A totally different look at WWII and the Jews. Colette Brull-Ulmann was a French Jew and this is her story of working in the Rothschild Hospital. She grew up wanting to care for children. At the start of the Nazi terror, she had started school to become a doctor. Soon, because she was a Jew, she was not allowed to go to school with the rest of the people. Thus, she ended up at Rothschild Hospital. Here she would do amazing things to save children, but also lost some. From Rothschild she would go on to join the Resistance. Finally, years later she would reach her dream of being a Pediatrician.

As I watch the news and Israel is at war, just because of them being Jews, I wonder if we will ever learn how to get along with other people. We are all the same as children of God, yet we can't seem to get along with each other. Books like these are important where maybe what happened during WWII won't happen, again. It's a story only being now told as Brull-Ulmann was the last survivor and she finally decided to tell what happened at the hospital. I feel that we need to read about history to learn from it, where hopefully the same mistakes won't happen again.

Tentative Publication Date: February 13, 2024

Thank you to Netgalley and the University of Pennsylvania Press for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

🙂 Happy Reading 🙂

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#universityofpennsylvaniapress
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As a storyteller, I weave tales of heroism and courage. But sometimes, a true story comes along that leaves me in awe. Collete Brull-Ulmann's tale is just that. In a world where fear and hatred ruled, she was a ray of light, illuminating the darkness. She didn't just hide from the shadows, she confronted them head-on, risking everything to save the lives of innocent children. Her bravery wasn't just about facing danger, but about standing up for what was right, even when it seemed the world was against her. Collete's story is a reminder that heroes don't wear capes or have superpowers, they are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. And it's our job to keep their stories alive, so that their courage inspires us for generations to come.

In a world where darkness reigned, a ray of light burst forth from an unexpected place - the morgue. Collete, a rebellious spirit, defied the shackles of oppression and orchestrated a daring escape, turning a door of death into a portal of liberation. Like a conductor leading a symphony of hope, she marshaled a diverse ensemble of medical professionals, social workers, and even law enforcement to join her in a clandestine opera of rescue and resilience. Through the Morgue Door, a tale of courage and creative resistance unfolds, challenging us to reimagine the boundaries of human possibility and the power of collective bravery in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for providing me with an advance copy ♥️

The heartfelt story of Colette Brull-Ullman, a brave woman who overcame odds and fear through the dark times of German occupation of France during World War II, working in underground resistance networks amidst the horrors she details and the degradations of the Jewish people. Her book reads like a fireside storytelling, with basic narrative and sentence structure. This leaves some parts of her story not fully fleshed out, but does not detract from the immersion of what she experienced.

Fascinating and heartbreaking record of what Jewish people went through in WWII Europe. I still find this treatment of ordinary citizens to be unconscionable and criminal, and wonder how many people whom I've actually met still hold views like this.

Dr Colette Brull-Ulmann tells the story of her life and determination to become a doctor. She made that decision to become a pediatrician at the young age of 14. However, it took her 20 years.

We get a first look at her upbringing. Her rescue work for children. At the time there was Anti-Semitic laws. She did find a hospital that allowed Jewish interns, Rothschild hospital.

A brave story of determination. This was a great story. I highly enjoyed it.
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A very interesting read- during WW2 in Nazi occupied France (Paris) Colette (author of the book) was working as
medical intern in Rothschild Hospital..
She was responsible to take care of displaced Jews,abounded Jews kids…e.t.c..
Colette was only 16 years,but took these responsibilities deep in her heart-she met in hospital young Jewish
girl name Danielle,who was 3 years old…and who was sent later to Drancy concentration camp,where Danielle vanished as many others Jewish people…
What is amazed me most ,that Colette never overcame that guilt of lost that girl even she couldn’t do anything to save her..
During whole life she kept the image of the young girl …Colette became very professional medical pediatrician ..
It’s very fascinated story about Parisian resistance during war time…,it’s touched my heart also….
Thanks NetGalley for sharing this story with me….

Through the Morgue Door, though a,memoir, to me, read similar to a,novel. It did not read similar to a novel because I did not believe what I was reading, but how Brull-Ulmann wrote her story made reality readable.

