JOSEPH JOFFO. UN SAC DE BILLES (1973) A SYNOPSIS - LIVRES DE POCHE EDITION.Chapitre 1 (pp.916)It is 1941. Joseph Joffo, aged 10, describes his favourite marble, whose uneven surface reminds him of a planet. His flights of childhood imagination are interrupted by his elder brother, Maurice (12), who is impatient for their game to continue: “Alors, merde, tu te décides?”. We see Maurice, socks round his ankles, sitting on the pavement with his little pile of marbles, watched by their wrinkled and weather-beaten old neighbour, Granny Epstein (note the Jewish surname). We learn that we are in a district on the northern edge of Paris, la Porte de Clignancourt in the 18 th arrondissement, just north of Montmartre and the Sacré Coeur basilica. It is a neighbourhood full of refugees (fuyards) from Eastern Europe, many of whom have been there for decades. Joseph has not yet played his marble and Maurice is getting impatient (“…qu’estce que tu fous?”).

But then Maurice has been winning (he has pocketfuls of marbles already) and Joe has only one left, his favourite. He hesitates. He shoots. He loses. He cries. Maurice tells him to stop snivelling. The two boys should have been home half an hour ago. They’ll be in trouble. Dad’s barber’s shop is in the Rue du Clignancourt in the colonie juive (p.17). As they approach, Maurice gives back his brother´s favourite marble. The shop is full of customers; some of them are regulars. The boys make short work of their homework and then escape, via the shop, back into the street, their favourite playground, the place where they are at their happiest, where they love to explore.

Two men in black are walking casually in their direction at the other end of the avenue. SS officers in uniform. The boys both have the same idea at once. They stand in front of the shop window, obscuring the view of the yellow and black notice in the window: “Yiddish Gescheft”. The Germans fall for it. They enter the shop and join the waiting customers. The boys laugh while, inside the shop, an intense silence descends as two SS officer wait, “genoux joints au milieu des clients juifs de confier leurs nuques à mon père juif ou à mes frères juifs.”

Chapitre 2 (pp.1728)The first Nazi’s haircut is underway in front of a fascinated audience which includes the two brothers. Joe is nervous. Has he gone too far? Will the German realise where he is and shoot everyone? Albert, Joe’s elder brother, strikes up a casual conversation with his uniformed client, to the latter’s surprise. Other clients are drawn into the conversation. The atmosphere becomes positively friendly. Joe has visions of the beatig he imagines his brothers will give him when the Germans have left. Joe’s father starts to cut the second Nazi’s hair. Samuel, a local Jewish market trader, breezes in, stops dead when he sees the SS men, makes an excuse and leaves … to spread the gossip in the neigbourhood that “le père Joffo” is cutting German hair!

One of the Germans makes the remark, “la guerre est terrible, c’est la faute aux Juifs”. Monsieur Joffo doesn’t react and continues his work. The Germans prepare to pay, at which point M.Joffo asks if they are happy with their haircuts. When they say that they are, their Jewish barber explains, theatrically, “Eh bien … avant que vous partiez, je dois vous dire que tous les gens qui sont ici sont des Juifs.” Time stops. One by one, the waiting clients leave the shop. Without batting an eyelid, the German says, “Je voulais parler des Juifs riches” and leaves with his friend. In the shop, nobody moves for what seems like a long time. When the spell breaks, Joe realises that he has probably escaped a good beating. The emotion brings tears to Joe’s eyes.

A change of scene. Mme. Joffo has tucked her sons up in bed. The two boys are on the verge of starting one of their habitual bedtime battles when the light goes on. Dad enters and, to their relief, announces that he is going to continue their bedtime story. Through his father’s stories Joe has learnt that his grandfather Jacob, whose daguerréotype (photo on a glass plate) hangs in the living room, was a Russian from Bessarabia. He had been rich and held in high esteem in his village south of Odessa. Life there had been happy until the pogroms (antiJewish persecution) began. When his fellow Jews started to be murdered by the Tsar’s troops, he took matters into his own hands and began to assassinate soldiers at night. The result was renewed persecution.

So Jacob Joffo decided to take his family and flee across Europe to France, the land of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, the three principles of the French Republic which, in the eyes of Joe’s father, have preserved them until now from anti-Semitic persecution. In the past, his father has pointed out the three words above the entrance of the town hall and explained, “tant qu’ils sont écrits làhaut, ça veut dire qu’on est tranquilles ici.” The arrival of the Germans, of course, has changed all that, though his father still wants to believe it could never happen in France, in spite of the two men who came in the night to stick a poster bearing the word “Jew” in the window of the barber’s shop.

Key passages Chapters 1 and 2

Themes, characters

We meet the playful child with his marbles and the environment which is rich in play opportunities for kids. The only thing impinging on his and brother Maurice’s life is the arrival of the German occupiers. The boys decide it would be a laugh to conceal the sign announcing the hairdresser father’s shop as a Jewish business.

Scene in the hairdresser’s demonstrating the ability of people to get on with each other. An embarrassing announcement that the two soldiers have had their hair cut in a Jewish business passes off without incident although it terrifies the boys who have made it happen.

Les jeux d’enfants-le monde vu par les yeux d’un enfant

L’innocence, la naiveté

L’immigration juive en France

Chapitre Un Vocabulary 1941, dans le XVIII à Paris. Au début, Jo, 10 ans, joue aux billes dans la rue avec son frère, Maurice, 12 ans. Une vieille juive très ridée qui vient de Russie les regarde jouer. Jo finit par pleurer en perdant encore des billes et surtout sa bille fétiche, mais Maurice la lui rend alors qu'ils arrivent devant le salon de coiffure de leurs parents.

La bille-marble Un juif/une juive- a jew Une ride-wrinke ridé-wrinkled Finir par-to end up (+ infinitive) Fétiche-mascot, fetish

Les devoirs rapidement expédiés, les 2 garçons filent à l'aventure dans le quartier. Mais tout à coup, sur l'avenue, arrivent 2 grands hommes aux hautes bottes cirées et brillantes- 2 SS entrent se faire couper les cheveux chez le père Joffo, coiffeur juif. Dehors les enfants rigolent.

Expédier- to polish off Filer- to go off, to rush Cirer- to polish Brillant(e)- shiny Se faire couper les cheveux- to have a hair cut Rigoler- to laugh

Chapitre Deux Albert, le grand frère, coiffeur également s'approche de l'un des Allemands sous le regard apeuré des autres clients et commence la coupe tout en lui faisant la conversation.

Le père entame la coupe du deuxième Allemand quand soudain arrive Samuel le brocanteur. Celui-ci, éberlué, fait demi-tour en voyant les SS et bientôt, tout le quartier est au courant que le père Joffo coiffe les soldats Allemands.

S'approcher- to go near Le regard- look Apeuré(e)- frightened La coupe- the cut Entamer- to start Le brocanteur- secondhand goods dealer Eberlué(e)- dumbfounded Faire demi-tour- to turn around Etre au courant- to know

Une fois les coupes terminées, un des soldats déclare que c’ est de la faute des juifs si la guerre est terrible. Sous le regard ébahi des clients, le père Joffo annonce aux SS qu'il est lui-même juif. Les SS ne bronchent pas et quittent le salon sans heurts. Jo se met à pleurer pour la deuxième fois de la journée tant il a eu peur.

La faute-mistake Ebahi(e)-dumbfounded Broncher- without turning a hair Sans heurts- smoothly Tant- so much

Le soir, une bataille d'oreillers commence dans la chambre entre les deux frères quand soudain le père entre. Il a l'habitude de venir leur raconter les histoires de leur grand-père, Jacob Joffo, forcé de fuir son pays avec toute sa famille pour finalement arriver en France, terre d'accueil.

Une bataille d'oreillers- pillow fight Forcé(e) de- forced to Terre d'accueil-country of refuge

Hélas, leur tranquillité est menacée et les choses commencent à bouger. Hitler fait déjà parler de lui en Allemagne, Autriche, Pologne ou Tchécoslovaquie. Désormais, le salon de coiffure Joffo est placardé d'un avis 'Yiddish Gescheft' (magasin juif)

Menacer- to threat Désormais- from now on Placarder- to stick up, to placard Un avis- a poster

Chapitre 3 (pp.2954)A winter morning before school. Mme Joffo is sewing large yellow stars made of cloth onto her sons’ jackets. Each one bears the word “Juif”. This morning is the first morning on which all the local Jews will have to wear the badge imposed on them by the Nazis. M. Joffo arrives, sees his sons’ stars and jokes with them that they must now ensure they are the first to get to school “pour faire chier Hitler” (“to piss Hitler off”). The boys set off for school, Maurice teasing Joe for hiding his star behind his scarf. At the school gate, they are met by Joe’s old friend Zérati who is warmly dressed against the cold. Zérati stares at the star for a long time. There is silence, then he expresses his admiration: “…t’as vachement du pot, ça fait chouette.” (“You lucky beggar. That looks really cool.”). Relieved laughter all round. Zérati can’t get over Joe’s star, “c’est comme une décoration.” Joe starts to feel better about wearing it. Then Zérati draws the other boys’ attention to the badge, wanting to share his admiration rather than to start any bullying; but one boy in the group has obviously picked up anti-Semitic language and Nazi propaganda from somewhere and uses it now: “T’es un youpin, toi? … C’est les youpins qui font qu’il y a la guerre.” Joe cannot grasp what is happening. As far as he knows, he is an ordinary French child; yet now he is branded a Jew. And what is a Jew, anyway?

The racist taunts continue: “T’as vu son tarin?” (a prominent nose was one of the Jewish stereotypes highlighted by Nazi propaganda). The comment leads Joe’s thoughts to other antiJewish propaganda he has seen recently, this time a poster of a monstrous spider with a Jew’s head crouching menacingly over a globe. The picture was entitled “Le Juif cherchant à posséder le monde”. Joe had never seen its relevance for Maurice or himself. He didn’t even look Jewish. The atmosphere in the playground is tense. There’s a fight brewing.

The first lesson with Father Boulier is geography. Joe is sure he’s going to be tested on his homework. It’s high time he was picked. But the teacher won’t meet his eyes. What’s wrong? Has Joe suddenly become invisible? He decides to find out and deliberately tries to attract a telling off by dropping his slate, willing his teacher to punish him, to acknowledge his presence in the class. Though this would normally have triggered a detention, Fr. Boulier’s eyes seem vacant and, although he is clearly aware that it is Joe who has interrupted the lesson, he continues as if nothing had happened. And Joe? “…j’ai compris que pour moi, l’école était finie.”

At break, in the playground, the taunts continue. This time, Joe is beaten up, saved only by the intervention of a surveillant. Maurice, too, it seems has had a beating. Both boys return to class. “Ce qui me reste de cette matinée ... c’est cette sensation d’impuissance à comprendre.” What troubles Joe is that he doesn’t understand why all this is happening. As far as he knows, he has no religion, though he gets on well with his parish priest, who lets the boys play basketball behind the church and gives them treats. He is even a member of the church youth club ( patronage). So what makes him different now? Joe’s faithful friend Zérati runs to catch up with him and Maurice and offers an exchange: a Jewish star for a bag of marbles (un sac de billes). It’s Joe’s first business deal.

The boys have returned home, battered and bruised, for lunch with the family. Their parents are obviously troubled. M Joffo announces that they will not return to school that afternoon and that he will have something to say to them that evening. No school! The boys are ecstatic and take to the streets of Paris. The troubles of the morning are forgotten. Their eucalyptus cigarettes are brought out and smoked. They agree that, later, they will undertake one of their regular night-time raids on the till in the shop to retrieve the liquorice left by customers in lieu of small change. Not knowing that this evening in Paris is to be their last, they head for home.

Meanwhile, Joe reveals that many of the neighbours have already moved out of the quartier, that his elder brothers had also left earlier in the year for reasons still unexplained, and that business in the barber’s shop is slow. Something serious is obviously afoot. When they get home, the curtains are drawn and M. Joffo begins “un long monologue qui devait longtemps résonner à mes oreilles, il résonne d’ailleurs toujours.” The boys listen, transfixed as their father tells them his own story of evading enlistment in the Russian army at the age of seven by following his father’s instructions to leave home alone and to find his own way in the world. He tells the story, too, of his wife’s flight from Russia, of their meeting in Paris, of starting up the barber’s shop. And then he tells his sons that it is time for them to leave. His reason: “lorsqu’on n’est pas le plus fort, lorsqu’on est deux contre dix, vingt ou cent, le courage c’est de laisser son orgueil de côté et de foutre le camp … il faut fuir.” Henri and Albert, he reveals, are in Free France, on the south coast. The boys’ parents plan to follow them very shortly. But for now, Maurice and Joseph must travel alone.

M. Joffo then gives the boys their travelling instructions. They will take the metro to the Gare d’Austerlitz, a train from there to Dax, from Dax to the village of Hagetmau, and from there across the border separating occupied France from the zone libre. Finally, they will find their way to Menton, on the Mediterranean coast and near the Italian border where their brothers await them. Their parents will provide them with 5,000 francs each, a huge sum. Most importantly, they must# never reveal to anyone that they are Jewish. To make his point, Joe’s father acts out a rôle play with his sons during which he slaps Joseph in the face to try to make him reveal the “truth”. Joe still doesn’t understand what the word juif means. Neither, it seems, does his father. All Monsieur Joffo can offer by way of explanation is that his people have always been hunted from time to time and that this is one of those times: “C’est la chasse qui est réouverte, alors il faut repartir et se cacher en attendant que le chasseur se fatigue.”

A meal follows, during which almost nothing is said. The boys are given two satchels of provisions. A quick goodbye during which the parents try to be upbeat and optimistic, and then Maurice and Joe set off into the night. C’en était fait de l’enfance. (“Our childhood was over”).

Key passages Chapter 3

Themes, character

We see the anti-Jewish laws beginning to bite as the star of David is sewn onto the children’s clothes. Bullying ensues at school and the father decides that the younger members of the family are going to have to move down to the zone libre to the relative safety of the Vichy ruled part of the country.

The elder brothers go first followed by the Jo and Maurice armed with their father’s insistence that they don’t admit they’re Jewish. End of childhood ensues.

