabelle said. “Don’t put the armoire in place yet.”
“They’re on the third floor, Isabelle. You’ll never—”
“Lock the front door behind me. Don’t open it unless you hear my voice.”
“Isabelle, no—”
She was already gone, running down the stairs, barely touching the banister in her haste. When she was nearly to the third-floor landing, she heard voices below.
They were coming up the stairs.
She was too late. She crouched where she was, hidden by the elevator.
Two French policemen stepped onto the landing. The younger of the two knocked twice on the Vizniaks’ door, waited a second or two, and then kicked it open. Inside, a woman wailed.
Isabelle crept closer, listening.
“… are Madame Vizniak?” the policeman on the left said. “Your husband is Emile and your children, Anton and Hélène?”
Isabelle peered around the corner.
Madame Vizniak was a beautiful woman, with skin the color of fresh cream and luxurious hair that never looked as messy as it did now. She was wearing a lacy silk negligee that must have cost a fortune when it was purchased. Her young son and daughter, whom she had pulled in close, were wide-eyed.
“Pack up your things. Just the necessaries. You are being relocated,” said the older policeman as he flipped through a list of names.
“But … my husband is in prison near Pithiviers. How will he find us?”
“After the war, you will come back.”
“Oh.” Madame Vizniak frowned, ran a hand through her tangled hair.
“Your children are French-born citizens,” the policeman said. “You may leave them here. They’re not on my list.”
Isabelle couldn’t remain hidden. She got to her feet and descended the stairs to the landing. “I’ll take them for you, Lily,” she said, trying to sound calm.
“No!” the children wailed in unison, clinging to their mother.
The French policemen turned to her. “What is your name?” one of them asked Isabelle.
She froze. Which name should she give? “Rossignol,” she said at last, although without the corresponding papers, it was a dangerous choice. Still, Gervaise might make them wonder why she was in this building at almost three in the morning, putting her nose in her neighbor’s business.
The policeman consulted his list and then waved her away. “Go. You are no concern to me tonight.”
Isabelle looked past them to Lily Vizniak. “I’ll take the children, Madame.”
Lily seemed not to comprehend. “You think I’ll leave them behind?”
“I think—”
“Enough,” the older policeman yelled, thumping his rifle butt on the floor. “You,” he said to Isabelle. “Get out. This doesn’t concern you.”
“Madame, please,” Isabelle pleaded. “I’ll make sure they are safe.”
“Safe?” Lily frowned. “But we are safe with the French police. We’ve been assured. And a mother can’t leave her children. Someday you’ll understand.” She turned her attention to her children. “Pack a few things.”
The French policeman at Isabelle’s side touched her arm gently. When she turned, he said, “Go.” She saw the warning in his eyes but couldn’t tell if he wanted to scare her or protect her. “Now.”
Isabelle had no choice. If she stayed, if she demanded answers, sooner or later her name would be passed up to the prefecture of police—maybe even to the Germans. With what she and the network were doing with the escape route, and what her father was doing with false papers, she didn’t dare draw attention. Not even for something as slight as demanding to know where a neighbor was being taken.
Silently, keeping her gaze on the floor (she didn’t trust herself to look at them), she eased past the policemen and headed for the stairs.