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Wladyslaw Starzynski
Sarah’s mother, also from Poland. Before the war, Rywka was cheerful and outgoing. She laughed often and was an attentive mother and compassionate neighbor. She even helped nurse Madame Royer’s baby, a detail which makes it all the more devastating that Madame Royer is the one to sell out the Starzynski family to the French police. Rywka’s joyful personality is destroyed by the events of 1942, as she becomes completely paralyzed by the horror her family experiences. Following the roundup and for much of the time that Rywka and Sarah spend at Beaune-la-Rolande, Rywka is essentially catatonic. Sarah expresses frustration over what she sees as her mother’s helplessness, and she even begins to feel that her mother is “already dead.” However, when the French police at Beaune-la-Rolande brutally separate the Jewish mothers and children, Sarah witnesses her mother come alive again, fighting the police off of her in order to hug her daughter one final time. She also offers Sarah “a tiny, brave smile” before she is also transported away on convoy 15. Rywka is thus a complex character, at once a mixture of crippling naiveté and loving courage.
Rywka Starzynski Quotes in Sarah’s Key
The Sarah’s Key quotes below are all either spoken by Rywka Starzynski or refer to Rywka Starzynski . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
The mother pulled her daughter close to her. The girl could feel the woman’s heart beating through her dressing gown. She wanted to push her mother away. She wanted her mother to stand up straight and look at the men boldly, to stop cowering, to prevent her heart from beating like that, like a frightened animal’s. She wanted her mother to be brave.
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The French police appear at the Starzynskis’ door in the middle of the night, so it is understandable that Rywka—who understands her family’s arrest in the broader political context of the War—would be terrified. However, Sarah has a limited understanding of what is going on, believing that the French police would never harm a French family like hers. This quotation thus shows Sarah’s childish naïveté and her limited understanding of what it means to be brave. Here at the very beginning of the novel, Sarah conceives of bravery as outspoken and active, and she therefore interprets her mother’s passivity as Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. P
Chapter 13 Quotes
As she looked at Eva and her mother, the girl wondered if her parents had been right to protect her from everything, if they had been right to keep disturbing, bad news away fro her. If they had been right not to explain why so many things had changed from them since the beginning of the war. Like when Eva’s husband never came back last year. He had disappeared. Where? Nobody would tell her. Nobody would explain. She hated being treated like a baby. She hated the voices being lowered when she entered the room.
If they had told her, if they had told her everything they knew, wouldn’t that have made today easier?
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This episode occurs in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ when Sarah observes her mother talking to another Polish woman, named Eva, whose husband was arrested before the roundup, during one of the arrests that targeted only men. Sarah’s sense of betrayal here is important because it shows an evolution in her character. She is suddenly mature enough to critically wonder whether her parents have made the right decision. This quotation is also significant because it shows a character explicitly reflecting on the way that silence can have different consequences than intended. Clearly, Sarah’s parents intended to protect her by shielding her from Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam offici
Chapter 19 Quotes
The one who smelled a warm, comforting, motherly smell: delicious cooking, fresh soap, clean linen. The one with the infectious laugh. The one who said that even if there was a war, they’d pull through, because they were a strong, good family, a family full of love.
That woman had little by little disappeared. She had become gaunt, and pale, and she never smiled or laughed. She smelled rank, bitter. Her hair had become brittle and dry, streaked with gray.
The girl felt like her mother was already dead.
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Her first night at Beaune-la-Rolande, Sarah returns from the latrine to find her mother nearly unrecognizable. This quotation shows the devastating toll that suffering has taken on Rywka, whose response has been to shut down emotionally. In a subtle way, Rywka’s silence foreshadows the silent, serious woman that Sarah will become. At this point in the novel, Rywka knows her son is lost to her (and her husband has also been taken away), even though Sarah is not yet fully conscious of Michel’s death. This quotation is also important because it contextualizes Sarah’s relatively mild reaction when her mother is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus
Chapter 21 Quotes
In that sheltered, gentle life that seemed far away, the girl would have believed her mother. She used to believe everything her mother said. But in this harsh new world, the girl felt she had grown up. She felt older than her mother. She knew the other women were saying the truth. She knew the rumors were true. She did not know how to explain this to her mother. Her mother had become like a child.
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This quotation occurs shortly after Sarah and her mother overhear a rumor that the camp officials are planning to separate the mothers and children. Rywka adamantly denies the rumor, but Sarah realizes it must be true. This quotation poignantly shows the role reversal that has occurred in Sarah’s relationship to her mother. The trauma they have experienced has reduced Rywka to the status of a naïve child, and forced Sarah to take on the role of the wise adult. The fact that Sarah is unable to make her mother understand the truth emphasizes the limits of the power of Sarah’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaeca
Chapter 27 Quotes
She had grown up too much to be afraid anymore. She was no longer a baby. Her parents would be proud of her. That’s what she wanted them to be. Proud because she had escaped from that camp. Proud because she was going to Paris, to save her brother. Proud, because she wasn’t afraid.
She fell upon the tar with her teeth, gnawing at her mother’s minute stitches. Finally, the yellow piece of cloth fell away from the blouse. She looked at it. Big, black letters. JEW. She rolled it up in her hands.
“Doesn’t it look small, all of a sudden?” she said to Rachel.
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After escaping from Beaune-la-Rolande, Sarah and Rachel stop to heed the policeman’s advice and remove their stars. This is a powerful moment on many levels. First, it represents Sarah’s maturation: she still wants to make her parents proud, but by ripping apart her mother’s fine stitches, she is symbolically separating from her parents, and becoming her own person. As such, this is also a deeply sad moment, as Sarah is very young to be forced to become independent from her parents. Secondly, Sarah’s description of the star as small shows that her Jewishness is only one aspect of her identity, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium r
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Rywka Starzynski Character Timeline in Sarah’s Key
The timeline below shows where the character Rywka Starzynski appears in Sarah’s Key. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...family’s cellar due to recent arrests of Jewish men. Sarah rushes to awaken her mother, Rywka, who opens the door, expecting the “green-gray suits” of the Germans, but finding instead two...
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Chapter 5
Back in 1942, the policemen consult a list and realize that “there’s a child missing.” Rywka lies again, saying her “brother” is not present, but the police don’t believe her and...
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Chapter 7
Back in 1942, the policemen lead Rywka and Sarah away from their apartment building as the neighbors watch silently from their windows....
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Chapter 9
Sarah, Rywka, and Wladyslaw are led into a large garage, where they wait along with many other...
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Chapter 19
...the barracks, Sarah hardly recognizes her mother, who is now “gaunt, and pale.” She feels Rywka is “already dead.”
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Chapter 21
...are going to be separated from their children and transported east to a work camp. Rywka doubts the rumor but Sarah suspects it to be true. When the policemen enter the...
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Chapter 32
...will not publish the information. Lévy is able to find information that indicates Wladyslaw and Rywka were transported from the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp on convoy 15, which Julia knows traveled directly...
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