Les lois anti-israélites de 1941 et l’attitude de la population française

Cf nouveau film (2010) La Rafle

L’instinct de survie des juifs

Le caractère du père

Chapitre trois La mère Joffo vient de coudre l'étoile jaune sur le veston de Maurice et c’est maintenant au tour de Jo. Billes au fond des poches, les enfants partent pour l'école alors que Jo tente de dissimuler l'étoile par son écharpe. Arrivés à l'école, Zérati, copain de Jo, s’extasie sur l'étoile et l’admire, alors qu'un autre élève déclare que les Youpins ont un grand nez et que c’est de leur faute s'il y a la guerre. Jo se dit alors qu'il ne ressemble pas à un juif car il n’a pas un grand nez.

Coudre- to sew L'étoile jaune- the star Au fond des poches- at the bottom of pockets Dissimuler- to hide S'extasier- to rave about Les Youpins- the Jews

Au cours de la matinée, le professeur n’interroge pas Jo et étonnamment, ne le punit même pas lorsqu'il laisse tomber son ardoise. Pour Jo, cela veut dire qu'il ne compte plus.

Etonnamment- surprisingly Une ardoise- a slate

A la récréation, une bagarre éclate entre les enfants qui traitent Maurice et Jo de Youpins. A l'heure de midi, alors que Maurice et Jo marche en silence, Zérati les rattrape et propose d'échanger un sac de billes contre l'étoile jaune de Jo qui accepte. Lors du déjeuner, le père Joffo constate les blessures de ses fils et décréte qu'ils ne vont pas à l'école l'après-midi. Les garçons passent leur après-midi à courir dans le quartier et décident qu'à la nuit tombée ils descendront au salon de leur père pour ramasser quelques pièces dans la caisse.

Une bagarre- a fight Eclater- to break out Rattraper- to catch up Echanger- to exchange Lors- during Constater- to notice Une blessure- an injury Décréter- to decree La caisse- the cash box

En rentrant à la maison, ils s'installent avec leur père qui veut leur raconter un peu sa vie. Il leur dit qu'il vient de Russie et que son propre père l'a poussé à quitter la maison à l'âge de 7 ans pour ne pas devenir soldat du tsar et qu'il a beaucoup souffert pour avoir ce qu'il a aujourd'hui. Il leur annonce ensuite que c’est à leur tour de partir rejoindre leurs frères ainés Henri et Albert en zone libre car cela devient trop dangereux à Paris avec les Allemands.

Son propre père- his own father Un Soldat -a soldier Rejoindre- to join

Chapitre 4 (pp.5574)La Gare d’Austerlitz, Paris. There are enormous crowds of people. The two boys follow in the wake of a porter with a luggage trolley as he forces his way through the crowd. Maurice, who clearly has a great deal of native wit, picks the most sympathetic looking person at the front of the ticket queue and spins a yarn about his little brother’s sore foot to persuade the passenger to let him queue jump. Tickets in hand, they head for the train. It is overflowing with passengers and luggage. People are arguing over seats. The only space they can find is in a corner on the floor between a suitcase and a cardboard box. They settle in and attack their picnic lunch.

The train pulls out. An old lady takes an interest in them and asks questions. Maurice lies for both of them and gives false surnames. The lady offers them lemonade. Joe spends the time looking at the other passengers. He spots a Catholic priest in his black cassock and, for a reason he cannot explain, feels reassured. He snoozes and dreams of Russian soldiers, school friends, and Paris and SS officers. The train pulls into Dax. When he comes to, Joe notices that most of the passengers have already left the train. The priest is still there though. Maurice explains that a lot of people jumped off the train before it reached the station. They hear orders being given in German and see German policemen. They take refuge in the compartment where the priest is sitting. Outside, Germans are catching passengers who have tried to make a run for it. Shots are fired. Men are caught and beaten. Joe suddenly realises that the priest’s hand is resting on his shoulder. He turns to address his protector: “Monsieur le Curé, nous n’avons pas de papiers.” The priest understands their position and the three sit waiting for their papers to be checked.

A German soldier arrives and demands their documents. The old lady in the compartment is taken away for questioning. The priest presents his papers, cracks a joke with the Germans and then explains, “Les enfants sont avec moi” The German leaves. The boys have made it! They follow the priest into the station buffet. Maurice is intrigued : how can a priest bring himself to tell a lie? The priest explains that he did not lie: “…vous étiez avec moi comme tous les enfants du monde le sont également. C’est même l’une des raisons pour lesquelles je suis prêtre, pour être avec eux.” He asks them where they’re going. Maurice tells him the partial truth this time. The priest takes out a piece of paper and scribbles down his name and address, inviting them to let him know if they get through safely. Joe asks him what will happen to the old lady who was taken away by the Germans. The priest’s answer is obviously a deliberate lie designed to protect Joe from the awful truth (he prays in Latin before he answers, presumably asking for forgiveness): ils l’ont renvoyée chez elle. Joe is relieved. He had imagined her being transported to a transit camp. The boys head for the bus station. There is a two hour wait before the bus leaves for Hagetmau.They buy two tickets. La France libre n’est pas loin.

Key passages Chapter 4

Themes, character

Setting off by train the boys are helped by an old lady who gives them drink and a priest who says they are with him when there is a German ID inspection near Dax. The first stage of their growing up takes place-they learn to lie as they see what befalls people who get caught. They continue their journey by coach.

L’attitude de la population française envers les gens en difficultés La perte de l’enfance des enfants Les dangers abordés par les juifs

Chapitre quatre Dans la gare d'Austerlitz, Maurice et Jo achètent un billet de train pour Dax ets'installent tant bien que mal dans le train bondé. Les enfants se méfient de tout le monde, même de la gentille grand-mère qui leur pose des questions et leur propose de partager sa bouteille d'eau avec eux. Jo fatigué s'endort bientôt et se met à rêver que les soldats du tsar viennent l'embarquer puis que Zérati, son copain, l’entraine jusqu'à l'école où il reconnaît le SS du salon de coiffure. Celui-ci lui demande ses papiers mais il n'en a pas et ne pense qu'à fuir. Tout à coup Jo se réveille en criant et réalise que tout le monde dort autour de lui mais il a très soif.

S'installer- to set in Tant bien que mal-as best they canBondé(e)-packed Se méfier- to mistrust Partager- to share Se mettre à + Inf- to start +Ing Embarquer-to take on board Entraîner- to drag Reconnaître-to recognizeFuir-to run away, fleeAutour de –around

Le train arrive à Dax et les enfants voient les gendarmes Allemands. Ils se précipitent pour s'asseoir près d'un prêtre dans un compartiment. Par la fenêtre, les enfants voient un homme se faire arrêter et frapper par les SS ainsi qu'un couple et plusieurs personnes. Jo apeuré annonce au curé qu'ils n'ont pas de papier et celui-ci leur dit de se serrer contre lui et de se détendre. La grand-mère est là également, toujours endormie.

Se précipiter-to rush Un compartiment- compartment Apeuré(e)- frightened Se serrer- to huddle together Se détendre- to relax

Les Allemands arrivent à leur compartiment, inspectent les papiers de la vieille femme et lui demandent de les suivre. Jo mâche son sandwich pour se donner une contenance. L'allemand vérifie alors les papiers du curé qui prétend que les enfants sont avec lui. Cela fonctionne. C’ est alors que le curé et les 2 garçons abasourdis descendent du train et se dirigent vers le buffet de la gare. Les enfants remercient le prêtre de les avoir aidés. Celui-ci leur demande où ils vont et ils expliquent qu'ils se rendent à Hagetmau puis dans le Midi. Le curé leur remet ses coordonnées pour qu'ils le contactent quand ils réussiront à passer la ligne. Avant de partir, Jo, inquiet pour la grand-mère, demande au curé ce que les Allemands lui font. Le prêtre prétend qu'ils la renvoient chez elle car elle n' a pas de papiers. Les enfants se sentant un peu mieux, achètent ensuite un billet de car pour Hagetmau.

Inspecter- to inspect Mâcher- to chew Se donner une contenance-to hide ones embarrassmentVérifier- to check Abasourid(e)- stunned Se diriger- to head toward Un prêtre- a priest Un curé- a priest Se rendre- to go to Remettre- to hand over to Les coordonnées-detailsInquiet- anxious, worried Renvoyer- to expel, to dismiss

Chapitre 5 (pp.75117)The bus carrying the two boys arrives in Hagetmau, a small village set in flat countryside. A German patrol has ignored the bus on their approach. The village seems deserted. There is a smell of woodsmoke and cows. The shops are closed. It is midday, and Maurice surmises that everyone must be eating. The boys explore. They are getting hungry and decide to try the local café, which is full of people, about a hundred of them. A busy waitress takes them to a pedestal table and provides two plates. They order the only menu there is, rather poor quality lentils with a suggestion of bacon and some stringy stuffed aubergines. Joe looks around at the other clients. From their appearance he can tell that they are townspeople, refugees like himself, no doubt Jewish too (please note, the café is serving them bacon!), waiting for their chance to cross the demarcation line one kilometre away. The waitress tells them that the café has been as busy as this every day for more than 6 months and that business is good. She can also tell them that getting across the line is fairly easy as long as it is attempted at night. Joe steals a basketful of wilting apples which have been left on a neighbouring table. The café starts to empty. The boys pay the inflated bill and find themselves back on the street. Maurice decides that they will try to cross the line that night. What they need is a passeur, a courier. They stop a local boy, Raymond, who is making deliveries on his bicycle. He knows immediately what they are after and gives them directions to a local farm, but warns them that the farmer charges 5,000 francs per person. They are stunned. They have just over 1,000 francs left. Then the boy offers to take them over the line himself for a tenth of the farmer’s price. He persuades them to do the rest of his deliveries for him that afternoon and they agree to meet at 10pm by the bridge. They cannot believe their luck and set off happily on their errand, two city boys on their first adventure in the country. They are on their way to their last delivery when a whistle from the trees stops them in their tracks. A man beckons to them. They soon realise that he is a refugee too. He explains that he is Jewish and that his wife and mother-in-law are in the woods behind him. They have been conned out of 20,000 francs by someone posing as a passeur and they are filthy and exhausted. Maurice suggests they come to the bridge at ten. Having heard the man’s story, the two boys determine not to let Raymond out of their sight that night. Evidently still in good spirits, they have a race, just for fun. Maurice wins. Hungry, they find a local who sells them two eggs. Night is falling. Their adventure is about to begin. Joe imagines himself as a cowboy in Red Indian country!Raymond arrives on his bike, whistling nonchalantly. Joe notes disappointedly that he is not at all like a Comanche scout! Maurice hands over the money and introduces the Jewish family who have also arrived. They set off noisily across the fields, but Raymond seems not to be worried. Entering the forest, Joe senses that they are not alone. Others are attempting the same thing. Joe loses all track of time. Before they know it, they are in the zone libre. Joe is astonished that it has been so easy : he had imagined a wall and barbed wire with floodlights and guards. Instead, “rien, strictement rien”. He feels cheated. Raymond explains that crossing the line is always pretty easy in this neck of the woods because the Germans are too far away and rarely send patrols. He slips away.

The boys cross a ditch and come to a farm. They enter the farmyard. A man approaches them and tells them they have arrived. He points them to straw and blankets in a shed and invites them to sleep for as long as they need to. They may knock at the window if they need anything. Joe is soon asleep. When he wakes up an hour or two later, Maurice is missing. He senses it; he has always been able to sense his brother’s absence since they were small. Why has he left? Where is he? Joe determines not to panic. Maurice cannot be far away. He has probably just slipped out to relieve himself. No, that can’t be right : it’s not like him. Joe hears voices. Germans? Thieves? Thieves have been known to attack refugees. He goes to the door and opens it carefully. There’s a group of people approaching him, children amongst them. They push past Joe and throw themselves down on the straw. Still no Maurice. Worried, Joe goes outside into the clear, cold night. Sticking his hands into his pockets, he finds a piece of paper, a note from Maurice: “Je vais revenir, ne dis rien à personne. M.” The “M” makes Joe think of spies and adventure. Relieved, Joe goes back to his place in the barn, which now contains many more people than it had a few minutes previously. Hesleeps.

Dawn. The barn is full of refugees, fifty or more of them. Maurice is still not amongst them. Suddenly, Maurice is beside Joe. He explains his absence. He has been back across the line eight times, has brought over 40 people and has earned 20,000 francs. Their money worries are over. A discussion ensues. What if Maurice had been caught? And then, wasn’t it a bit shameful to charge people to bring them across the line? Maurice is adamant: of course not! He was doing the refugees a favour and saving them a lot of money. Anyway, they are going to need Maurice’s earnings to continue their journey. Once again, Joe has to give in to his brother’s superior logic : “Je sens qu’il a raison, une fois de plus.” But Maurice is now warming to his theme. Their discussion becomes a shouting match which ends when Maurice thrusts the money into Joe’s hands and dares him to give it back to the refugees. Maurice has learnt that, even on this side of the line, they will have to beware of the French police who have orders to arrest the Jews. He also knows that some will let them pass, others can be bribed.

They decide to ask the farmer for some food. Alone with him (the other refugees have left at first light), they enjoy breakfast in his kitchen. He tells them about a book he remembers reading when he was a boy, Le Tour de France de deux enfants. Maurice and Joe remind him of the characters in the book, which had, it seems, a happy ending. “Mais il n’y avait pas d’Allemands dans l’histoire”. As they leave, the farmer hands them some more bread to serve as a picnic. They set off across the countryside on the winding route départementale, followed by a dog and singing an old boy scout song. Their legs are getting sore and blisters are starting to form. They count off the kilometers to AiresurAdour where, they have been told, there is a station. Joe is limping now. Each kilometer seems longer, but Joe refuses to be the one who slows them up. At 18 kilometers from Aire, Maurice is the one to call a halt, which suits Joe perfectly. Maurice decides to sleep. Joe, meanwhile, takes off his shoe to inspect his blister. Not daring to remove his sock, he creates a dressing with his handkerchief to reduce the rubbing. The dog is still with them. Perhaps, thinks Joe, it’s a Jewish dog, a refugee too. Maurice is still sleeping. Joe hears the sound of wheels behind him. A horsedrawn carriage, un fiacre, is approaching like something out of the films of the olden days. He decides to stop it and ask for a lift. The man who answers his request seems to him to have an distinguished bearing : he is almost tempted to bow when he speaks to him. Correcting Joe’s terminology (the carriage is a “barouche” not a carriage), the man agrees to take him and his brother as far as he is going in his creaky old calèche.

