Finally, there is the enigma of her conversion to Catholicism. On February 2, 1939, Irène Némirovsky, along with her husband, Michael, and the two daughters, was baptized in the chapel of the Abbey Sainte-Marie de Paris. Some saw this as a desperate attempt to escape Nazi persecution.
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The island of Cyprus was easily conquered, its churches torched, and its elderly systematically beheaded, while able bodied men, women and children were taken into slavery. The Venetian fortress on the island held out for weeks. But reinforcements never arrived, and they were forced to surrender.
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You would expect people who had eaten only the best of European cuisine, and slept in beds where the finest linens were changed every day, would be bitter when reduced to eating nothing but potatoes and sleeping on vermin infested straw. But, for the most part they were not. They were not perfect human beings to be sure. Still, they met their fates with courage, pluck, generosity, patience, and, most importantly, faith.
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