The Most Precious of Cargoes

Jean-Claude Grumberg is a French Jewish writer who is best known for his plays and children’s books. He often focuses on the story of Jews during the Holocaust. In The Most Precious of Cargoes, he crafts a lyrical fairy tale of a woodcutter’s wife who watches trains hurtle through the woods every day, not knowing they are filled with Jews sent to their death. One day, a desperate father wraps his baby in a prayer shawl, woven from gold and silver threads, and throws her out the window. The woodcutter’s wife finds the baby, protects her, and raises her at great cost. It’s a short and moving novel, and a beautifully told story of a terrible time.

What I found so compelling about The Most Precious of Cargoes was that it was clearly told in the style of a fairytale — an elderly couple in the woods, a baby who appears — yet, it was the framing of the fairytale against the horrors of the Holocaust. This juxtaposition is something I have never seen, and I was really taken by it.

At the end of the story, headlined “Appendix for Lovers of True Stories,” we learn about the Grumberg family: Jean-Claude’s grandfather was on Convoy 45, a deportation of Jews from Drancy to Auschwitz on November 11, 1942. His father, Zacharie, was on Convoy 49, which left on March 2, 1943 for Auschwitz. (Here’s a timeline of deportations of French Jews.) In The Most Precious of Cargoes, you can feel Grumberg’s pain — but also his belief in the power of stories, and hope.

Rating: ★★★★★