The coachman chats amiably with the boys as they set off and explains that his car has been requisitioned. To be able to get around he has therefore had to “exhumer cette antiquité que les bons soins de mon fermier avaient conservée en assez bon état”. One senses from his choice of vocabulary that this is a refined man of some status. And indeed he is. He introduces himself as the Count of V. and the horse as the last which not to have been requisitioned by his village. He is a garrulous character and lectures the boys about the war, the Republic and France’s glorious past under its former kings. If France were still a monarchy, he believes, it would have had the strength to send the Germans packing. At two kilometers from Airesurl’Adour, the Count offers melodramatically to take them all the way into the town as a “thank you” for listening so attentively to his speech! The boys have troublestifling their giggles.

Key passages Chapter 5

Themes, characters

The small town near the ligne de demarcation is full of other Jewish people waiting to cross at night. Jo and Maurice track down a young man, the butcher’s boy who agrees to take them across at a cheaper price than the main passeur. After doing the butcher boys round they are escorted across to a farm where they sleep. During the night Maurice raises funds by bringing across many more people. They continue their way on foot but hitch a lift with a seigneurial figure who drives a carriage with horses

Le comportement des Français vivant à côté de la ligne de demarcation

Le caractère de Maurice

L’attitude des Français des classes aisées

Chapitre cinq Le car arrive à Hagetmau et les enfants en descendent. Le village est étrangement calme, il est midi et les enfants sont affamés. Ils entrent dans un café restaurant, déjà bondé de gens probablement en fuite comme eux. Des radis, des lentilles au lard et du fromage à 0 % sont au menu. Les enfants questionnent un jeune livreur, Raymond, sur le passage en zone libre et décident de tenter leur chance le soir-même. Le passeur s'appelle Bédard et prend 5000 Francs par personne, ce qui est trop cher pour les enfants. Le jeune commis propose alors de les faire passer pour 500 Francs à condition que les deux frères finissent sa tournée, ce qu'ils font.

Etrangement- curiously Affamée)- starving Bondée)- packed En fuite- on the loose Des radis- radish Du lard- bacon Un livreur- delivery man Tenter- to try one's luck Le commis- shop assistant La tournée- round

Dans la campagne, ils rencontrent un Juif, épuisé, qui cherche également à passer avec sa famille. Maurice et Jo lui disent de les rejoindre le soir.

Rencontrer-to meetEpuisé- exhausted Rejoindre-meet up with

A la nuit tombée, Maurice, Jo et la famille Juive retrouvent Raymond qui les guide vers la ligne. A leur plus grande surprise, ils la passent avec succès grâce à Raymond qui repart ensuite rapidement. Un homme les héberges ensuite dans sa grange pour la nuit et les enfants s'endorment en compagnie de plusieurs autres réfugiés.

Guider- to guide, to show the way Grace à-thanks toHéberger-to lodgeLa grange-barnS’endormir-to go to sleep

Soudain Jo se réveille et découvre que son frère n’est plus là. Il trouve un mot de lui disant qu'il revient vite. A son retour, Maurice explique, fier de lui, qu'il a repassé la ligne en sens inverse huit fois et ramené quarante personnes gagnant ainsi 20.000 Francs leur permettant de vivre plusieurs jours. Hélas Jo lui reproche son manque de prudence et les frères se disputent un peu.

Fierère)-proud En sens inverse-the opposite wayRamener-to bring backGagner-to earnReprocher-to tell offLe manque de prudence-lack of carefulness, recklessness

Après un petit casse- croute, ils se remettent en route, suivi d'un chien errant, en direction d'Aire - sur – Adour avec deux grosses parts de pain dans leur musette. Jo a mal aux pieds, Maurice manque de sommeil et la marche est longue. Maurice s'endort un peu, Jo soigne son ampoule. Soudain passe une calèche dans laquelle le conducteur, un comte, accepte de les emmener. Durant le trajet, le cocher parle sans cesse et explique qu'il regrette la monarchie d'antan. Ils arrivent enfin à Aire- sur- Adour.

Un chien errant-stray dogUne grosse part-a big lumpManquer-to lackLe sommeil-sleepSoigner-to care for, look afterUne ampoule-blisterEmmener-to take someone somewhereRegretter-to missD’antan-of the past

Chapitre 6 pp.118186)After a long, slow and uneventful journey, the boys arrive at the Gare St. Charles in the colourful, sunlit city of Marseille having learned, by eavesdropping on conversations, that even in the zone libre, the gendarmes have orders to arrest Jews. Hand in hand, full of the excitement of their adventure, Joe and Maurice set off to explore. They have several hours before they need to catch the train to Menton. As city boys, they are not overawed, but there is something about the atmosphere of Marseille that envigorates them, “une joie, un air vif et rapide qui nous coupait le souffle”. On one corner they come across a big blue cinema designed to look like an old steam boat. It is showing the German fantasy adventure Les Aventures du Baron Munchausen. They agree to come back to the cinema when it opens at 10 a.m.. Meanwhile, they continue their exploration. Suddenly, unexpectedly, they are face to face with the sea. It is the first time they have seen it. When they walk right up to the edge of the quayside, a boat owner in badlyfitting clothes tries to persuade them to take a trip to the château d’If the prison island that once held the Count of Monte Cristo) in his ageing yellow boat. Maurice declines, on the grounds that they would be sea sick. They chat with the man about Paris he has a brother there), and they learn about the shortage of food in Marseille. The owner, a real bavard, invites the boys on board and shows them the boat’s engine, explaining to them how it works. He is so talkative that they have difficulty in making their excuses and leaving. They walk a little further and then take a ferry across the port, where they find tiny, narrow, steep streets and a less friendly atmosphere. An enormous woman grabs Maurice’s beret as a joke. Joe hurriedly takes his off and hides it! The prostitutes throw it from one to the other until one of them, on the first floor, invites Maurice upstairs to retrieve it. What should he do? Shutters are beginning to open in other houses as more residents of the red light district become aware of the practical joke in the street of which the two boys are the object. Finally, a large woman with long, red hair chides her colleague for teasing children and Maurice gets his beret back. They boys take to their heels and eventually find their way back to the cinema.

They are almost alone in the unheated auditorium. A couple of tramps are behind them. The show begins withproGerman newsreel propaganda about the war and film of a fashion show in Paris. The shots of their home city remind Joe of his parents and make him wish there was some way of communicating with them. Then it’s the interval : the boys play word games to while away the time and end up quarrelling. Then the film begins. They watch it three times in a row. It is, for Joe, ironic that the Nazi propaganda machine could produce “une oeuvre qui enchanta la matinée de deux jeunes Juifs”. They only emerge from the cinema at four o’clock, rested, famished and with headaches. Maurice dives straight into a pâtisserie which is still managing to sell what look like cakes in spite of the food shortages. They buy four and fill their faces. With time still to spare before their train leaves, they walk down to the part of the city where the cathedral meets the port and kill time on the docks “comme deux émigrants cherchant à s’embarquer clandestinement”. Menton and Africa, Joe notes) are not far away. Returning to the Gare St. Charles, Joe goes off to find a toilet and, on his way back, is stopped by two unfriendly looking gendarmes. Trying to look as innocent as possible, he tells them he’s about to catch a train, that “dad” has his papers and that he’s “over there” with the suitcases. Asked for his address, he gives that of an imaginary flat above the cinema where he has just passed the afternoon and of which “dad” is the owner). They let him go. He crosses the baggage hall as if heading for the spot where his “father” is. Maurice sees him and must have deduced that something is wrong. He mingles with the passengers, trying not to be seen. And then he sees the gendarmes heading his way again. Desperate, Joe picks a passenger who is about the right age to be his father and, with a big smile on his face, asks him the time. He gets a rude reply. There is a clock nearby after all.Acting to save his life, Joe laughs and exchanges a few more words with the passenger, who must, by, now, think he is mad. The gendarmes walk on, taken in, no doubt, by Joe’s charades. Maurice finds him again and tells him that, overhearing conversations, he has learned that everyone in the station is having their identity checked. As they discuss options, a large number of policemen in uniform enter the concourse. Should the boys leave and sacrifice their tickets; or try to walk out along the railway line? No, too dangerous. The police are beginning to ask people for their papers. The arrival of their train is announced, they join the crowd rushing for the platform and… they’re in luck. The guards have forgotten to lock the doors of the train. They can climb straight on. The train is not checked and, half an hour late pulls out of Marseille. “Nous avons poussé un énorme soupir de soulagement, c’était la dernière étape.” The journey is long and slow with frequent, unexplained stops in open country. By dawn, they havereached Cannes. Joe goes back to sleep. When Maurice wakes him, they have arrived at their destination. They are about to spend four months in Menton, “une petite ville dont les Anglais avaient fait la richesse” now under lethargic Italian occupation. The first thing they do is to find a restaurant near the station and buy themselves a meal. A sympathetic waitress ensures that they get “les meilleurs morceaux de la cuisine”. Shortly afterwards, they set off to

find their brothers’ barber’s shop and are reunited with Henri. Albert is having a day off and is back at the brothers’ house, to which Henri now takes them. All four are at last together.

Over lemonade and pain au chocolat, Joe and Maurice tell their elder brothers of their adventures and Henri & Albert recount their own, which include an amusing encounter between a German policeman and a cunning Jewish passenger who, even with the name Simon Rauschenberger, managed to pass himself off as a “catholique orthodoxe”. Joe and Maurice are told they are to sleep on the floor of the dining room. Henri goes back to work. Albert heats up some water so the boys can have a wash, their first for a long time. In clean clothes, they are sent out shopping but, before heading off on their errand, they give vent to their exhilaration on the nearby beach: “nous avons couru, sauté, dansé, crié, nous étions ivres de joie et de liberté.” In the shops, they discover that they can overcome all sorts of difficulties e.g. the absence of ration tickets) by telling people whose brothers they are. Henri and Albert appear to be wellknown and wellliked. They return to the house “chargés comme des mules” and set to work to prepare a celebration dinner. Later, perhaps helped by half a glass of wine, Joe sleeps for 17 hours. The boys’ next three days are filled with football on the beach, shopping trips, experimenting with pasta and exploring their surroundings. One day, they let themselves into the overgrown garden of a deserted villa and spend the whole afternoon playing there, returning home only just in time to carry out their assigned chores, for they are now in charge of laying the table and tidying the appartment. One night, Maurice comes up with a suggestion. They should find a way of earning some money, in order to help their brothers and pay their way. As they get to know some of the local children, Joe makes the acquaintaince of a boy called Virgilio who is in the habit of spending his summers helping to look after the cows on a farm up in the mountains. In term time, though, he is unable to leave the town. Joe, who does not have to go to school, leaps at the opportunity and, the next day, takes the bus to the halfabandoned village of SaintAgnès. Once there, he stops a man with a donkey and asks the way to Monsieur Viale’s farm. The man’s directions take him on a long walk into the timeless Provençal countryside “dans un décor grandiose de rochers, d’escarpements et de ravins”. He is determined to contribute to his family’s budget by bringing home milk, butter, cheese and other products of the farm; but he realises that he is so far from Menton that he will not be able to get back often. Several kilometers further on, Joe comes across the farm. Wary of dogs, he approaches cautiously. It is Madame Viale who opens the door to him. She takes him by surprise. She is not what he has expected a farmer’s wife to be. He will learn later that she came to Provence from Parisian high society several years previously. Her father had been a diplomat and the family had lived in the prestigious faubourg SaintGermain.Having refused numerous suitors in 1927, she had contracted tuberculosis and has been sent to Menton to recover far from the polluted air of the capital. One day, while out for a walk in the countryside, she had twisted her ankle. She had been rescued by Monsieur Viale, who had been on his way back to his farm. Young, dashing, not unlike the film star Clark Gable in appearance, he had carried her all the way to his house. Fourteen years later, she wasstill there. They had married three months after meeting. Mme Viale tells Joe this story at least four times during his first week at the farm. He notes that she is always listening to gramophone records and reads a lot. Even before he has met Monsieur Viale, Joe knows instinctively that he will be taken on and that his principal task will not be to carry out chores around the farm but to listen to Madame over cups of tea.

Monsieur Viale arrives. Joe explains his presence. He is accepted immediately. His first few days are spent repairing dry stone walls and washing wine bottles in the cellar. He eats with the Viales and is positively encouraged by the husband to spend time listening to his wife and playing chess rather than working on the farm. It is an unspoken agreement, but he has clearly been employed not just as a farm hand but as a companion for the lady of the house.Joe spends ten days in this way, eating well, forgetting about the war, which is never mentioned anyway. One evening, he asks permission to go back to Menton for a day to see his brothers. He is told that he may and is given his an envelope containing his first wages. When he leaves the next morning, he takes with him his money and some eggs and bacon. He does not know, at this point, that he will never see the farm again. Returning to Menton, he expects to find his brothers at home. When he walks through the door, Albert and Maurice are having breakfast in their pyjamas, Henri is finishing off his coffee. He is dressed in a suit and has a suitcase with him. Joe senses that something has just happened. Henri explains that they have had some bad news. A letter has arrived informing them of their parents’ arrest. Joe returns to reality with a bump. M. and Mme. Joffo, it appears, had got out of Paris just in time leaving everything behind and had eventually made their way to Pau by bus. They had succeeded in crossing the ligne de demarcation but had been arrested by the French police and sent to a camp, from which they had smuggled out the letter which the boys have just received. Henri tells his younger brothers that the place where their parents are being held is a transit camp for the processing of slave labourers.

