Pillars of Fire

It’s summertime in Paris, 1939, but the carefree air is soon to be overshadowed by the looming threat of the war. The city submits peacefully to the Germans and life under this new regime appears less menacing than feared.
Celine, fourteen years old, is the eldest child of a wealthy Jewish banker. Travelling across Paris to her music lessons, she is disturbed by rumours of Nazi persecution of her people. But her father refuses to believe that the horror will visit them and the chance to flee is lost…
With one Nazi round-up of Jews after another, it is only a matter of time before Celine’s privileged family is suddenly herded into the east-bound train on a one-way journey to hell…
From Nazi cultism, to the heroic French Resistance, from the movement of whole armies to the incredible, personal stories of ordinary people, World War II is vividly brought to life. But it is through Celine’s harrowing tale of her own personal tragedy in the face of the Holocaust that we are told how war should be remembered.
This is a war story in which honour and glory are of little importance. The only thing that matters is the will to survive.