Different groups within the Resistance focused on different objectives. Some helped rescue, hide, or smuggle Jews and political prisoners to safety. Some sabotaged rail lines or blew up bridges to stop the advancement of the Nazi forces. Some established secret communications with the Allied forces outside France. Some were spies or double agents. Some published clandestine underground newspapers. Some, like the Maquis, were guerrilla soldiers (see the Maquis).

  Gendarmes

  Gendarmes were officers of the French Armed Forces who served as policemen, especially in small towns and rural areas where the French National Police did not have a strong presence. Gendarmes were often sent to round up—or assist in the roundup of—foreign-born Jews and refugees across the country.

  Grandmère

  The character of Grandmère in White Bird is (like so many of the characters in my stories) a mash-up of different people I’ve known in my life. In the case of Grandmère, I had three people in mind as I was writing and developing the character. One was my mother-in-law, Mollie, who liked to tell long, detailed stories. The second was my friend Lisa, who served as my illustration model for Grandmère. The third was an old woman I never actually met myself, but kept envisioning as I was writing Grandmère.

  This woman was someone I used to see when I was a student at the American University of Paris. I would ride the 92 bus line to my school on the avenue Bosquet, and almost every day she would get on at the Maréchal Juin stop. She was impossible not to notice; she had such an elegant, imperious air about her. And she was always—always—dressed to the nines. Such a fashionable lady! While she never acknowledged my existence (she coldly appraised my army jacket and clogs one day, which rendered me incapable of ever starting a conversation with her in my broken French), I do remember eavesdropping on her often. She had a striking voice and piercing gray eyes. One time, she got into a long conversation with another older woman, and she said: “Moi, j’étais une fille frivole, mais quand les Allemands sont arrivés, tout a changé.” Translated, that means: “Me, I was a frivolous girl once, but when the Germans arrived, all that changed.” Who knows why that one phrase has stuck with me all these years. Maybe it had to do with the sense of tragedy I felt inside those words, the endless possibilities of a story that I would never hear from her but could imagine for myself. But that one line, more than thirty years later, is what launched Grandmère for me.

  The Holocaust

  The Holocaust (from a Greek word meaning “burned whole”) was the mass murder of six million Jewish people by the Nazis during World War II.

  The Nazis were a political organization in Germany that started shortly after World War I. Their ideology, which was built on the premise of German superiority and a belief that people of the “Aryan race” (i.e., Northern European whites) were superior to other races, was not taken seriously at first. However, as national bitterness about the terms of Germany’s surrender grew and the Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler, rose in popularity, the Nazis acquired power. Hitler used the country’s economic hardships to stoke deep-seated anti-Semitism in its citizenry, blaming Jewish people for all of Germany’s problems.

  When Hitler became Germany’s chancellor in 1933, he launched a series of measures, including boycotting Jewish businesses, banning Jewish students from attending schools and universities, and expelling Jewish officers from the army. In September 1935, he unveiled the Nuremberg Laws, which stated that only people of pure “German or kindred blood” could be citizens. This stripped Jews who had been born in Germany of all their rights as German citizens, making it easier for them to be persecuted.

  Children in the Dachau concentration camp on the day it was liberated, April 29, 1945, by U.S. troops.

  In late 1941, German Jews who had not already fled were forced to live in ghettos, which were walled districts that separated Jews from the non-Jewish population. Eventually, the ghettos were liquidated and the Jews were deported to concentration camps (see Concentration Camps).

  As the Nazi forces swept through the rest of Europe, the Jewish citizens in those occupied countries were also arrested and deported to concentration camps. As a result, millions of Jews from all over Europe were sent to concentration camps. The Nazis also targeted other groups, including the Romani people, persons with disabilities, and homosexuals.

  By the time the Allied forces won the war in June 1945, six million Jews had been killed, or two out of every three Jews who had been living in Europe before the war. Also killed were an estimated 220,000 Romani, 200,000 people with disabilities, and an unknown number of the 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals who had been imprisoned in concentration camps.

  After the war, when the full extent of the horrors of the Holocaust became known, many Nazis were put on trial for crimes against humanity.

  As for the survivors of the Holocaust, some returned to their homes and tried to rebuild their lives, as Max and Sara did in White Bird. Some survivors immigrated to the United States. And others went to Palestine, where, in 1948, the State of Israel was founded.

  In 2005, the United Nations instituted an International Day of Commemoration to honor the victims of the Holocaust. They stated, “The Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one-third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice.”

  Juliette Usach, a physician and the director of the La Guespy children’s home, sits with five boys beneath a sign for Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in 1943.

  The Jewish Resistance

  In White Bird, Rabbi Bernstein and his wife are smuggled out of Dannevilliers by the Armée Juive. This organization, founded in 1942 in the South of France, was a resistance group that helped Jews escape from France.