Joe reads the letter for himself. In it, his father asks Albert and Henri to ensure that the two younger boys go to school. Henri announces his intention to go and find their parents. Albert will carry on at the salon and will find a

school for Joe and Maurice. Ten minutes later, Henri leaves. After lunch a bacon omelette made with the ingredients brought from the farm), Albert, Joe and Maurice visit the school and Albert asks to see the head teacher, who is obviously not a man to stand any nonsense. He asks to see their school records. Joe hopes that the bureaucratic difficulties caused by the fact that all their paperwork has been left behind in Paris will mean that he and Maurice cannot be admitted to the school. He is disappointed! Albert manages to negotiate one last afternoon of freedom for them in order to buy school supplies, but they must be in school the following morning. Albert’s contacts have enabled him to acquire some ration tickets for cloth, so they are able to visit a tailor’s and to be measured for some new school overalls tablier). They also buy bags, pencil cases and exercise books. Then Albert leaves them and the two boys kick a ball around for a while, thoroughly depressed. Bored, they then go for a walk and they bring each other up to date with their news. Maurice has been working at a baker’s shop and Joe tells Maurice about the farm. That evening, they make another omelette and Albert sends them to bed early. Joe has trouble getting to sleep. The next day, Joe is surprised to find himself in the class of a female teacher une maîtresse) whereas Maurice gets an old schoolmaster who has been brought out of retirement and whose classroom discipline leaves a lot to be desired. Each evening, Maurice tells stories about the chaos in his classroom. Joe is not so lucky, but his teacher is young, pretty and friendly and he finds himself working well.

Every day, the school distributes biscuits with extra vitamins to every pupil and the more puny pupils are given vitamin sweets and cod liver oil by the school nurse. Joe doesn’t merit a sweet but a classmate swaps his for four of Joe’s marbles every day. Joe wins his marbles back at break and starts to earn a reputation as a mean marbles player. Almost as mean as his brother, that is.) Joe starts dropping in at Virgilio’s house on his way home from school and they become firm friends. Virgilio has a passion for the game knucklebones osselets) and they play it all the time. Eight days pass and there is still no news of Henri. Albert is becoming more nervous. He announces to his two younger brothers that, if there is no news of Henri by the end of the week, he will set off to look for him. He tells them that if, after 10 days or so, he does not return, Joe and Maurice are to set off for a little village in the Massif Central where one of their elder sisters has been in hiding. And then Henri comes home, beaming. His first words are, “Ils sont libres”. He starts to tell his story.

On reaching Pau, he had easily found the transit camp which had been set up in the town’s stadium. Jews were there in their thousands, living in tents under police guard. Henri had struck up a conversation with a camp guard at a small bar outside the stadium. The guard had advised him to go home. Henri had explained that his parents had been arrested by mistake, that they were not Jews and that his father had been on his way to join him in his barber’s shop. The guard had left, only to return later with a sergeant who had asked Henri to give him a haircut. Henri had given him “la plus belle coupe de sa vie” and had refused to be paid. Instead, he had asked the sergeant to put in a good word for him with the camp commandant and to ask for an interview. The sergeant had told him to be at the gate the next morning at ten o’clock. The next morning, after one or two false starts, he had been let into the camp by the sergeant and had been taken to a breezeblock building set apart from the huts in which the prisoners were accommodated. Henri had been kept waiting for at least half an hour and had then been ushered into the presence of the commandant. He had given detailed reasons why his parents could not be Jewish, claiming that, as his mother’s maiden name was Markoff, not only could she not be Jewish “Je défie quiconque de trouver un seul Juif russe s’appelant Markoff”) but that she was a direct descendant of the Romanovs of Russia and hence related to the Russian royal family! If a member of the imperial family had been Jewish, Henri had claimed, the orthodox churches of Russia would have crumbled.

Asked about his father, Henri had deployed the following simple argument. The Germans haddeprived all Jews of the French nationality. Monsieur Joffo was, as his papers showed, French. He therefore had to be nonJewish. And in any case, Henri had added, the commandant could always telephone the Préfecture in Paris to make sure. The commandant had called his bluff, had picked up the phone and had asked to be connected to the Préfecture. Henri explains how nervous he had been at this point but how important it had been for him not to betray the slightest sign of concern or he would have found himself under lock and key as well. There had been a long wait, then the commandant had been connected and had asked for information about Monsieur Joffo’s status. After a short conversation, he had replaced the receiver and had confirmed that Henri’s father had not been stripped of his nationality. He was therefore free to leave, as was Madame Joffo. Half an hour later, Henri had been reunited with his parents. He explains to Albert, Maurice and Joe that their parents are a little thinner but well and are currently in Nice. The boys are to wait for a message before going to see them. Joe wants to know why it was that the person speaking on the phone from the Préfecture in Paris could say that their father was not Jewish. The question immediately puts Henri in a serious mood and he explains that he has done a lot of thinking about that. He believes that there are two possible explanations. The first is that there had been a hold up in the bureaucracy and

that their father’s papers had not yet reached the Préfecture. Secondly, perhaps the employee in Paris had not been able to find the file and so had made up an answer, perhaps to save an innocent person. Albert thinks this is unlikely. Joe has his own explanation. Perhaps the commandant had been told that Monsieur Joffo was Jewish but had decided to let him go. This intrigues his brothers and although Henri says that he thinks it unlikely, given the character of the man, they are obviously impressed by Joe’s ingenuity. They tease him about becoming a writer of detective novels in future. Joe is convinced that his explanation is the right one. Four days later, a letter arrives from Nice. Their parents have found an appartment and a couple of rooms for Henri and Albert on the floor above it. The picture Monsieur Joffo paints of Nice is of a town bursting with life and he suggests that there will be plenty of work for them all when they join him, but he suggests waiting another month or two before leaving Menton. Joe wants to go straight away, but life has to continue as usual for a while. Spring is on the way, the weather is warming up. They will soon be able to swim. Maurice and Joe decide to buy swimming costumes. They are showing them off at home when there is a knock on the door. Two policemen ask for Albert and Henri Joffo. The elder brothers learn that they have been called up for the S.T.O., the Service de Travail Obligatoire, a scheme under which French workers were sent to Germany. Their decision has been made for them. They cannot “se jeter dans la gueule du loup”. They will leave for Nice the next morning.

Key passages Chapter 6

Themes, characters

The boys pass a fascinating day in Marseille looking at boats, watching a German film and being harassed by local women. They narrowly escape capture by the police by deviously pretending a stranger is their parent. Childhood life restarts temporarily in Menton as they rejoin their brothers. Jo spends a week in the mountains on a farm but school beckons when he comes back down. The boys learn that their parents have been interned. Henri relates how he has managed to charm the transit camp commandant into releasing the parents who move to a flat in Nice. However shortly after the police arrive to tell Albert and Henri that they must sign up for the Service du Travail Obligatoire. Time to move again.

L’influence des Allemands en zone libre Les dangers abordés par les juifs en zone libre Le zone italien Le caractère de Jo Les mesures prises contre les juifs captures Les résultats de la collaboration avec les Allemands le STO) La nature débrouillarde de Joffo

Chapitre six Les enfants voyagent sans encombre en train d'Air sur Adour à Marseille. En arrivant, ils sont surpris de découvrir la mer. Un marin les entraîne pour voir le moteur de son bateau puis ils font un tour en ferry. C’est alors qu'une prostituée vole le béret de Maurice mais le lui rend ensuite. Plus tard les enfants se paient une place de cinéma et regardent enchantés un film ‘ Les Aventures du Baron Münchhausen’, pourtant de propagande nazie.

Sans encombre-without problemsUn marin-a sailorRendre-to give backEnchanté-transfixed

Ils filent ensuite vers la pâtisserie, se régalent puis repartent admirer la mer. Les deux frères se chamaillent pour de petits riens.

Filer-to go offChamailler- to squabble

Il est maintenant temps de se rendre à la gare. Jo va aux toilettes mais, à sa grande surprise, se retrouve nez à nez en sortant avec deux gendarmes qui lui |bouchent la sortie. Jo, très rusé, raconte qu'il habite à Marseille et que ses parents, propriétaires du cinéma, sont là avec lui. Les gendarmes le laissent filer. Maurice est inquiet lui aussi car il y a pleins de contrôles de papiers à la gare. Le train arrive enfin et les garçons s'y précipitent pour un long voyage jusqu'à Menton. Emerveillés par la ville à leur arrivée, les enfants se mettent à la recherche de leurs grands frères. Maurice repère Henri l'aîné, qui travaille dans un salon et qui les guide jusqu'à l'appartement qu'il partage avec Albert. Les 4 frères se racontent leurs aventures respectives avec verve. Jo et Maurice s'installent puis partent faire des courses et découvrir la ville, ivres de joie et se sentant enfin libres. Henri et Albert semblent bien vivre malgré la guerre grâce au marché noir.

Se rendre à-to go toBoucher-to blockRuse-craftyRaconteur-tell, relateInquietète)-worriedSe précipiter-to leap onRepérer-to track downL’aîné-the eldestPartager-to shareAvec verve-with gustoIvre-intoxicatedSe sentir-to feel

Les jours suivants, alors que les frères ainés travaillent au salon, Maurice et Jo Les alentours-the

profitent de leur temps en jouant au foot, faisant les courses et découvrant les alentours. Cependant ils décident de trouver un petit boulot pour aider leurs frères. Jo se trouve un boulot de gardien de vaches chez le père Viale alors que Maurice travaille chez un boulanger, ce qui lui permet de nourrir un peu la famille. Jo reste dormir chez ses propriétaires et se fait conter l'histoire de leur rencontre. Le travail à la ferme consiste essentiellement à s'occuper des poules et à tenir compagnie à madame Viale. Jo retourne voir ses frères à la ville, la paye en poche et chargé de victuailles mais il apprend la nouvelle que ses parents ont été arrêtés et sont enfermés dans un camp de transit. Henri décide d'essayer de les sauver alors qu'Albert, pour respecter la volonté de leurs parents, inscrit Jo et Maurice à l'école. Les enfants y vont à contrecœur mais apprécient les bonbons vitaminés distribués par le gouvernement de Vichy. Jo étant suffisamment costaud n'y a pas le droit mais échange quelques billes avec un camarade contre les pastilles.

surroundingsUn boulot-a jobNourrir-to feedConter-to tell, relateLa rencontre-meetingTenir compagnie à-be a companion toLes victuailles-foodArrêter-to arrestUn camp de transit-transit campLa volonté-the wishInscrire- to enrolÀ contre-cœur-against willCostaud-strong

Le temps passe et pas de nouvelles d'Henri ni des parents. Un soir, tout à coup, Henri ouvre la porte et annonce que les parents sont libres. En échange d'une coupe de cheveux effectuée à un gendarme, celui-ci intercède en sa faveur et Henri parvient, à force de subterfuges, et de ruses, à faire libérer ses parents qu'il retrouve trente minutes plus tard. Les parents sont désormais à Nice et écrivent que bientôt ils seront tous réunis à nouveau.

Les nouvelles-newsEffectuer-to carry outIntercéder-to interveneParvenir-to succeed, manageDésormais-from now onRéunie)-reunited

Un soir deux gendarmes frappent à la porte et présentent une convocation à Henri et Albert pour le STO. Ceux-ci décident alors de partir dès le lendemain pour Nice car il est hors de question pour eux de travailler pour les Allemands. Les deux plus jeunes doivent alors partir pour Nice.

Frapper-to knockUne convocation-call upLe STO –Service de Travail ObligatoireCeux-ci-the latterHors de question-out of the question

Chapitre 7 pp.187216)The scene has moved to Nice and opens with Joe trotting behind Marcello, an Italian soldier, carrying two heavy baskets of tomatoes. The Italian has a broken nose and an appalling French accent. He announces that they are going to a bistrot near the port called Tite, a place which has become a focus of black market activity. Italian troops are occupying Nice in a typically relaxed fashion. The bistrot is open, as usual, and contains of Marcello’s friends, three Italian soldiers who were, in former life, a student, a postman and a carpenter. Joe knows them all. The tomatoes are exchanged for a bottle of olive oil Joe explains that olive oil, with which the Italian troops are oversupplied, has become a medium of exchange on the black market). Joe describes the complex web of bartering in which he and the Italians have become involved: oil is exchanged for tomatoes and cash, which is used to buy cigarettes, which are exchanged for rice, which is bartered for flour or Parmesan cheese, and so on. Maurice and Joe are clearly making a comfortable living from their new business. In Joe’s words, “La vie était belle”. The Italian soldiers sit around in the bistrot discussing how to prepare salad. They are short of parsley. Joe begs a couple of packets of cigarettes on credit from one of the soldiers and sets off to exchange them for some parsley. He knows he is likely to find some at the butcher’s shop near the port. The Italian who is preparing the salad dressing is singing an aria from an Italian opera. Maurice and Joe leave the bistrot, Maurice to search for real coffee he knows where to find everything these days) and Joe to get his parsley. How much easier their work would be if they had a bike. They are walking so much that the soles of their shoes are wearing out. Joe has time on his hands and decides to take a stroll along the Promenade des Anglais, where Nice meets the beach. The terraces of the hotels are full of Italian officers, usually accompanied by elegant women, the sort whose hair Albert and Henri are now cutting in their new salon opposite the Hôtel Adriatique. They, too, have gone up in the world and are developing a reputation as high class hairdressers. They are even visiting more wealthy clients at home or in their expensive hotel suites. Life is good. Joe´s parents have settled in well to their new life. If it weren’t for the news of the war on the BBC every evening, Joe would think he was on holiday. Joe is getting his news from more than one source. In proGerman propaganda broadcasts he has heard mention of German victories on the Russian front and the imminent fall of Stalingrad. TheBBC also mentions Stalingrad, but emphasises the huge numbers of German deaths during the Russian winter, the immobility of the German heavy armour, bogged down in the Russian mud. Whom is Joe to believe? He talks

occasionally to Maurice about it, but it is hard to imagine snow-covered battlefields when you are swimming in a warm sea under a blue sky.September is not far away and, with it, la rentrée, the start of the school year. Joe’s parents are supportive of their sons’ new lifestyle and share their joy at the healthy state of their finances. They understand that their sons are learning an important lesson about life from their black market adventures. The family is in good spirits. Monsieur Joffo is even telling Jewish jokes. Joe leaves the apartment, off on another adventure under the blazing sun, and passes an Italian sentry, gun in one hand, mandolin in the other. The school year begins. It is raining. Joe is back at school. There are geography lessons, music lessons. Joe is not good at music, unlike his classmate François, who has the voice of an angel and sings solos on those occasions when the class is made to sing patriotic songs. The boys’ tomato business has slowed down, partly because the boys have less free time, partly because tomatoes are no longer in season. The boys are still frequenting the bistrot, though, and playing draughts with the Italian soldiers. The Italian army has finally woken up to the fact that it has been supplying too much olive oil so trade is not as brisk as it was in the summer. Marcello, Joe’s friend, teases him about his inability to detect that his Marcello’s) fiancée is far from attractive. So why has he got engaged? Her father is a useful business partner, explains the Italian. It is Madame Joffo’s birthday. Her presents include a sewing machine, an invaluable object at the time. There is birthday cake. Monsieur Joffo tunes in to the BBC while the others enjoy themselves. He then returns to the room, his face pale, and announces that the allied armies have landed in North Africa: “c’est le commencement de la fin”. Maurice runs to get the atlas and they pore over a map. Algiers is not far from Nice: “juste la mer à traverser et ils sont ici, nous n’avons plus rien à craindre” thinks Joe, who eats his piece of birthday cake whilst imagining soldiers and camels in the desert.