With her story itself, Brull-Ulmann brought both reality and humanity to a time, place and situation that many people would prefer to forget - as she tried to do. To hear the struggles of real people during the Holocaust, and in this specific memoir, about a Jew who struggled and suffered without spending any time in an actual Concentration Camp.

How Brull-Ulmann ended her memoir is really the ultimate gift in multiple ways.

Through the Morgue Door

Colette Brull-Ulmann and Jean-Christophe Portes

One Woman’s Story of Survival and Saving Children in German-Occupied Paris

What made this narrative bearable to read was Brull-Ulmann’s decision to tell this story through the eyes of a physician. She seemed more intent on describing the unfairness of the persecution of the Jews than to describe the horrors of the concentration camps and those people inside them held as prisoners who had to endure them until they didn’t.

In that way, she differed from Elie Wiesel and the fiction of Leon Uris. She differed from Irena Sendler, “the female Schindler,” in that, not only did she (Irena) save the lives of thousands of Jewish children, but she devised a filing system that enabled surviving members of their families of to find them. Her story is told by Tilar J. Mazzeo..

Brill-Ullman provides a first-person account of being a Jewish physician during World War II in Paris and the helplessness she felt in saving the lives of Jews only to see them transported back to Drancy Prison to either die, be tortured or sent to concentration camps. This book is a jewel in that she lived through the German Occupation and then wrote about it. She died in 2021 at the age of 101.

It was a privilege to read this book. But I am a lover of fiction, specifically creative non-fiction which Elie Wiesel wrote, and Leon Uris enhanced in his fiction.

Brull-Ullman describes a Jewish woman who had a nervous breakdown after seeing her husband’s head crushed in an elevator shaft while he was checking for Nazis. She dressed in her finest clothes for the doctor who wished to take her to Drancy. Leon Uris wrote about people whose minds broke in the book “Exodus.” The character Karen goes to see her father in a nursing home after his release from a concentration camp and he is catatonic, unable to recognize her.

Few writers of the second and third generation after World War II have captured the poignancy of the Jewish plight during the war. Rivka Galchen, an admitted fan of Leon Uris’s fiction, matches the poignancy of his writing in her book, “Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch.” When Katherina Kepler, mother of Johannes Kepler, is released from prison, her old friend, fictional Simon, comes to visit her at her daughter’s house where she is living. He struggles to entertain her, play a game with her, anything. Unlike Karen’s father in “Exodus,” she can talk but shows complete disinterest and he quietly walks home.

Although Brull-Ullman describes her helplessness at being unable to provide her patients with an escape method, she fails to describe the impact that torture during imprisonment has on the souls of the people that endure it. And in that way, her non-fiction account of observation fails to capture the ultimate destruction of the minds and souls of so many Holocaust survivors.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penn for providing me with this ARC.

"Through the Morgue Door" explores the Holocaust and survivor stories, a topic I usually like to read. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with this book. I really wanted to like it, but the writing style didn't click with me.

Despite the book addressing a heavy and emotional subject, the way it tells the story felt hard to get into. The writing lacked the emotional connection I look for in such narratives, making it difficult for me to engage with the characters and the events.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I am Jewish. I have read some books on the holocaust. This is the first book that I have read on what happened in Paris to the Jews.

The book was written exceptionally well. I was interested in all the characters. I was interested in the history at the time. I had empathy for the characters. I couldn't imagine what it was like to live then.

Thank you for writing this story. It was easy to read. Some books on the Holocaust are so gruesome or just so many facts. This book was written with compassion but didn't leave me feeling overwhelmed with facts or details of horror.

I highly encourage others to read this interesting story. This book, like any truly good book, changed me.

Hitler’s army occupied France like an overturned bottle of ink spilled on a map. Colette Brull-Ulmann was a Jewish medical student working as an intern at the Rothschild Hospital. The Germans brought Jews from the Drancy internment camp to the Rothschild Hospital for treatment of illness and after severe beatings.

The Germans detained Brull-Ulmann’s father for a while in this same camp, and her younger brother and sister left Paris to live in less danger.

