The Shopkeeper of Alsace
Based on a true story, this Jewish family odyssey begins in the Polish town of Amshinov in 1915. Berek Elkshutz runs a profitable shop that carries everything. The town where he was born in 1870 is peaceful, inhabited by Christians and Jews. That changes when several Russian soldiers stationed in Poland steal goods from his shop, beat him, and threaten his older daughters, Celina and Sarah, with rape. Berek hides the girls, their younger sister and two brothers in the cellar of the shop. He moves the family to Vivadorv, Poland, in the winter of 1916.
After World War I, Sarah’s older brother Yakob moves his family to Metz, France. He asks Sarah to join them. Sarah is the mainstay in their shop, but her father tells her to leave. He remains in Poland. In 1920, Sarah opens a shop in Metz and sells popular ready-to-wear dresses. The shop does well, and she is accepted by the local community. She falls in love with a customer, Melach Seibert. They marry and start a family. Sarah stocks store goods in the shop cellar sensing that they will need to move again. In 1924 she moves her family to Colmar in Alsace-Lorraine.
In 1939, World War II begins, and France is occupied by the Nazis. Sarah diligently works to keep her family safe from pernicious antisemitism. They are continually on the move: to Nimes, Clement-Ferrand, Ganges, and finally to Vichy. Ironically, there Sarah and Melach receive new identity papers. Sarah’s narrative reveals the courage and tenacity of a woman striving to keep her family together and safe in the throes of two world wars. Laura Knoy’s debut novel is a skillful and moving depiction of one family’s fight not only to survive but to overcome the hardships of war, antisemitism and displacement.
