‘Behind The Curtain’ is a beautifully illustrated, historical fiction graphic novel that centres Yaël, a young French Jew, from 1937 (pre-WW2) to 1942 (mid-WW2), set in Vichy France. During this time, Yaël goes through a lot. We see her suffer loss, learn about Judaism, experience antisemitism & war, start her period, and it ends with her being taken to a camp. 

This book gives us a first person perspective of what it was like to live as a Jew in Vichy France leading up to and during the Second World War. This is such a beautifully told, incredibly important story about Jewish experiences during the Holocaust. There will never be too many of these stories as it helps the current world remember the horrors of the Holocaust so we can ensure this never happens again. 

Every experience is unique and so so important. It is such a privilege to read this and I thank the author wholeheartedly. Even though this is a heavy subject, I think this book will be great for middle grade and upwards. It’s important that children learn about what happened and how it affected people. 

After the story ends, the author provides us with a historical background and a glossary which gives explanations of many different things relating to Judaism and WWII. The author created this work using their grandparents’ stories with added fictional elements and I’m sure it was very traumatic and stressful to recount these experiences so I thank them so much for putting this together. 

TWs/CWs - Animal excrement; Antisemitism; Blood; Bombing; Camps; Child death; Cussing; Death; Death of a parent; Deportation; Genocide; Guns; Hate crimes; Hitler; Illness; Nazi sympathiser; Swastikas; War