Brull-Ulmann became emotionally attached to Danielle, a young girl at the hospital. This was an endearing child, loved by everyone, even the German guards. When the girl recovered, the doctors and nurses found additional reasons the child was “too ill” to return to the camp.

It seemed Jewish women who gave birth at the hospital had a higher than usual number of stillborn babies. In fact, the women gave up their babies at birth to be smuggled to safety. Brull-Ulmann heard it rumored some patients, especially children, were smuggled out of the hospital through the morgue door, the only door left unlocked and unguarded.

Brull-Ulmann was herself called upon to smuggle two children through the morgue door and the dark streets of the Paris night to safety. She details this one mission, although she said she participated in perhaps two others.

A ruthless doctor from the infirmary at Drancy ordered Danielle and several other Rothschild patients to go back to the camp. That was the last Brull-Ulmann saw of the sweet girl. The intern was sure the Germans killed Danielle and the rest of her family in an extermination camp. Brull-Ulmann grieved because she was not able to save Danielle.

Brull-Ulmann went on to secretly treat wounded allies in hiding, and to work for the French Resistance. Although the title, Through the Morgue Door, is intriguing, it reflects only a small part of the book. Brull-Ulmann obsesses over the loss of Danielle, and she devotes much of the book to her grief concerning the girl.

Such bravery throughout this book! A look inside occupied France during the Second World War. What doctors, nurses, and other brave souls tried to do to save who they could. All while going through their own personal hell.
I was very happy to have read this book and the experience of Collette.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

Thank you NetGalley and University of Pennsylvania Press for making this book available for review.

This year my reading list has focused on the Second World War. While there are many histories, biographies, and memoirs out there, I found that this memoir by Collette Brull-Ulmann not only ties together many themes that one can find in WWII pieces, but also provides a unique window into life during the German occupation of France. It is certainly worth a read for anyone interested in WWII and specifically the French Resistance and Holocaust.

THINGS I ENJOYED

1. Genuine Narration. One thing I found very profound is the frankness of the author's voice throughout this book. Her memoir does not get overly editorialized or packaged up into witty and profound prose. Her story is not as eloquent as perhaps that of Eli Wiesel in Night, but what I appreciated about it was how genuine it all felt. She explicitly recognizes her memory limitations and doesn’t embellish. Additionally, and perhaps more a sign of her humility like many of the helpers of WWII, she doesn’t boast of her role in the Rothschild network as being some grand heroic endeavor; it was simply the right thing to do. Throughout her memoir we see her growth from her childhood naiveté while living in Tunisia, to her somber dedication to stay the course during the course of the occupation. She is frank about what things ended happily, and the many more things that did not.

2. A Window into Life In Occupied Paris. Much in the same way that Anne Frank’s diary is so valuable, this memoir provides great detail into what life was like in occupied Paris. She recounts the transition of the French government from positions of treating Jews as Frenchmen first to ultimately collaborating with the Nazis for the exportation of Jews to the East. We also see the hardships faced in the forms of transportation limits, food rations, employment segregation, etc. Like Frank, Brull-Ulmann also has a story of hiding. Like Frank’s family, she and her siblings in particular had to “[build] for themselves a world of dreams, of boredom, and fear.” However, quite different from the Franks, Brull-Ulmann, was often hiding in plain sight traversing the city via metro and working at the hospital. I think her work is important because it helps readers better understand the fear and anxieties that people were living with, even if they weren’t yet caught and sent to concentration camps.

3. Symbolism of the Hospital. Perhaps one of the more literary aspects of the work is the physical transformation of the hospital, which “outwardly, nothing had changed […] except for the bared wire […] but it had been transformed into something hideous, as if the horror that had begun in Poland […] had reached here and was seeping into our buildings, into our souls.”

