Alison H wrote: |
I feel particularly sorry for Gisela, who loses her father in such terrible circumstances and then also loses the baby she'd named after him. |
Tara wrote: |
Mind you, I can't exactly see the staff in the concentration camps returning the ashes ... |
KB wrote: |
However don't forget that what we take for granted in terms of what the Nazis did was totally unknown to EBD. She had to juggle the worst of her imaginings with what a child could accept and that was her solution. |
Cazx wrote: |
The first time I cried over a CS book was finding out that Melanie's Auntie, Jeanne former CS prefect who's surname escapes me, drowned during the war along with Melanie's elder brother, who was then a toddler. |
Quote: |
“I had an Aunt Jeanne le Cadoulec, but I never knew her. She dies before I was born. She was going to America and the ship was lost and a good many people were drowned. She was one of them,” Mélanie spoke reluctantly.
Joey was on her feet, her hands on the slim shoulders, her eyes gazing down into the sea-blue ones raised to her. “I thought there was something familiar about you. I should have known those eyes of yours. They are exactly Jeanne’s eyes. And you have her mouth and that little trick with your hands. How could I have been so blind? Of course you’re like Jeanne in lots of ways.” “We did wonder before we first met her,” Len cried. “Don’t you remember?” “I do. Mélanie, what is your mother’s name?” “Marie-Mélanie-Thérèse Lucas. And I am Marie-Mélanie-Jeanne Lucas. Did you really know Tante Jeanne? Maman will never talk about that time because it was all so dreadful. You see, I had a brother older than me and he died at that time. He was three years old and Maman was terribly upset. I did just know I had a Tante Jeanne, but that’s all.” Joey nodded. “I remember that Jeanne used to talk of her eldest sister Mélanie, but somehow I got the idea that she’d entered religion.” “That was Tante Yvonne. Maman was the eldest and then there were Pierre and Yvonne. And then two more brothers who were with the Free French and died. My Uncle Gaston died when he was seventeen and the Château was burned down in air-raids and so Maman hates even to think of that time and you can’t blame her.” |
KB wrote: |
While it may have happened that the brother did die with Jeanne, there's no way you can say for sure that that happened. It also seems a little unlikely that Jeanne would be taking a three-year-old across to America and the rest of the family would come some other way. Particularly as it sounds like the rest of the family stays in Europe for the brothers to fight with the Free French. |
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