From that evening onwards, the family plot the movements of the German and Allied armies on a map as they hear about them from the BBC. The allied landing in Sicily coincides with the arrival of summer. At school, the children expect the arrival of the Americans at any moment. The occupying Italian army, though, seems unperturbed. Tomatoes are once again in season and business picks up. Joe and Maurice have obtained a bicycle to make deliveries easier. The last day of the school year. Prize day. Maurice gets the gymnastics prize, Joe gets one for reading. Joe is on a delivery when Maurice intercepts him and tells him, urgently, to follow him. They run up to the town’s rubbish dump where Maurice shows him four guns in good condition. Italian guns, abandoned by soldiers. What should they do with them? Tell the Resistance? They decide to hide them and to give themselves time to think.Back on the sea front, Joe and Maurice discuss where the guns might have come from. Maurice has heard rumours of Italian desertions and even of Mussolini’s arrest. They decide to go to Tite’s bistrot. Though most of the Italian soldiers they know have left Nice, they think Marcello is still in town. And among the new, younger arrivals Joe has made a friend, a former student of accountancy from Milan, who is now sitting at a table in the bistrot studying his French grammar. This soldier tells Joe that the Italians are soon to leave. A peace treaty with the Americans is likely to be signed soon. But if the Italians go, the Germans will take their place as the occupying force on the Côte d’Azur.Over the next few days, Italians start to desert in large numbers. On 8 th September, the news comes through that the Italians and the Americans have signed an armistice. The Italians now have to fight the Germans. One morning, the people of Nice wake to find the occupying army gone. But the mood is sombre. The BBC has announced that Berlin is sending 30 elite divisions over the Alps and plans to occupy the whole of Italy. On 10 th September the first trainload of Germans arrives and, with them, the Gestapo and the SS. The second occupation of Nice has begun.

Key passages with chapter 7

Themes, character, own observations, questions

We see the boys settled in Nice during the summer holidays enjoying the weather and brisk trade negotiating sales of food and oil with the occupying Italian forces. This does not last long however as when the Americans land the Italians abandon the fight and withdraw. The nightmare recommences the Germans arrive on the scene.

Le caractère de Maurice et de Jo

Chapitre sept Août 1941 A Nice, Maurice et Jo font du trafic avec Marcello, un soldat Italien, et échangent des aliments se constituant ainsi quelques économies. Henri et Albert quant à eux travaillent dans un salon très chic et sont très réputés. Jo se sent heureux, la famille réunie, en vacances. La guerre lui semble loin malgré la radio qui émet parfois des propos contradictoires. Les enfants retournent à reculons à l'école en septembre.

Faire du traffic-do some dealingDes aliments-food stuffsSe constituer-to put together Ainsi-in this wayÉmettre-to broadcastDes propos contradictoires-contradictory storiesÀ reculons-backwards

Jo n’ est pas doué en musique à l'opposé de François, cancre invétéré mais possédant une voix merveilleuse. Le directeur en fait chef du réseau de la résistance Marseillaise) le fait chanter la Marseillaise.

Un cancre-duncePosséder-to possessLe réseau-networkLa Marseillaise-French national anthem

Le 8 Novembre, c’ est l'anniversaire de la mère Joffo. Malgré une baisse dans leurs affaires de troc, Maurice et Jo en font toujours avec Marcello. Ce dernier déclare que Jo ne connait rien aux femmes et que l'important est qu'elles aient de l'argent, ce qui choque profondément Jo.

Malgré-in spite ofUne baisse-a declineLe troc-barteringChoquer-to shock

Les enfants offrent des cadeaux à leur mère, une broche, une machine à coudre. Ils partagent un gâteau. A la radio Anglaise, le père Joffo apprend le débarquement allié en Afrique du Nord, Maroc et Algérie. Les jours suivants, de nombreuses familles suivent l'avancée des troupes sur un planisphère.

Une broche-a broochPartager-to shareLe débarquement-the landing, invasionSuivant-followingUn planisphère –a globe

10 Juillet 1943, c’ est le débarquement allié en Sicile. Entre temps Jo a un vélo, Maurice grandit. Maurice entraîne Jo à la sortie de la ville où ils retrouvent deux copains à lui. Ils découvrent quatre fusils, probablement abandonnés par des Italiens. Au bar, un soldat Italien explique à Jo que les Allemands avancent et que Mussolini ne commande plus. Certains soldats Italiens désertent.

Entre temps-in the mean whileGrandir-to grow upUn fusil –rifle

Septembre 1943, un millier d'Allemands, des SS, la Gestapo arrivent à Nice. Jo sait que cela va être terrible pour eux.

Un millier-around a thousand

Chapitre 8 pp.217255)The Nazis have established themselves in Nice. The Gestapo have taken over most of the hotels. The Joffo family are having to stay indoors. No more adventures for Joe and Maurice for now. More and more Jews are being arrested.Henri comes home. He has been eavesdropping on his German customers, who are unaware that he can understand them. He has learnt that Jews are being taken to the Hôtel Excelsior and sent to the camps in sealed trains every Friday. He believes it is time for the family to leave Nice. Monsieur Joffo agrees and lays out his plan. They are going to do what they have done before and leave in twos to avoid attracting attention. Henri and Albert will head for AixlesBains. Joe and Maurice will go to what masquerades as a proVichy paramilitary youth camp, a “camp pétainiste”, called “Moisson Nouvelle” New Harvest) in GolfeJuan. The boys arrive at Moisson Nouvelle, the last place, in theory, where the Gestapo will come looking for young Jews. They do not take to Gérard, the first boy they meet, an awkward lad who greets them with a version of the Nazi salute, but they ask him to take them to the “chef du camp”. The camp director, M.Subinagui, is a man of considerable presence and personal warmth. He explains that he has agreed to their father’s request that they be admitted to the camp, even though they are officially too young. He tells them they will be “en sûreté”, the only indication he gives that he is aware of their true reason for being there. The régime of the camp is explained to them. They have a choice between working on site at cooking and cleaning or leaving the camp and becoming involved in market gardening and pottery, from which the camp makes some of its income. The boys choose pottery. Gérard shows the boys to their tent and explain the camp timetable to them, clicking his heels and saluting at every opportunity. As he leaves, a voice from within the tent tells them not to worry about Gérard : he’s a bit strange but “il est bien brave”. The voice belongs to Ange Testi, a boy who is avoiding his chores by pretending to have a stomach ache. When Joe asks him what the camp is like, his answer takes him aback, “Oui … c’est idéal, il y a beaucoup de Juifs.” Joe and Maurice deny that they are Jews. Ange claims not to be either. He also claims to be “en vacances”. Ange explains that he is from Algiers the capital of Algeria) and that he had been on holiday in France when the Americans invaded North Africa. He is now unable to return home. He found his way to the camp almost by accident. Subinagui had listened to his story and had taken him in. He is taking life as easy as possible, doing chores when he has to, snoozing when he can. He explains that there are about 100 boys in the camp. Joe decides that Ange has the potential to become a good friend and begins to regret having taken the decision to work outside the camp at Vallauris. The bell goes for supper. Joe and Maurice meet a few more potential friends including Jean Masso. Then there is a parade and a sunset flag ceremony, followed by free time, then bed at nine o’clock. Joe finds that the nighttime noises of camp life keep him awake until the small hours.

The next morning, the two brothers are summoned to the camp stores where they are issued with their uniforms. Almost immediately, they are sent on their way to Vallauris and to the pottery workshop of the Compagnons de France. They are greeted warmly by the workshop director and meet the ten or so other boys who work at the pottery. Joe has his first experience of working with clay but is frustrated that his teacher does not allow him the freedom to experiment with it. Every time he shows a little creativity or what his teacher calls a lack of sense of proportion), he is made to start again. His request that he be allowed to work in his own way is met with an angry lecture about the importance of learning by example. By lunchtime, it is becoming clear that neither Joe nor Maurice have much of a talent for pottery. That evening, back at Vallauris, they go to see Subinagui and explain their difficulty. He is attentive and sympathetic and arranges for them to work in the kitchen instead. Three wonderful weeks are about to begin. Maurice starts to learn the art of butchery from a professional. Meanwhile, Joe takes on more general kitchen tasks, always in the company of Ange and Masso. The three become firm friends.

They collaborate in small thefts of food from the kitchens and involve themselves in flour and sugar trafficking. Visitors to the camp bring news of the continuing war. The Germans have been taking whole regiments of Italians prisoner. Joe wonders about the fate of his Italian friends. The advance of the Allies has been temporarily halted. But the boys talk little about the war amongst themselves. To do so would be dangerous : there are too many boys from pétainiste and proGerman families. The latest news from outside is that the Germans have taken the gloves off : anyone suspected of being Jewish is being sent to the camps. One day, Maurice shares with his younger brother his fears about the possibility of a Gestapo raid on GolfeJuan. He believes that the two of them need to invent false identities for themselves in case they are questioned. He has decided on a story. Like Ange, they will say, they have come from Algiers. Because the Allies have landed in North Africa, the Germans will be unable to check their

story. They run through the details of their invented past together. They will be sons of a hairdresser from Algers. Their address will be 10 rue Jean Jaurès because, says Maurice, there is always a rue Jean Jaurès). If asked to describe their home, they will describe the house in Paris. They will have attended a school in the same road as their house. And to be certain that their story will wash, Maurice says he will let Subinagui in on the secret. He is sure they can trust him. The awareness is beginning to dawn that they are not the only children in their predicament in the camp. By chance, Ferdinand, a 24yearold who has been excused military service on health grounds and who works as Subinagui’s righthand man, offers to take the two boys into Nice in his van. They only have to think for a moment : they will be safe in their uniforms, and they might get the chance to see their parents. They accept. Ferdinand drives like a madman. Joe would have been sick if they had not had to stop to change a wheel. In Nice, they follow Ferdinand as he goes about his business. At one point, the two boys have to wait for their driver outside a building. It is stiflingly hot. Ferdinand does not reappear, however. Maurice enters the building to look for him … and doesn’t return either. Joe gets bored and starts pacing the street. Fed up, he decides to look for his brother. He enters the building. He has been exploring the house for only a few moments when he is knocked to the ground by the butt of a gun. He finds himself looking up at a Nazi soldier whose first word to him, as he throws him violently against a door, is “Youd”. Joe is thrown into a room where he finds Ferdinand, Maurice and two women, one of whom is crying. Ferdinand admits that their predicament is his fault : the house was a centre for the Resistance and the Germans have set a trap. Ferdinand has been scared by the rumours circulating in the camp and has come to the house to try to obtain false papers with which to escape the German occupation. He is, he admits, a Jew. Maurice is confident. They will be interrogated and then set free. The room is stuffy. The heat is intense and there are no windows. Three hours pass and nothing happens. Joe has plenty of time to think. He finds himself wondering why the German soldier was so violent with him. His mother had been right when she had said that war was an absurd and stupid thing. The door opens. There are two German soldiers. The occupants of the room are hustled outside, the boys hand in hand. A military lorry takes them to the Hôtel Excelsior, the headquarters of the Gestapo in Nice.

Key passages Chapter 8

Themes, character, own observations, questions

The father organizes for the boys to go Moisson Nouvelle a Pétainiste camp for producing worth young French men. They are initiated to work in a pottery but end up in the kitchens where they continue their blackmarketeering.

The boys decide on a made up story of where they have come from in case of capture. The timing is good as when they go into Nice with Ferdinand they are caught along with him in a carefully planned German trap. They are taken to the infamous Gestapo headquarters in Hôtel Excelsior.

Le rôle des camps pétainistes Le comportement des enfants devant la possibilité de capture Les méthodes d’opération de la Gestapo utilisation des juifs eux-mêmes pour trier leurs pairs Les trains de la mort Film “Nuit et brouillard-Alain Resnais)

Chapitre huit La vie a bien changé. La Gestapo est là et procède à des arrestations de Juifs. Les enfants ne sortent pas, les volets sont tirés. Henri explique que s'ils restent à Nice, ils vont être déportés en Allemagne. Dès le lendemain, la famille Joffo se sépare à nouveau et Maurice et Jo partent pour Golfe-Juan, à Moisson Nouvelle, sorte de camp militaire pétainiste. Ils y rencontrent Ange Testi d'Alger qui leur raconte son histoire. Dès le lendemain, vêtus de leurs nouveaux vêtements de travail, les enfants partent travailler dans une poterie pour la journée mais ne s'y plaisent pas. Ils sont alors affectés aux cuisines du camp. Maurice assiste un boucher et Jo se plaît avec ses nouveaux amis Ange et Masso.

Opérer-to carry outLes volets-shutsTirer-to drawSe plaire-to enjoy oneselfVêtue)-dressed inAffecter-to transfer

Cependant la guerre continue et la chasse aux Juifs s'intensifie. Maurice et Jo mettent au point un plan au cas où les Allemands viennent au camp. Ils s'inventent un nouveau passé.