4. An Insider View of Lesser Known Resistance Activities. Before reading this memoir I was not familiar with more than maybe 2 other concerted efforts to save children from deportation to concentration camps. Brull-Ulman’s memoir is fascinating and provides an insider perspective into how ordinary people did what they could to make a difference. The members of the hospital staff would “[invent] new ways to lie to [the Germans], to rob them of the men and women they wanted to deport, to devour.” They “altered diagnoses, found complications where there were none, detected tuberculosis… [and even had] an abnormally high number of stillborns [reported]” to help keep children off of the trains bound for the East. Interestingly as she points out, as the hospital becomes more confined, it also inadvertently kept a lot of their activities from prying eyes. The author also recognizes that many of the guards were likely complicit because had they had an ounce of curiosity, they would have noticed that somethings were not adding up. In this way, we can see that the lines between “good” and “bad” get blurred. Throughout she also points out the numerous reasons people acted or did not act in various circumstances. It definitely helps give depth and nuance to our understanding of the Holocaust.

5. First Hand Account of Rescue Missions. This portion of the memoir is actually much shorter than I expected. However, the account is riveting and profound. The author recounts her work escorting children out of the hospital and into safe houses to help get them to safety. We get to see her bravery, and its interesting to note what of that experience still impresses on her mind many years later.

6. The Burden of Memory. Another thing I really enjoyed was reading how the author dealt with the memory of these events. For years she, like many other helpers, would not speak about her work to aid those in need. More than just modesty though, we see that a lot of her silence is tied to wanting to avoid the pain of recollection; the sorrow of seeing the faces of those who they were not successful in saving from deportation and death.

CRITICISMS

Readers looking for something more like a spy thriller like A Woman of No Importance or Madame Fourcade’s Secret War may not find the same kind of experience here. The author’s activity with the resistance and her personal involvement on missions to accompany children to safety are a relatively shorter segment of the memoir.

One thing that I found myself thinking while reading was that the author spent a lot of time on her childhood and the years proceeding WWII. However, in the end, I think this was ultimately a good decision. It helps us as readers see her character arc so to say and her growth from an innocent child to a war time doctor and spy.

OVERALL

Overall, this memoir is a great read. It is an important contribution to the works on WWII in France, life under the Petin/Vichy France, the Occupation of Paris, and the Holocaust. The author's genuine voice, harrowing account, and personal reflection offer readers an incredible journey into history, memory, and loss.

This is a memoir of a remarkable lady. It talks of her trials and tribulations under Nazi Occupied France.
She talks about her upbringing, her school, her desire to become a pediatrician.
Then the Nazi's come and she explains what it was like.

Here is where I had some trouble. She talks alot about Daniele and her sister. The children were ultimately deported and killed in a concentration camp.

She talked about bringing a young boy, aged around 3 and his sister, aged 7, out through the morgue door. That was ONE instance of her delivering children outside of the hospital.

I felt that there should have been more to the story, but it was glossed over.

I am still not sure what she all did during the war, what she did for the resistance and what she may have done for the Americans.

I felt that the story was too brief and only one example was given of her going through the morgue door.

Thank you NetGalley and University of Pennsylvania Press!

Bravery is not just facing something you fear. Bravery is standing up for what you believe in despite it being against the societal norm and or expectation.

Hitler and his maniacal need to "purify" the world would snuff out the light of so many innocent lives, many of whom were just children. Collete Brull-Ulmann had a decision to make... turn a blind eye or risk her life for nothing more than a slight chance of saving a child or a few children's lives. She jeopardized her life not once but multiple times in order for innocent children to stand a chance in life.

Collete along with many other doctors, nurses, social workers and even officers from the Rothschild Hospital came together and devised an escape plan to smuggle children and some adults into safety.

Through the Morgue Door is a story of Collete's bravery. The bravery she needed when she rescued children, the bravery she needed to stand by her family during her own persecution and suffering. It is a story of her bravery and determination to survive in a world that told her she had no place in it.

A great insight into an unfamiliar resistance born in the heart of a French Hospital. Little is known about the courage and bravery forged in Rothschild hospital, as many did not take credit for the work they did, however, one member with a minor role Dr. Colette Brull-Ulmann recounts her life and the resistance work that took place.

In this book Through the Morgue doors, recounts an intimate story about Dr Colette Brull-Ulmann, as told by herself. Collette takes us through her life, her trials and sorrows, while the book itself is slow, it is nonetheless a must read. Collette brings to life the people, and what day to day life was like, so vividly you can almost stand along side her, as you read her words.

