A pdf of revision notes on the book 'Un Sac de Billes' based on information from classes and study guides. Includes a colour-coded plot summary for each chapter, notes on each theme and character, including minor characters. I achieved a grade A in Edexcel A-level French in 2023 using these notes t...
-Joseph and Maurice are playing marbles then hurry home to their father’s barber shop
-They hide the sign that says Jewish business and laugh as two German soldiers go in “au
milieue des clients juifs”
-The brothers see the soldiers’ presence as something amusing- shows their naivety
Chapter 2- Paris Rue de Clignancourt (1941)
-Jo and Maurice’s father tells them how their grandfather fled the pogroms of Russia and
came to France, which he believes is and will be a safe haven for all “fuyards” (fugitives)
-This chapter foreshadows the flight/journey of the brothers
-Their father’s confidence that they will be safe contrasts with their mother’s anxiety
Chapter 3- Paris, Rue de Clignancourt (1941)
-All French Jews have to wear a yellow star now, Jo’s friend Zerati admires it but other boys
at his school bully him
-Jo exchanges his yellow star with Zerati for un sac de billes (start of his business dealings)
-He is ignored by his teachers and beaten up by other children at break
-Their parents pull them out of school; Henri and Albert have disappeared
-Their father tells them how he left Russia alone at the age of seven and the boys realise it is
their turn
-They need to travel alone to meet up with their brothers in Menton in the “zone libre”
-Jo and Maurice leave Paris from the gare d’Austerlitz on a train heading for Dax
-They befriend an old woman on the train who offers them lemonade, though the boys are
still wary of her
-Jo falls asleep and when he wakes up he is surprised that passengers have left and German
police come aboard at Dax, so they take refuge in a compartment where a priest is sitting
-Jo sees people being beaten and taken away, like the old lady before
-He tells the priest they don’t have travel documents so when the Germans question them,
the priest says the boys are with them
-The priest then takes them to breakfast and gives them a piece of paper with his address
on
-The boys realise they need to rely on their wits now
-The relentlessness of the Jewish persecution is highlighted in this chapter
-When they arrive in Hagetmau, they go to a café where there are more than a hundred
other customers who are also refugees9
-Outside, they meet Raymond- a delivery boy who offers to get them across the
demarcation line if they do his afternoon deliveries
, -They cross the line with others that night- it seems easy to Jo (underwhelmed by the lack of
adventure)
-A local farmer provides them with blankets and his shed to sleep in
-Whilst Jo is asleep, Maurice acts as a Passeur, bringing 40 people across the line and
earning 20,000 Francs
-They then need to get to the closest railway station to get to Marseilles- and they are lucky
to be given a lift from the Comte de V. in a horse-drawn carriage
-Jo and Maurice reach Marseille and see the sea for the first time
-They end up in the red-light district and are teased by prostitutes
-They go to a cinema where they watch Les Aventures du Baron de Münchausen three times
-At the railway station, Jo must pretend to the police that he is with his father and provides
a false address whilst Maurice, who senses something is wrong, tries not to be seen
-Police are asking for papers but the boys are lucky because when the train arrives the
guards had forgotten to lock the train doors; they climb abord
-They then live in Menton with their older brothers for four months, which is occupied by
the Italians
-They find jobs; Maurice at the bakery and Jo with Monsieur and Madame Viale who have a
farm in the mountains above Sainte-Agnès
-They receive bad news; their parents have been arrested near Pau, having fled Paris to
escape the roundups of Jews and are being held in a transit camp
-Henri goes to Pau to try and arrange for their parents to be released whilst Jo and Maurice
are registered to attend the local school where they re-establish their ability to set up deals;
Jo exchanges marbles for vitamin pills, knowing he will later win them back
-Henri returns- their parents are free and are now in Nice where they will soon join them
-A few weeks later, police arrive at the house saying Henri and Albert have been summoned
to be part of the STO and will be deported to Germany
-A quick decision is made- they will all leave for Nice as soon as they can
-Although the author says they watched Les Aventures du Baron de Münchausen in 1942, it
was not released until 1943; blurring of fact and fiction
-When Henri tries to get his parents released, he is also cunning and resourceful as he can
construct a relatively plausible background story
-We never know the true motives of the release of their parents but in Jo’s interpretation
we are offered, for the first time, a view that the German occupying forces are sympathetic
to the plight of Jews
Chapter 7- Nice (1942-1943)
-Jo and Maurice run a thriving black market with the occupying Italian soldiers, they have a
particular friendship with Marcello
-Henri and Albert are well known for their skills as “les frères Joffo”, cutting hair
-Their parents are also settled comfortably in Nice
-The boys attend the local school in September
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