Mettre au point-to put togetherUn passé- a past

Un après-midi, ils partent à Nice avec Ferdinand l'intendant du camp, et le chauffeur. Arrivés à destination, Ferdinand leur demandent de l'attendre un

L’intendant- store masterDisparaître-to disappear

instant et disparaît dans un immeuble. Maurice le rejoint puis disparait à son tour. Lassé d'attendre, Jo décide d'aller voir mais se fait alors prendre dans un guet-apens par les Allemands. Ceux-ci les laissent patienter longtemps puis les amènent en camion au siège de la Gestapo, à l'hôtel Excelsior.

Un immeuble-a big buildingLassée)-tiredUn guet-apens-an ambushAmener-to bringLe siège-headquarter

Chapitre 9 pp.256305)Inside the Hôtel Excelsior. Crowds of people of all ages, lots of noise. Joe, under guard with his brother, is scared. In his poignant description of an elderly couple at the hotel we can see why: “J’étais jeune, très jeune, mais je crois que même plus jeune que je ne l’étais, j’aurais compris que ces deux vieux se regardaient comme des gens qui ont vécu ensemble toute leur vie et qui savent que l’on va les séparer et que sans doute ils feront seuls, chacun de leur côté, le bout de chemin qui reste à faire.” Joe is seeing the Holocaust at close quarters. Lists of names are called by plainclothes Gestapo officers. People stand when their name is called and board lorries which will take them to the station. The elderly couple is amongst them. Joe looks at his two guards. He is struck by the fact that they appear to be ordinary people, not brutes. So why are they doing this? The lobby empties. SS officers come and go. Joe is still holding Maurice’s hand. Finally, Joe, Maurice and the people arrested with them are summoned upstairs. The two women are taken away, then return in tears. Joe feels as if he is in a dentist’s waiting room. An interpreter arrives and the two boys are ushered into a former hotel bedroom. An SS officer is sitting there. He appears bored. Ferdinand is interrogated first. He insists that he is not Jewish. All it takes for him to start telling the truth is a couple of slaps in the face. Having admitted he is a Jew, he is given a green ticket and sent downstairs. Joe and Maurice’s turn has come. It is time to tell their story about their home in Algiers. Maurice does the talking, confident as always, even when asked at which church he was baptised and made his first communion. He appears able to add convincing details to their story as the need arises. The boys are told they are to have a medical inspection to see if they are circumcised. Maurice pretends not to understand the meaning of the word. They are taken upstairs to a room where three doctors are just finishing work for the day. One of the them is German. As the two French doctors prepare to go home, the German tells Joe and Maurice to take off their shorts and underpants while a Nazi soldier stands guard. Seeing that they are indeed circumcised, the doctor tries to get them to admit that they are Jewish. Maurice insists that their parents had them operated upon when they were younger for a condition called phimosis an overtight foreskin). The doctor has heard this one before. Maurice clings to his story. The operations took place in Algers. He embroiders a few memories around his assertion to make it sound more convincing. In a surprise move, the doctor gives them his name Rosen) and tells them he is Jewish. He is trying to get them to open up to him. Maurice doesn’t flinch: “D’accord … vous êtes juif, mais pas nous, c’est tout.” The doctor examines them again, and then murmurs, “Chapeau”, an expression which means something like, “Good show” or “Congratulations”. If the boys have not convinced him, he is at least prepared to play their game. As they are shown out of the room, Joe overhears the doctor’s comment to the guard: “Das ist chirurgical gemacht.” “They have had an operation”). At six the next morning, the boys are interrogated separately. Joe has to describe his bedroom back home. His interrogator tries to catch him out over a detail, unsuccessfully. Were his elder brothers involved in politics? Which newspaper did his father read? Back in their room, which is not locked, the brothers add detail to their story. Joe tries to memorise everything. At midday, Joseph is summoned again. He has not eaten for 24 hours. Questions about school. Joe demonstrates some of his playground games. Questions about the layout of Algiers. Joe is faithful to the story concocted with Maurice but adds details from his memories of Marseille. Questions about friends shared with his brother. Joe mentions Zérati, and discovers later that Maurice has done the same. The interrogation ends, but only at seven that evening are they taken to the kitchen for a bowl of soup. Six days later, the two boys are still under arrest. For the last two days there have been no interrogations. Maurice has heard from the interpreter that the Germans have not decided their fate yet. Joe and Maurice are put to work in the kitchens from seven a.m. till late preparing vegetables and washing up. Joe is beginning to suffer from a migraine headache.

A chance encounter with the Jewish doctor in a corridor. He is not wearing his white coat, seems surprised to see the two boys and hurries away. Why, Joe wonders, did he do what he did? He must condemn hundreds of others to the camps every day. Perhaps, Joe speculates, he was impressed with their tenacity. Joe’s headache is getting worse.Friday. The day when the train leaves for the camps. The hotel seems to be fuller than ever. Maurice and Joe spot Masso in the crowd with two others from the camp at Vallauris. They run to meet him. Masso explains that, the previous night, the boys’ camp was raided by the SS who were looking for circumcised boys. But Monsieur Subinagui, aware of what had probably happened to the Joffo boys, had already sent the Jews away at the dead of night before the Germans arrived. Masso was caught on a road near Grasse because he had no papers on him. He was circumcised at the age of six for medical reasons and is confident of not being put on the train with the Jews. Joe and Maurice have to get to the kitchens to start work. They say goodbye, unaware that they will never see Masso again. He was put on the train, Joe learns later, to make up the quota of prisoners required by the Gestapo and sent to the

death camps. Joe’s headache is now a serious problem. He keeps being sick and he has developed a temperature but at least he and his brother are being left alone by the Germans for a while. Maurice is having to force Joe to eat. He starts to have vivid, delerious dreams about machine gunning large numbers of Nazis. When he next regains consciousness, he is in bed in another room where a pretty girl is looking after him. From her he learns that he was found in a corridor of the hotel and that the doctorhas diagnosed the early stages of meningitis. Joe drifts in and out of consciousness and the frightening dreams continue. The girl nurses him attentively, staying with him for most of the night. He finds her presence reassuring. He has hallucinations and starts sleepwalking. And then he starts to recover. About a week into his illness Joe asks Mlle. Hauser why she does not wear a nurse’s uniform. She smiles and tells him that she is not a nurse. The reason she gives for being in the hotel and looking after Joe is, “Je suis juive”. He desperately wants to say, “moi aussi” but kisses her instead. Later, she brings him books to read. Then, one morning, the doctor walks in, gives Joe a brief examination and tells him to get dressed and to be downstairs in five minutes. Joe will never see his nurse again. Another interrogation is about to begin. The Germans have not forgotten about the Joffo brothers after all. The boys are before a new Gestapo interrogator and a humourless interpreter with a flat, mechanical voice. The German tells them that M. Subinagui has confirmed their story in every detail. Maurice is told he can leave, but he must be back within 48 hours with proof that he and Joe are not Jewish. In particular, the Germans want their first communion certificates from the church in Nice where they have claimed they were confirmed. If he fails, Joe, he is told, will be chopped into little pieces. Maurice, confident as always, promises to return. While waiting for his brother to reappear, Joe is put to work around the hotel and starts to become a familiar face to the Germans who work there. Then Maurice returns with the certificates. He tells Joe his story. He had gone back to their home to find his parents, both of whom were more or less in hiding and had lost a lot of weight. Then, remembering the priest who had helped them on the train from Paris, he had entered the local church and had talked to the priest, who had immediately offered to provide the confirmation certificates. Not only that, but he had promised to bring their case to the attention of the Archbishop. Leaving the church with the certificates in his pocket, Maurice had then goneback to GolfeJuan to explain the situation to Subinagui. He too had volunteered to ring the Archbishop to confirm the boys’ story. The brothers show their certificates to the interpreter, who takes them to the Gestapo interrogator, who does not believe they are authentic. They are told that the papers will be checked. Immediately they leave the interrogator’s office they are given an errand to run. One of the employees at the hotel gives them a large, flat basket and tells them to go and get some tomatoes. Joe knows where they are kept, on a terrace at the back of the hotel which adjoins the neighbouring building. As they gather the tomatoes, they realise that nothing but a low wall separates them from the house next door and from freedom. Should they make a run for it? Both boys are tense. Maurice murmurs “On y va,” … and then Joe notices a movement, the slightest suggestion of a shadow behind the corner of a building, perhaps the boot of a German soldier, waiting for them. They continue to fill their baskets with tomatoes. Joe pretends to be trying to catch insects, playing the innocent, but also trying to get a glimpse of what is behind the wall. In a split second, as he and Maurice leave the terrace, he sees the shadow of the barrel of a machine gun. It was a trap. And, sure enough, when they arrive at the hotel kitchen with the tomatoes, the cook expresses surprise when they tell him what they have brought. He has not sent for tomatoes and none appear in any of the dishes served at the hotel that day or the next. Three days later, the Catholic priest who supplied the false confirmation certificates arrives at the hotel and sits waiting in silence for three hours, at the end of which time he is told no one will see him. He asks an interpreter to let the Gestapo know that he intends to return the next day, and will continue to do so “jusqu’à la victoire de IIIe Reich” if necessary to save two children from an administrative mistake. He also mentions that his Archbishop is ready to raise the matter with Berlin if necessary. The boys have been lucky once again: they have stumbled upon “le curé le plus têtu, le plus humoriste et le plus acharné à arracher des Juifs des griffes des Allemands” in the region! The next day, even before the hotel has been formally opened, the priest is back. He settles in chair with his prayer book, evidently prepared for a long wait. He continues to sit in full public view but, by midday, has still not been invited to talk to the Gestapo. He pulls out a sandwich, eats it, asks a soldier in good German) for a glass of water and continues to wait. He is beginning to attract attention and is making the Nazis feel unconfortable. At two o’clock, he gets an interview. The following day, he is back again with a number of documents, one of them a handwritten letter from the Archbishop certifying the brothers’ link with Algiers cathedral and threatening to come and see the Gestapo himself if they are not freed. Anxious to avoid an embarrassing clash with the Catholic Church, the Germans finally let the Joffo boys go. It is the priest who takes them away from the hotel, holding them by the hand. They emerge into the bright sunshine of the Côte d’Azur. To their surprise, waiting for them outside in the van from Moisson Nouvelle is Monsieur Subinagui, who is delighted to see them. Not long after setting off, Subinagui stops the van on the sea front to go and buy some cigarettes. While they wait for him to return, the boys run onto the beach, take off their shoes and socks and paddle in the sea. Joe is glad to be free: “Je ne pense à rien, ma tête est vide, je sais seulement que je vais vivre, que je suis libre, comme les mouettes.”

Back at the camp, Joe is called to the telephone Maurice is working on a farm three kilometres away). It’s his father. Monsieur and Madame Joffo, it seems, are well. M. Joffo sends his boys his love. They will see each other soon. There are fewer boys at the camp and the atmosphere has changed since the Gestapo raid. But Joe is in paradise, enjoying the freedom and the fresh air. Winter is not far off. Sometimes it seems as if the war will go on for ever. News of distant battles filters through to the boys. About two weeks after their release from the hotel, Joe is woken in the middle of the night by Maurice who tells him to get dressed. Outside the tent, Subinagui tells them to join him in his office. When they meet a few moments later, he is holding the bags with which they have travelled since they left Paris. They are about to find themselves on the road again.

Key passages Chapter 9

Themes, character

The boys are interrogated. They see others in front of them sent off to the regular convoy to the death camps. They are examined and refuse to admit they are Jewish to the Jewish doctor who tells the Germans that their circumcisions are due to surgical operations and not done for religious reasons. They claim to be from Alger in Algeria and to have become stuck in France, unable to return.

The boys meet their former camp mates who also turn out to have been Jewish. Jo falls ill and is cared for a young Jewish woman. Maurice is sent off to get proof of their Catholic credentials and even the bishop of Nice gets involved in helping the boys get released. It has become a political issue and the Germans don’t want to upset the church. The boys are very lucky. Their parents are delighted that they’ve escaped and they have to return to Moisson Nouvelle.

Les tests pour identifier les juifs définition d’un juif)

Le caractère des jeunes

Le rôle des Français/ dans la protection des juifs

Le rôle de l’église catholique

Film Au Revoir les Enfants

Chapitre neuf Dans le hall, il y a beaucoup de monde. Jo a peur. Les SS appellent des noms. Ceux-ci montent dans un camion qui les conduit à la gare. C’ est au tour des enfants et de leurs compagnons. Jo a de plus en plus peur. Le SS demande à Ferdinand s'il est juif, ce qu'il nie. Le SS le frappe et lui repose la même question. Ferdinand admet alors et reçoit un ticket vert. Le SS demande alors à Maurice et Jo s'ils sont juifs. A leur tour ils nient puis racontent leur histoire inventée précédemment. Le SS qui note les paroles rapportées par le traducteur semble les croire mais annonce que tout va être vérifié. Il envoie les garçons voir le médecin pour savoir s'ils sont ou non circoncis. Leur demandant d'ôter leur short et slip, le médecin remarque immédiatement qu'ils le sont mais Maurice raconte qu'ils ont subi une opération chirurgicale à cause d'un phimosis. Le médecin les surprend alors en annonçant qu'il est lui-même juif. Maurice nie toujours. Finalement, à leur plus grande surprise, le médecin les sauve en annonçant au soldat Allemand qu'il s'agit d'une opération.

Conduire-to driveNier-to denyAdmettre-to admitRapporter-to reportSembler-to seemVérifier-to checkCirconcis-circoncisedÔter-to take offChirurgical-surgicalSurprendre-to surpiseIl s’agit-it’s a question of, it’s emphatic)

Le lendemain, nouvel interrogatoire. Les SS interrogent Maurice et Jo séparément. Chacun débite son histoire qui est ensuite traduite au SS. Les enfants sont épuisés et angoissés.

L’interrogatoire-interrogationDébiter-to utter, come out withAngoissée)-frightened

Cela fait six jours que les enfants sont prisonniers. Ils sont même mis à contribution à la cuisine. Jo commence à déprimer et a de fortes migraines. Soudain, dans le hall, les enfants reconnaissent Masso et deux autres garçons du camp. Ceux-ci expliquent que les SS sont venus au camp. Le directeur essaie d'aider les Juifs à fuir mais ils se sont faits prendre.