Collette first starts by gives us a little background into her childhood. She grew up in a very well to do family. She grew up with very loving parents, although the book doesn’t give much insight to her mother, or siblings, she does give some brief insight for her father. Her father was a kind, loving man, and appears to have given Collette her very determined and fighting personality. By age 14, she made the decision to become a pediatrician. Never formally attending school, she was determined nonetheless to fulfill her dream, and after 4 years of hard work she received her bac. By age 18 she was finally enrolled into her first year of med school. With increasing Anti-Semitic laws, caused many setbacks for her career, by her second year there was only on hospital allowing Jewish interns, it was at this very hospital Collette would go on to save lives and get an introduction into resistance.
She has a very big and loving heart towards humanity, especially children. Collette may have not played a major role in the Rothschild rescue network for the children, she did make several trips to bring children to safety. Her
determination to stand up for injustice made a difference in many lives, after being forced to leave Rothschild due to an unfortunate encounter, she continued her residence work with her father.

20 years later, Collette would finally be able to become the pediatrician she dreamed of as a little girl. Collette and many others made a big difference, even if not very well known. A plaque outside Rothschild hospital in Paris, commemorates the brave men and women, who refused to stand by and allow the injustice. This is a must read book.

Through the Morgue Door
Written By Colette Brull-Ulmann & Jean- Christopher Porters
Published By University of Pennsylvania Press
Release Date February 13, 2023


I feel honored that I was given a copy of this book to read but it is truly a hard book to digest. Colette Brull-Ullman wanted to be a pediatrician and there were so many ways that she went above and beyond to help the children who so desperately needed her help. At the time of the holocaust when Jews were not allowed to do much but live in camps or prisons, like her father, Ullman put herself through school and worked at a hospital in Paris where Jews were not only allowed to work but be seen as patients. Ullman worked closely with a social worker named Claire Heyman who was the leader of the hospitals secret escape network. Together they helped rescue and treat many Jewish children. Many times faced with death herself or mistreatment by officers and other doctors. She fought fearlessly to protect thousands of children whose lives would have ended had it not been for her.
Colette’s memory of her story is vivid and bright. Although most likely locked away due to the harsh memories, it seems as though it helped her as well to remember. At a time during ww2 when the Natzi regime was powerful and cruel, it is refreshing to know that a woman stood up against them and helped those who needed it most. Those who without her help would not have survived.
As a doctor myself I am humbled by what I do but to read this book learning about one woman, one brave woman who was fierce in her endeavors fighting daily and then to become a pediatrician in 1970.and tell her story one more time….for us.

5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

This was a very well written story about a part of WW2 history we don't hear about very much. I had heard about much of the basics of the book, the takeover of France by the Germans, the provisional French government working with the Germans, and about Drancy, but the aspect of the rescue of Jewish children from a hospital was new. I am so glad that the author chose to finally tell her story. There is so much in it that the world should not forget. The main characters are compelling, and the side characters are all well enough developed that you get invested in their lives and stories so that hearing about their eventual fates creates a emotive experience. The translation from French was well done, and the reading experience is preserved which does not always happen with a translation. I enjoyed reading about these events and learning more about aspects of the resistance that I had not heard about before.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a fantastic memoir, and well-translated from the original French. The translator made a note of how unique the author's French was an how she tried to retain that feeling, and I think she was very successful with that, this book showcase's Colette's wit and intelligence, while being completely engaging to read. Colette's story of WWII is a harrowing one, the number of near misses and risks she took were astounding to read about. Her dedication to medicine and the patients at her hospital were at the forefront of her war efforts, as she joined the underground network based in the hospital to help save children destined for deportation. Colette's insight to how she felt during the war and how those around her reacted was interesting, very few WWII books i've read focus on France, so this was all new for me. There were many moments that stood out, but the story of Danielle and her sister is one that will stay with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
I highly recommend this book. It's not like other WWII books I've read recently. This was different because it's from the perspective of a French Jew who was not even a practicing Jew. She is an amazing woman who strived to break barriers to become a doctor. And the heroic acts she was involved in were amazing.