  There were many underground resistance groups that formed all over Europe to fight the Nazis—either through insurrection within camps and ghettos or by joining armed groups like the Bielski partisans in Poland or the Maquis in France (see the Maquis).

  Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

  In White Bird, Sara and Julien live in neighboring villages in the heart of the Haute-Loire region of France. Although Aubervilliers-aux-Bois and Dannevilliers are fictional, they are based on a village in France called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, where thousands of Jews were hidden from the Nazis during the war. Its citizens provided shelter in their homes, schools, and churches, and even in barns, like the one Sara hid in. For their humanitarian efforts, they were collectively declared Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Israel.

  The Maquis

  In White Bird, a maquisard risks his life to help the Jewish children in the École Lafayette escape into the woods. Although this event is fictional, in real life the Maquis were Resistance fighters who lived deep in the woods and mountains, where the Nazis could not find them. This is why they were called “Maquis,” which means “thicket.” An individual fighter was known as a maquisard.

  The Maquis on a French mountain trail in 1944.

  Shortly before D-Day, word went out that the Maquis were gathering forces at Mont Mouchet, with the objective of delaying the Nazi troops en route to Normandy. It is estimated that 3,000 maquisards assembled in the Margeride mountains and began launching their guerrilla attacks against the German forces. The Germans, however, mounted a vicious counterattack, including bombardment by planes, tanks, and heavy artillery.

  In the end, the few thousand maquisards gathered at Mont Mouchet were vastly outnumbered by the 22,000 German soldiers. About 300 maquisards were killed in the Battle of Mont Mouchet, although it’s possible there were many more deaths unrecorded in the mountains.

  The Milice

  The Milice was a pro-Nazi militia group created by the Vichy government to help fight the French Resistance. They acted as a paramilitary police force and worked closely with the Nazis. After the war, many of them were executed in retaliation for their murderous efforts on behalf of the Germans.

  Muriel Rukeyser

  Muriel Rukeyser was a Jewish American poet (1913–1980) who wrote about the human struggle for love and equity in times of peace and war. An avowed pacifist, she wrote poetry as a form of protest, highlighting social injustice and inequity. The title White Bird is taken from Rukeyser’s poem “Fourth Elegy: The Refugees,” which I used as the epigraph of this book. It comes from her collection of poems Out of Silence, as do the quotes at the beginning of the three parts.

  “Never Again” and #WeRemember

  “ ‘Never again’ becomes more than a slogan: It’s a prayer, a promise, a vow…never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence.” —Elie Wiesel

  The phrase “Never again,” which Julian has on his sign at a protest march at the end of the graphic novel version of White Bird, has been used by many Jewish institutions and organizations over the years, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, to remind the world about the genocide committed against the Jews during the Holocaust, and to guard against future genocides ever happening in the world.

  #WeRemember is a hashtag that was developed as part of the #WeRemember campaign, the world’s largest Holocaust remembrance event, which is pledged to fight racism and to end xenophobia (see Organizations and Resources).

  Persecution of Persons with Disabilities

  When Vincent accosts Julien in the barn, he says some things that reveal his knowledge of a Nazi-instigated euthanasia program called T4. This program’s main imperative was to kill or sterilize people with disabilities, either physical or mental, who—in Nazi ideology—were deemed “inferior” or “unworthy of life.” An estimated 200,000 people were killed in Germany as part of the T4 Program.

  While there was no equivalent policy in France, an estimated 45,000 patients in several mental asylums and hospitals were known to have died of starvation and/or inadequate care during World War II. Whether this was part of a Vichy-sanctioned eugenics program or happened under the directive of highly unethical medical directors is still debated among historians and academics in France.

  Polio

  In White Bird, Julien walks with crutches because his legs were weakened by polio, which he contracted as a young child. Polio was a dreaded infectious disease that killed or paralyzed millions of people—mostly children—in the first half of the twentieth century. Families lived in fear of the disease, as children who caught polio were often quarantined, or separated from their families and sent to live in sanatoriums to recover. While some children made full recoveries, many were paralyzed.

  Bobby, a child suffering from polio, uses a cane and a brace in August 1947.

  In the 1950s, Dr. Jonas Salk invented a vaccine to prevent the transmission of polio. Although the disease could be eradicated from the earth, it is still spread in certain areas of the world where children have no access to vaccines.

  Reverend André Trocmé, Daniel Trocmé, and the École Nouvelle Cévenole

  Reverend André Trocmé with his wife, Magda (date unknown).

  Even before the German occupation of France, Reverend André Trocmé had been using his pulpit to preach against Nazism to the townspeople of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (see Le Chambon-sur-Lignon). The school he started with his wife, Magda, and another pastor named Édouard Theis was called the École Nouvelle Cévenole. It was a coeducational school founded on the principles of tolerance and equality, and was the inspiration for the École Lafayette in White Bird.