Mettre à contribution-to put to workDéprimer-to get depressedEssayer-to trySe faire prendre-to get caught

Le Vendredi Masso monte dans le train de la mort avec 1250 autres personnes contingent de chaque semaine).

Jo se sent de plus en plus mal. Il vomit et se couche. Il rêve qu'il se réveille et qu'un SS est près de lui. Jo attrape sa mitraillette et le tue puis il en tue beaucoup d'autres. Jo se réveille dans une chambre- méningite. Une femme juive s'occupe de lui, il délire et se croit mort.

Rêver-to dreamLa mitraillette-submachine gunDélirer- to hallucinateSe croire-to believe himself

Un matin, le médecin dit à Jo qu'il peut rejoindre les autres détenus. Il est guéri. Jo retrouve Maurice puis ils sont appelés à un interrogatoire. Un Allemand ordonne à Maurice de ramener les preuves qu'ils ne sont pas juifs. S'il ne les ramène pas sous 48 heures, il dit qu'ils tueront Jo. Maurice s'exécute et revient avec des certificats qui lui ont été gracieusement contrefaits par un curé. Hélas, l'Allemand s'aperçoit de la supercherie et les rejette. L'idée de s'échapper leur vient à l'esprit mais ils ne le font pas heureusement parce qu’ils auraient été arrêtés ou pire.

Rejoindre-to go withGuérie)-curedRamener-to bring backLa preuve-proofS’exécuter-to deliver the goodsContrefaire- to forgeS’apercevoir de-to noticeLa supercherie-deception

Le matin, le curé en personne vient essayer de les faire libérer mais il n' est pas reçu. Il revient chaque jour et persiste. Finalement, il parvient à les faire libérer et le directeur du camp Moisson Nouvelle les attend à la sortie. Sur le chemin du retour, ils s'arrêtent près de la plage et les garçons entrent dans l'eau avec ce sentiment d'être libres comme des mouettes.

Faire libérer-to get freedParvenir-to succeedUne mouette-seagull

Le père Joffo téléphone au camp et rassure Jo- toute la famille va bien. Jo commence néanmoins à trouver que la guerre dure trop longtemps. Un soir Maurice réveille Jo car le directeur du camp leur signale qu'il faut partir à nouveau.

Néanmoins-neverthelessFalloir-to be necessary

Chapitre 10 pp.306328)Subinagui gives the boys their travelling instructions. They are going to a little village near Montluçon where their sister is expecting them. They have to leave because their father has been arrested by the Gestapo. He is in the Hôtel Excelsior and he has been arrested with his papers on him, so the Germans will not need long to make the connection to Joe and Maurice. Mme Joffo has gone into hiding. The boys have no time to lose. They set off into the countryside, avoiding the roads. Joe does not know where Montluçon is but he suspects it is far from the sea. He doesn’t want to leave the Mediterranean. They walk to Cannes, on the coast, waiting for dawn before the risk being seen walking in the streets. The town begins to wake up. They continue their walk and reach the station. They buy two single tickets for Montluçon from a ticket clerk with a sense of humour who can imitate an explosion but cannot tell them when they will arrive. Their first stop will be Marseille. And then they run into the interpreter from the Excelsior. They tell him they’re on their way to another camp. He wishes them a pleasant journey. If he hasn’t arrested them by now he can’t know about their father. Their journey begins, and the further north they go the further the temperature drops until they are very cold indeed. The train is not heated. Before long, they are wearing every article of clothing they possess. Other passengers are in winter clothing. The boys have only their shorts and shirts. Although it is only the beginning of October, Montluçon is freezing cold. The winter of 1943 has arrived early. Arriving in this grey town for the first time, they try running along the streets to keep warm. It doesn’t work. They decide that they have to buy a coat, even though they have no clothing coupons. They find a dusty old clothes shop and enter. The shop is heated. Joe experiences “la sensation peutêtre la plus agréable de toute ma vie” – warmth. The brothers huddle around the stove, aware that the shop assistant is staring at them, which is hardly surprising, given the way they are dressed. She asks them what they want. Maurice explains. She can’t help them. She hasn’t even got a pullover. All she can offer is two scarves. The boys put off their departure from the warm shop for as long as possible by chatting to the commerçante.

Then Joe notices that it is getting dark. He suggests that he and Maurice go looking for a hotel. The lady interrupts, tells them that the hotels have been requisitioned by the Germans and offers the boys a room for the night in her house. She feeds them gratin dauphinois that evening and refuses payment the next morning. The following day, Joe and Maurice take a grey, asthmatic bus across a wintry landscape to AinayleVieil, more of a hamlet than a village. Joe notices that the barns are empty of hay. They find their sister, Rosette, living with her husband in a house near the church. There are tears when they tell her of their father’s arrest. She serves her brothers milk in porcelain bowls and provides them with woollen pullovers. Rosette is obviously pleased to see the boys, but Joe also senses that she is anxious. When they ask her what’s wrong, she tells them that there is an informer in the village. It is too dangerous for them to stay. She tells the story of a local farmer who was arrested by the Gestapo for sheltering two women and had his arm broken. The Germans had threatened to shoot him if he tried to hide Jews again. However,

no one knows who the informer is, even though there are only 80 to 90 adults in the village. Everyone suspects everyone else. Villagers have stopped talking to each other. They are afraid of spending too much money for fear that others will suspect them of having accepted a bribe from the Germans. The village is caught in a vicious circle. Rosette is as sure as she can be that her Jewishness will not be discovered; but the boys are going to have to leave for AixlesBains, in the Alps, where Henri and Albert are living. There is a knock at the door. It’s an old lady from the village, who has called to collect some eggs. As she enters, she comments, “J’ai vu que vous aviez du monde.” Joe and Maurice have been noticed already. They remember their manners and introduce themselves. She observes how alike they are, which enfuriates Joe. He hates to be told that he looks like Maurice. He decides that she is the informer. The old lady continues to ask questions, and has obviously worked out that the boys are Rosette’s brothers. When she comes to pay for the eggs, Joe notices that her purse is stuffed full of bank notes. She asks if they plan to stay long. Her question makes up Joe’s mind for him. He replies, “Non, on est juste venus dire bonjour à Rosette et on repart sur Roanne.”.

When the old lady has left, Rosette explains that she often drops in for a chat and that Vouillard is not her real name. This convinces Joe even more firmly that she is a spy … until Rosette reveals that her real name is Rosenberg. The old lady is Jewish. She has only been in the village since 1941. Joe’s theory crumbles and he apologises silently to the old woman. Rosette wants the boys to stay for lunch and to meet her husband, but the boys have so much experience of being on the run now that they know they must not waste a minute. They have to go immediately. Their bags stuffed full of socks and sandwiches, they set off on foot. There is no bus. As they walk, Joe reflects on how much he has changed since they left Paris and on the way in which the experiences of this war have robbed him of part of his childhood: “…je me demande si je suis encore un enfant … Ils ne m’ont pas pris ma vie, ils ont peutêtrefait pire, ils me volent mon enfance, ils ont tué en moi l’enfant que je pouvais être.” Tomorrow, they will be in AixlesBains. Joe finds that he no longer cares where their journey takes them. “Je m’en fous.” It is a law of nature that the prey runs from the hunter. He is going to do everything possible to ensure that he is not caught. The Alps beckon.

Key passages Chapter 10

Themes, character, own observations, questions

Subinagui the manager of Moisson Nouvelle wakes the boys to send them on their way again as their father has been arrested. They go across country to Cannes and catch the train for Montluçon dressed in their summer gear. Helped on their way by a shopkeeper who puts them up for the night the two arrive at their sister’s. Unfortunately she can’t help as there is an informer in the village and she is terrified of being denounced. The boys continue to Aix les Bains near to where the brothers are staying.

L’attitude de la population française envers les gens en difficultés

La dénociation, les soupçons

Chapitre dix Automne 1943 Le directeur leur ordonne de partir immédiatement vers Cannes puis Montluçon où les attend leur sœur. Les enfants apprennent que leur père a été arrêté la veille mais que leur mère se cache. Les Allemands sont probablement aux trousses de Maurice et Jo et ceux-ci se rendent à la gare et achètent un billet pour Montluçon. Sur le quai, ils rencontrent le traducteur de l'hôtel Excelsior et ont très peur mais tout se passe bien finalement. Les enfants montent dans le train mais il fait froid. Maurice et Jo n' ont pas de vêtements d'hiver. Arrivés à Montluçon, ils veulent acheter un manteau mais ne peuvent acheter qu'une écharpe à une marchande. Il est trop tard pour aller au village où réside leur sœur et la marchande leur propose de dormir dans la chambre de son fils gratuitement.

La veille-the day beforeSe cacher-to hideAux trousses-on the heelsSe passer-to happenUne écharpe-a scarfProposer-to offerGratuitement-free

Le lendemain ils prennent le car jusqu'à Ainay-Le-Viel et y retrouvent leur sœur Rosette qui pleure lorsqu'elle apprend l'arrestation de leur père. Elle explique qu' hélas ils ne peuvent pas rester avec elle au village car il y a un dénonciateur. Nul ne sait qui il est et il se fait sans doute payer par la Gestapo pour dénoncer les Juifs. Rosette leur dit d'aller retrouver leurs grands frères Henri et Albert à Aix-

Pleurer-to cryApprendre-to learn ofHélas-alasNul-nooneUne voisine-a neighbour

Les- Bains. Entre temps une voisine entre chez Rosette et Jo la soupçonne d'être la dénonciatrice mais Rosette le rassure: elle est juive elle aussi. Pendant que Rosette remplit les musettes, Jo réfléchit et se dit qu'il a changé depuis le début de la guerre. Cela ne lui dit plus rien de jouer aux billes et l'enfant qui était en lui est mort; mais il veut vivre et échapper aux Allemands.

Soupçonner-to suspectLa dénonciatrice-the informerRemplir-to fillRéfléchir-to think

Chapitre 11 pp.329378)It is the end of 1943. Joe is concentrating on perfecting his most recentlyacquired skill, forging ration tickets. He has found a way of using a razor blade to transform a 4 into a 1, which has the effect of turning a coupon for starch based foods féculents) into a coupon for a kilo of sugar. “Résultat : même en cette année d’intense privation, vous pouvez mourir du diabète.”. Joe is beginning to become known in the large mountain village where he is now living. People stop him in the street to entrust their ration tickets to him and he is earning a little money as a result. The work is hard because the freezing cold numbs his fingers. It is so cold in his bedroom that his washing water has frozen. Dressed in almost every item of clothing he possesses, Joe thinks he looks like a chilly caterpillar as he scratches away with his razor blade. It’s already dark and Joe knows he will need his sleep as Monsieur Mancelier, his new landlord and employer, will wake him at four a.m.. Joe’s new responsibility in the small town which he calls R.,is the early morning delivery of newspapers. Monsieur Mancelier is the owner of the local librairiepapeterie. Joe describes the Mancelier family. “Au centre, c’est le père,” Ambroise Mancelier, a man in his fifties with a stiff leg and a moustache. He walks with a stick. He was decorated in the 1914 - 1918 war and wears his medal ribbons with pride. He is an ardent admirer of Maréchal Pétain. There are photos and statuettes of the Maréchal throughout the house. He firmly believes that France’s only hope lies in collaboration with Hitler. He also detests the Jews but, unaware that he has one living under his roof, gets on well with Joe. Madame Marcelle Mancelier is unremarkable. “Il suffit de la regarder pour ne pas avoir envie de la décrire.” She works hard, dresses plainly and looks after the paperwork in the family shop. The Manceliers’ son, Raoul, works as a solicitor’s clerk in another part of town and is rarely at home. He, too, supports Pétain and doesn’t disguise his views. Raoul’s sister, Françoise, who is about two years older than Joe, is much more memorable. He adores her from a distance; he will remember her vividly in later life; he clearly loves her. But she is inaccessible. Her fourteen years make her too old for his twelve, and so nothing happens. Though Joe would like to have been able to write about his “histoire d’amour,” he has to confess that “rienn’eut lieu, ni baiser, ni serment, rien. … Comment raconter quelquechose qui n’a pas d’histoire?” . Joe recounts how he arrived in this family in the first place. He had spent two days with his brothers Albert and Henri and his mother in AixlesBains. The decision had then been taken that keeping five members of the family together was too risky, so Maurice had been sent to the town of R. where a friend of Albert’s had found him work in a hotel. A few days later, Maurice had learned of an opening at Mancelier’s bookshop, and Joe had set off to join him. Finding himself living in the Manceliers’ family home, he had been obliged, by the father of the family, to attend mass with them on Sundays. Three reasons inclined him to do as he was told: firstly, one did not say no to a man like Ambroise Mancelier; secondly, Joe was curious to discover what a Catholic mass was like; and thirdly, he would be able to spend an hour in the “enivrante présence de la très belle Françoise aux belles joues.” In church, he imitated the worshippers as best he could, enjoying the view of Françoise at the same time. Joe is on his way out of church after mass. He is at the back of the crowd leaving the building, waiting to get through the door with Françoise behind him. Suddenly, a woman in front of him dips her hand into the receptacle of holy water by the exit, turns round with her fingeres extended, seems to recognise Joe and goes to bless him with the water. Joe, unfamiliar with Roman Catholic custom, shakes her hand and says, “Bonjour, madame.” Those around him react with a mixture of amusement and consternation. Most embarrassingly of all, Françoise has noticed. Joe worries that she will never take him seriously again, that she will not want to marry him. The only way he can think of to repair his reputation in her eyes is to save her from some terrible fate, perhaps a shipwreck, “Mais comment sauver quelqu’un d’un naufrage en HauteSavoie?”Joe is mortified. “Françoise ne sera jamais ma femme, je suis indigne d’elle. C’est affreux.” Sunday lunch back at the house. Monsieur Mancelier is holding forth again on his favourite topics, France, Europe and Maréchal Pétain. He lectures Joseph : great men are men with ideals, not ideas; the greatest political ideal for a white European is the construction of Europe; only three great men in French history have upheld this ideal, have wanted to create a Europe “capable de lutter contre ses adversaires de l’ouest, de l’est ou du sud”. They are, as Joe has heard his host say many times before, Louis XIV, Napoléon and Maréchal Philippe Pétain. All three were misunderstood in theirlifetime. The Sun King, Louis XIV saw his grandson murdered; Napoléon was emprisoned; but Maréchal Pétain … “c’est un dur à cuire, il a fait Verdun, et rappelletoi une chose, mon petit gars, quand on a fait Verdun, on passe partout.” By this stage, Monsieur Mancelier’s family are letting their boredom show and Joe has stopped listening. He is looking forward to dessert. At the end of the meal, when Raoul arrives with his wife, the proVichyconversation picks up again. Raoul is less sure of a German victory than his father and suspects that “la masse technologique américaine” will create obstacles for the 3 rd Reich. Joe misinterprets this phrase. For him it conjures up thoughts of a strange kind of sledgehammer – “une masse” – which, he imagines, the Americans are using as a

secret weapon!). Raoul would have preferred France to ally itself with Mussolini and Hitler in 1936 : the three countries together, supported perhaps by Franco’s Spain, would have been invincible. England would have fallen in no time, followed by Russia. Raoul’s wife then asks, “Et pouquoi n’aton pas fait ça?”, a question to which Ambroise Mancelier, laughing, replies, “Parce que … au lieu d’être gouverné par des Français défendant leur sol et leurs droits, le gouvernement était pourri de Juifs.” So, M. Mancelier makes no secret of his antisemitism. Joe is getting bored and leaves the room.

