White Bird: A Wonder Story

The story of White Bird is set in the context of World War II and the Holocaust, history of which is common knowledge to most. Adolf Hitler, an Austrian-born German politician, rose to power as the dictator of Germany in 1933 and served in this position until his death in 1945 and the conclusion of the war. Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party, whose racist ideology included the persecution and systemic genocide of six million Jews, as well as millions of other targeted victims, over the course of the war. This genocide is what came to be termed as the Holocaust.

While the story of Sara and Julien is a fictional one, it is based on real experiences of Jews during this time, and actual historical events find mention throughout the book. France surrendered to Germany in 1940. Following their defeat in the Battle of France, the country signed an armistice on June 14. This was done in the same place that Germany signed an armistice in 1918 following World War I, and was Hitler’s way of avenging his country’s humiliation in the first war. Following this armistice, “Vichy France” came into being—the French State headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, which was headquartered in the French town of Vichy, and was sympathetic to the Nazi cause.

While initially only exerting influence over the northern and western portions of France—the “Occupied Zone” that Sara refers to—Vichy France eventually took over all Metropolitan France by the end of 1942. The Vel d’Hiv roundup occurred prior to this, earlier in the same year. It was one among many other such roundups of foreign-born Jews but was considered the worst because of the sheer number of people arrested (13,000 Jews), the fact that women and children were also included, and the location in which they were held before deportation—the Vélodrome d’Hiver stadium in the heart of Paris (214). Following this roundup is when the Blums do not hear from Max’s sister again.

Many more roundups and deportations took place after Germany occupied the Free Zone in late 1942, and the roundup at the École Lafayette, as well as Maman’s arrest, is based on these. Children were separated from their parents, and families were torn apart, as they were often deported to different camps. The gendarmes—officers of the French Armed Forces—served as policemen, and would help conduct these roundups, as they did at Sara’s school (213). Later, the Vichy government helped create the Milice, a pro-Nazi militia group, to counter the French Resistance that was on the rise (215). This is the group that Vincent joins later in the story.

Different forms of underground resistance continued to persist in France throughout the war. The Armée Juive is one of them, an organization founded in 1942 in the south of France, which helped Jews escape the country (214). The Bernsteins are smuggled into Palestine with the help of this organization. The Maquis was yet another form of the French Resistance, consisting of guerrilla fighters who lived deep in the woods to escape discovery by the Germans. The word “maquis" means “thicket” in French, from which the resistance derives its name, and the fighters were called “maquisards.” History indicates that thousands of maquisards gave up their lives as they attacked the German troops headed to Normandy to fend off the Allies on D-Day. As indicated in the book, the maquisards were greatly out-numbered by the Germans. While records indicate only hundreds of deaths, the possibility remains that thousands more may have died, with their bodies never having been recovered from the forest (215).