The Promise (revised edition): A Tale of Two Families Betrayed by France and Saved by the French - Softcover

Besnainou, Jacques

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0991166310 ISBN 13: 9780991166312

Publisher: JIB Consulting LLC, 2014

Synopsis

Fulfilling a promise made to his mother when he was a child and she was losing her battle against cancer, Jacques Besnainou tells her story as a "hidden" child in France during World War II. He chronicles the struggles and survival of two families: his mother's and his mother-in-law's. Both lived through a terrifying ordeal provoked by the willful blindness of a government gone mad. And both were rescued thanks to the miraculous intervention of courageous people who listened to their conscience and challenged the established order, often at the expense of their own lives. In 1940, about 330,000 Jews lived in France, and three-quarters survived thanks to the exemplary altruism of ordinary French people. This book pays homage to them. Every story and location, as well as most of the dates and names, are true. Some details have been slightly romanticized to add texture and readability to this novelized history.

About this title

About the Author

Jacques Besnainou is an engineer by trade educated at the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines in Paris, France. He moved to the U.S. from France in 1993 where he successfully developed an environmental consulting firm. After selling it in 2000, he spent more than a decade at the large nuclear services company AREVA. Jacques lives in Washington D.C. with his wife Isabelle and their three children David, Sarah and Judith.

Edition details

• Publisher: JIB Consulting LLC
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0991166310
• ISBN 13: 9780991166312
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96