A pdf of revision notes on the book 'Un Sac de Billes' based on information from classes and study guides. Includes the plot summary for each of the eleven chapters as well as the most important points. I achieved a grade A in Edexcel A-level French in 2023 using these notes that I have summarised ...
-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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