Join us for a remarkable evening with two acclaimed authors, whose deeply personal books uncover the hidden histories of Jewish women in Nazi-occupied France.
In Two Sisters, journalist Rosie Whitehouse tells the gripping account of two young Jewish sisters, Rosie's mother-in-law and her sister, who narrowly escaped the Vichy regime after their mother was deported to Auschwitz.
Fleeing to the Alpine town of Val d’Isère, they were saved by a courageous doctor whose motives remained a mystery for decades. Through meticulous research and family testimony, Two Sisters unravels the truth behind their survival and explores the broader moral questions of complicity, resistance, and memory in wartime France.
It is both an intimate family history and a powerful reflection on the choices people make in the darkest of times.
In Ninette’s War, former journalist John Jay brings to life the extraordinary story of Ninette Dreyfus. Ninette was a cosseted scion of one of France’s most prominent Jewish families, but when the Second World War broke out and the Germans occupied Paris, the fall from grace was dramatic.
Realising she was no longer safe, the teenager fled the capital for the South, only to fall prey to the Vichy regime. In fear of her life at the hands of the Nazis and their French collaborators, she became somebody else.
Woven together from Ninette’s own diaries and interviews with author John Jay before she died, Ninette’s War traces the frailty of national and personal identity through the eyes of a young woman, in compelling and unforgettable detail. Join the authors in conversation as they discuss the personal stories of women in wartime France, chronicling their experiences for future generations, and offering insight into the choices they made and the lives they led.
About the Authors■
Rosie Whitehouse
Rosie Whitehouse is a journalist and author who writes widely on Holocaust survivors and memory for BBC Online, the Observer, Tablet, The Jewish Chronicle and Haaretz. Her books include Two Sisters: Betrayal, Love and Resistance in Wartime France and The People on the Beach. She is also the author of the Bradt guide to Holocaust memorials and sites across Europe.
John Jay
John Jay is a former journalist and editor who worked at The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph. His book Ninette’s War is based on the diaries and personal testimony of Ninette Dreyfus, a young Jewish woman from a prominent French family who came of age under Nazi occupation. The book offers a rare, intimate window into identity, displacement, and survival during the Second World War.