The Postcard

Multiple characters across generations of Rabinovitches use writing as a means of immortalization. For those whose voices were snuffed out by the Nazis, little remained but their written thoughts, stories and memories. Noémie, for example, lives a short life, but through her stories, her diary, and her letters, her story survives.

She dreamed of being a writer and fantasized about how her arrest and detainment would one day make her an even more skilled author. She, like many authors, knew that a life fully lived was the prerequisite for a writer. She found her muse in the mundane but beautiful, and it is through Noémie’s eyes that readers see a France beautiful and alive, yet indifferent to suffering. Noémie’s connection with the doctor reveals her final weeks. She is immortalized by the pen, and her saga survives because of it.

She isn’t the only writer who keeps the Rabinovitches alive. Noémie exists in the posthumous memoirs of the transition camp doctor. In memoirs of the hostel owners, Myriam is present and her legacy survives. In Anne’s novel, the whole family regains their voice, living on despite their deaths.