The Round Up

In the summer of 1942, Paris is under German occupation. Jewish residents are forced to wear the yellow star and live in fear of the Gestapo, while neighbors debate whether to protect or persecute them.

On the night of July 16–17, 1942, an agreement between the Nazis and the French authorities leads to a mass roundup of Jews in Montmartre. Joseph Weismann's family and their neighbors are arrested, and Joseph inadvertently denounces his father when his mother pretends to be a widow to militiamen.

The arrested are taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where they endure cramped, unsanitary conditions with little water. The atmosphere is tense as families await their fate and seek any aid that might come their way.

Inside the Velodrome, Joseph and his friend Noé meet nurse Annette Monod, who tries to support the prisoners as best she can. Firefighters occasionally release water by opening valves, and prisoners share scarce food while trying to stay hopeful.

Captain Pierret, the highest-ranking officer among the Paris firefighters, uses his authority to impose order among the gendarmes and keep uneasy crowds subdued. His actions reflect the fragile hierarchies that govern life inside the Velodrome.

After two days, the detainees are deported from the Velodrome to the Beaune-la-Rolande transit camp in Loiret. The journey marks the start of a grueling new phase for families already pushed to the edge.

Beaune-la-Rolande is plagued by bad food, disease, and psychological despair as detainees endure crowded conditions. Hunger and thirst become daily trials that erode both bodies and morale.

A few days later, the parents and their children are deported toward an extermination camp, Auschwitz, while the younger children are kept behind in the hope of survival. The family’s fragmentation underscores the horror of the transports.

Following his mother's last words to survive, Joseph and one comrade flee the camp, aided by others and money that their parents had hidden in the latrines. The escape hinges on getting away before their own deportation, leaving behind those who cannot accompany them.

Joseph cannot take his best friend along because the boy is ill and has a hernia that prevents him from walking. This forces a painful separation as Joseph escapes toward safety with others.

News of extermination camps reaches Annette, who hurries to the deportation train carrying the little ones in a bid to save them, but she arrives too late. The tragedy underscores the limits of individual action in the face of systemic cruelty.

Nono, the little brother, escapes from the deportation train and is taken in by a couple who offer him shelter. His survival becomes a glimmer of hope amid the devastation around him.

In 1945, after the war, Joseph and Nono are found by survivors in Paris. They eventually reunite with Annette at the Lutetia, a Paris hotel that welcomes those who endured the camps.