  The identification card photo of Daniel Trocmé in 1938.

  As Jewish refugees began fleeing south from the Occupied Zone, Reverend Trocmé and Magda, along with Pastor Theis and a schoolmaster named Roger Darcissac, helped organize the town’s citizenry to hide the refugees from the Nazis and/or smuggle them to safety outside of France. For these efforts, André, Édouard, and Roger were arrested and sent to an internment camp inside France, though they were eventually released.

  Reverend Trocmé served as my inspiration for Pastor Luc.

  The inspiration for Mademoiselle Petitjean was Reverend Trocmé’s nephew, Daniel Trocmé, a schoolmaster at a nearby school called Maison des Roches. In June 1943, when his school was raided by the Nazis, Daniel Trocmé chose to accompany the eighteen Jewish students who had been arrested, although he himself had not been detained. This act of self-sacrifice ultimately landed him in the Majdanek concentration camp, where he died less than a year later.

  For their heroism in saving at least 3,500 Jews, André, Magda, and Daniel Trocmé were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

  Yad Vashem

  Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, is an organization whose purpose is to document, commemorate, and research the Holocaust, as well as educate people around the world about the events of the Shoah. The Righteous Among the Nations is an honor bestowed by Yad Vashem upon non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

  SUGGESTED READING LIST

  Dauvillier, Loïc, Marc Lizano, and Greg Salsedo. Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust. New York: First Second Books, 2014.

  DeSaix, Deborah Durland, and Karen Gray Ruelle. Hidden on the Mountain: Stories of Children Sheltered from the Nazis in Le Chambon. New York: Holiday House, 2006.

  Feldman, Gisèle Naichouler. Saved by the Spirit of Lafayette. Northville, MI: Ferne Press, 2008.

  Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Bantam, 1993.

  Gleitzman, Morris. Then. New York: Square Fish, 2008.

  Gruenbaum, Michael. Somewhere There Is Still a Sun: A Memoir of the Holocaust. New York: Aladdin, 2015.

  Kustanowitz, Esther. The Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Teens Who Hid from the Nazis. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1999.

  Laskier, Rutka. Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust. New York: Yad Vashem and Time Inc., 2008.

  Leyson, Leon. The Boy on the Wooden Box. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013.

  LeZotte, Ann Clare. T4: A Novel in Verse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

  Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2011.

  Mazzeo, Tilar J. Irena’s Children: Young Readers Edition: A True Story of Courage. Adapted by Mary Cronk Farrell. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2017.

  Wieviorka, Annette. Auschwitz Explained to My Child. New York: Marlowe & Company, 2002.

  Wiviott, Meg. Paper Hearts. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2016.

  Zullo, Allan. Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 2005.

  ORGANIZATIONS AND RESOURCES

  There are many wonderful organizations and institutions dedicated to Holocaust education and combating anti-Semitism and intolerance. These are just a few.

  ANNE FRANK CENTER FOR MUTUAL RESPECT

  annefrank.com

  ANNE FRANK HOUSE MUSEUM

  annefrank.org

  THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE

  ADL.org

  AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM

  auschwitz.org

  Resources for teachers:

  auschwitz.org/​en/​education

  THE FOUNDATION FOR THE

  MEMORY OF THE SHOAH

  fondationshoah.org

  HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL & TOLERANCE CENTER OF NASSAU COUNTY

  hmtcli.org

  IWITNESS

  Stronger Than Hate

  iwitness.usc.edu

  UCL CENTRE FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATION

  holocausteducation.org.uk

  UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

  ushmm.org

  Resources for educators:

  ushmm.org/educators

  Resources for students:

  encyclopedia.ushmm.org

  USC SHOAH FOUNDATION

  The Institute for Visual History and Education

  sfi.usc.edu

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  GENERAL HISTORY OF FRANCE, JEWS IN FRANCE, WORLD WAR II, AND THE GERMAN OCCUPATION

  Gildea, Robert. Marianne in Chains: Daily Life in the Heart of France During the German Occupation. New York: Picador, 2004.

  Lanzmann, Claude. Shoah: The Complete Text of the Acclaimed Holocaust Film. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.

  Marrus, Michael R., and Robert O. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews. New York: Basic Books, 1981.

  Rajsfus, Maurice. The Vél d’Hiv Raid: The French Police at the Service of the Gestapo. Translated by Levi Laub. Los Angeles: DoppelHouse Press, 2017.

  Rosbottom, Ronald C. When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940–1944. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2014.

  Vinen, Richard. The Unfree French: Life Under the Occupation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.

  THE HOLOCAUST AND ANTI-SEMITISM

  Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1985.

  Lazare, Lucien. Rescue as Resistance: How Jewish Organizations Fought the Holocaust in France. Translated by Jeffrey M. Green. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.