An eerie piece of mail leads to a family mystery

One snowy morning in January 2003, the French writer Anne Berest’s mother, Lélia Picabia, received a postcard in the mail. It was an ordinary tourist’s postcard, with an image of the Opera Garnier on the front. On the back, all that was written besides Lélia’s address were four names:

Ephraim

Emma

Noémie

Jacques

These are the names of Lélia’s grandparents, aunt and uncle, all of whom died at Auschwitz in 1942. Who could have sent such a thing? Who was there left alive who even knew those names? The family was shocked, but in time, they managed to forget about it.