Sonia Devillers traces a stolen piano through the plunder of Jewish property under the Occupation
In her second narrative work, the French journalist follows the Enoch family, deported from Paris in 1943 after having all their possessions seized, among them a grand Erard piano that was never recovered.
According to Le Monde, Sonia Devillers's new book, Le Fabuleux Piano, reconstructs the fate of the Enoch family through the history of a single object. Arrested and deported from Paris in 1943, the family had their entire household confiscated under the Occupation's policy of plundering Jewish property. Among the seized goods was a grand piano made by the Erard firm, a maker renowned in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The instrument was never found again.
The book is described as Devillers's second récit, a narrative form she used for her earlier work investigating her own family's history. Le Monde does not give further detail on the book's structure, length or publisher, nor on how Devillers conducted her research into the Enoch family and the piano's disappearance.
For readers who keep track of books dealing with the Occupation and the spoliation of Jewish property in France, the title adds to a body of work that approaches that history through the biography of objects rather than only through personal testimony.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.