Once outside, he runs to the Hôtel du Commerce where Maurice works. His position in the hotel is enabling him to do well on the black market again. He tells Joe that he is working with a member of the Resistance who listens to the BBC and has been telling him that the news of the war is encouraging. The Germans are still in retreat. One day, Maurice points out a mountain in the distance. That, he explains to Joe, is the maquis, where the Resistance are. He believes that they are attacking lorries and trains. Joe immediately wants to join them: it would be the perfect way of re-establishing his reputation in the eyes of Françoise. No, they are too young, replies his brother. He has already asked that question. They head for the run down football pitch and kick a ball around. This is where, now that they have been accepted by the local boys, Maurice and Joe come regularly to play football, even in the snow. Christmas 1943. The boys have had a card from Henri. The family are well and send their greetings. Maurice is tired. He was not able to get to bed before 4 a.m. because of a group of Germans and their collaborators who were celebrating late into the night at the hotel. But he is able to share with his brother the leftovers which he was able to steal from the party.

Joe walks back alone through the snow to the stadium. He finds a bench and, surrounded by mountains and a white landscape, eats his way through foie gras and coffee cake. He may be Jewish, but he sees no reason not to celebrate Christmas in his own way. As he reenters the Mancelier family home, the father is listening gravely to a proVichy lecture on the radio given by Philippe Henriot, a rightwing politician and fervent supporter of Pétain who would be made Secretary of State for Information i.e. propaganda) that winter. As the talk ends, M. Mancelier comments, “S’ils publient ces éditoriaux dans un livre, je serai le premier du pays à l’acheter.” Back in his freezing bedroom, Joe buries himself under his mattress and picks up a book he has “borrowed” from the shop … but not in order to read it. It contains a quantity of No.4 ration tickets. He starts work. 1 st April 1944. Someone laughs behind Joe’s back. Is there a hole in his shorts? No, it’s April Fool’s Day and someone has stuck a paper fish to his back. Children can still have fun, even though the war continues. And yet, the war is going badly now, for the Germans at least. The Resistance are becoming more active. Two days ago, the railway depot was blown up, an event which hadcatapulted Monsieur Mancelier into a rage directed against “tous ces jeunes salopiauds qui ne seraient contents que lorsqu’ils auraient ramené l’Anglais en France, réduisant à néant le travail de Jeanne d’Arc.” Good rightwingstuff!

Joe knows, from the expression on M. Mancelier’s face when he looks at his portraits of Pétain, that the war is not going well. But the weather is improving and the mood of the inhabitants of R. is buoyant. Joe is in good spirits as he sets out to finish his paper round. At the hotel, the patron asks if he wants to see his brother; but, before he can go looking for him in the cellar, there is a squeal of brakes outside. Two lorries block the street. It’s the militia, “les plus détestés, … les chasseurs de résistants.” Some of them block off escape routes, others enter the building. One of the customers smiles at Joe and walks towards him. Joe does not recognise him. He drops a crumpled envelope into Joe’s bag. Joe hides it with a newspaper. All he says as he pushes Joe towards the door is, “M. Jean, au Cheval Blanc.” As Joe makes to leave, he runs into two militia men. To the customers, “Les pattes en l’air, vite.” “Hands up!”). And to Joe, “Tiretoi, gamin.” “Get out, kid”). Joe escapes, finds his bike and leaves. As he reaches the corner he looks back. The man who gave him the envelope has been arrested. Joe heads for the Cheval Blanc café. Maryse, the waitress, is surprised to see him. “Je cherche M. Jean,” he explains. She flinches. Carefully, she asks him why. He explains. She tells him to follow her to the garage behind the café. The man who opens the door looks a little like Henri. Suspicious, he asks Joe to describe the man who gave him the envelope. Then he tells Joe to hand it over and reads its contents. Joe seems to have been recruited. Monsieur Jean says, “Quand j’aurai besoin de toi, c’est Maryse qui te le fera savoir.” It turns out that this is to be Joe’s only contribution to the fight to liberate France. The call to helpM. Jean never came. DDay, 6 th June 1944, was a black one for Ambroise Mancelier. To his way of thinking, an army of English Communists, American blacks and Jews was invading French soil. He was in a foul mood. One day, Joe is working in the shop when the son of Mouron the baker, a friend of Maurice’s, enters and, after buying a paper, asks the price of a book about Pétain which is on display in the window. Joe is stunned : he had thought this boy was a supporter of the Resistance. When Joe tells him the price, he buys it, but then says he wants to leave it on display in the shop window. Mme Mancelier agrees reluctantly. The boy takes a label, writes on it the word “Vendu” “sold”

and “sold out”) and attaches it to the photograph of Pétain on the front cover. At this, Mme Mancelier asks him to take the book. He says that, if he can’t leave it in the window, he will not buy it. As he leaves, slamming the door, he shouts, menacingly, “A bientôt, madame Mancelier.”

The shop is doing little business. Joe must be selling no more than three books a week. He is running errands, as usual. When he visits the baker’s, either the father or the son regularly ask him if Monsieur Mancelier isn’t beginning to “faire dans son pantalon” at the thought of what is inevitably coming. The family no longer dare to leave their home. One evening, someone smashes a window in the kitchen. It is clear that feeling is rising against the pétainiste bookshop owner and his family. Joe goes out each evening to find Maurice. They go to the church bell tower from where they can see, in the distance, the route nationale and the columns of military vehicles moving north, many of them ambulances. There is no news from AixlesBains. Letters are no longer getting through. Maurice has seen some maquisards resistance fighters) at the Hôtel du Commerce, dressed in leather jackets with pistols and machine guns.

One evening, Joe cycles to the hotel with a pile of books which he has stolen from the shop. They are destined for the maquisards, particularly for the injured who are being cared for in the caves. There has been no further sign of the militia. Maurice has heard that the man who gave the envelope to Joe was later put up against a wall and shot. The thought makes Joe feel ill and hopeless. The baker says he has seen German tanks from his rooftop. News spreads fast. By the evening, the villagers are panicking. Will the Germans make a last stand in R.? Rumours about the Americans are circulating. They are only 50km away. Someone has made an American flag. The war will soon be over. Joe does the day’s accounts alone in the shop. The Manceliers are shut in upstairs. Ambroise paces his bedroom, no longer listens to the radio. How long before the liberation comes? It’s 8 th July 1944. Joe’s asleep. It’s early morning. Someone calls his name. There’s a rumble in the distance. He pushes open the shutters and looks out of his window. The square is empty … except for Maurice. He’s smiling. “Ils sont partis.” The Germans have left. No fuss, no noise. They’ve just gone. “Je m’accoudais à ma fenêtre un beau matin d’été et c’était fini, j’étais libre.” The two boys set off for the centre of the village. People are starting to come out into the streets. Flags are appearing at the windows, French, British, American. People are embracing, and Joe is “fou de joie” because he has survived and because he has no papers to deliver.

The next day, when the papers come, Joe is overwhelmed with customers, many of whom don’t even wait for their change. Three girls are paraded through the village that afternoon, their hair shaved off and swastikas painted on their faces. There is a rumour that the son of a neighbour, a militia man, has been shot in the woods. Monsieur Mancelier is surrounded in his own living room. The baker’s son has thumped him on the chin. Joe leaps to his defence and saves him from the vengeance of the village with a single sentence, “Laissele, il m’a planqué quand même pendant longtemps et ça pouvait lui coûter chaud de cacher un Juif.” There is stunned silence. Then Mouron asks if Mancelier knew Joe was Jewish. Joe recalls Mancelier’s anti-Semitic diatribes. His revenge will be to be the Jew who saves Mancelier’s skin. “Bien sûr, il le savait!” Joe leaves. He is fairly sure the mob will not kill Mancelier. He is right. The Manceliers are taken to prison. Ambroise is trembling with humiliation, fear and rage. “Devoir sa peau à un Juif après avoir applaudi Henriot tous les soirs pendant quatre ans, c’est le genre de choses qu’il ne pouvait pas avaler.” Joe finds himself patron of the shop. New newspapers are being published every day. The underground press is coming out of hiding. Joe finds himself more important than the mayor or the baker. He is the source of all news. He is working 15 hour days and the money is pouring in. And then, one day, the headline in all the papers is “Paris Libéré”. Joe travels back in memory to Montmartre, to his parents’ shop, to his bedroom and he is gripped by the desire to get to Paris as soon as he can. He sets of for the station at a jog. He is stopped by three men wearing armbands and hunting boots and carrying German submachine guns. Who are they? Resistance fighters from another area? They tell Joe to turn round and go back. He asks them what is going on. Silence. One of the men gestures to him to go back. Joe protests, “Vous me prenez pour un S.S. déguisé ou quoi?”. Silence. In front of the shop there is a crowd of people, all armed, addressing each other as “captain” and “colonel”. The three men deliver him to an officer: “on l’a récupéré”. Joe is taken inside and told that he cannot leave. He is responsible for communicating the news in the village: “tu dois rester à ton poste car nous sommes encore en guerre…” Can’t he go back to Paris? No. “D’accord, alors fusillezmoi.” One of the soldiers swallows his cigarette butt in surprise. The colonel is speechless. Joe embarks on his defence. He’s been away from home for 3 years. No one is going to stop him from returning. His name is Joseph Joffo. “Je suis Juif”. The colonel reasons with him. Then the door opens and in steps Monsieur Jean. He speaks up for Joe, asks him if he wants to go home. Joe cannot prevent himself from crying with relief. Someone has come to his rescue. Shortly afterwards, he is on his way back to the station with an escort of about 15 resistance fighters! He pushes through the door to the platform. “Sur ce quai, il y avait dixmillions de personnes.” And what of Maurice? Before leaving for the station, Joe has seen him. His boss has tried to stop him from leaving too. The crowd on the station platform is enormous, “tout un exode à l’envers”, Joe observes.

Passengers are anxious. The station master is pushing through the crowd, climbing over luggage. The train is more than an hour late, and there are rumours of broken track ahead. Joe tries to use his small size to advantage and manages to push forward, lying to other passengers about his need to reach a mythical little brother. He scrambles over baggage, challenged by other travellers, crawling between people’s legs. At last, he reaches the edge of the platform. Caught in the crush, he has to wait a further two and a half hours, getting cramp in his legs, shifting his weight from leg to leg. At last, the train is sighted. The crowd starts to stir, and he struggles to prevent himself from being pushed onto the rails. The train pulls in and it is full. There is chaos. It stops. The doors open and, with the breath almost crushed out of him, Joe tries to climb into a carriage. A well built man forces his way in ahead of him. Women are crying. Another ten centimetres and he’ll be aboard, but the big man is trying to shut the door and pushes Joe back onto the platform with his backside. Furious, Joe bites him in the hand. The man turns around, exposing a gap into which Joe throws himself. He is aboard. The door closes. It takes him the next thirty kilometers to manoeuvre himself into an upright position.

Meanwhile, Maurice has been putting his own resourcefulness to work to get himself back to Paris. A friend of his boss has a car but no petrol. Maurice negotiates a seat in the car in exchange for fuel. The only problem is, he doesn’t have any. He fills a bottle with old cognac and another 19 with tea. He then persuades an army sergeant to taste the first bottle and to buy all 20 in exchange for 5 jerrycans of petrol. It’s enough to get him to the capital. Maurice tries to get his boss to pay him. His boss refuses. So Maurice offers to take a few cheeses to Paris, where there are food shortages, to sell them and to send the money back to the village. His boss agrees. Of course, Maurice manages to sell them in Paris and pockets the cash. “Ce qui ne fut que justice.” Three years after his departure, Joe finds himself once again at the MarcadetPoissoniers metro station. The street has not changed, but Granny Epstein is no longer there and the Goldenberg restaurant is closed. He reaches the shop. Albert and Henri are at work. His mother is there too, but not his father. “…j’ai compris qu’il n’y serait jamais plus”. Joe sees his reflection in the window. “C’est vrai, j’ai grandi.”

EpilogueJoe is now 42 years old and has three children. He is asking himself why he wrote this book. He reflects, “il est sorti de moi comme une chose naturelle, cela m’était peutêtre nécessaire.”. He wonders how his son will see the book when he comes to read it. He tries to imagine how he would feel if he had to say to his son, that evening, “Mon petit gars, prends ta musette, voilà 50,000 francs anciens) et tu vas partir,” He is filled with joy at the thought that his son will not have to do what he had to do when he was a child. Joe greatly admires Einstein. He knew that we are only ever a split second away from potential suffering. As Joe watches his son sleep, he wishes for only one thing: that he should never have to go through the suffering and fear that he knew during the war years. But then, what has he to fear? It won’t happen again … will it?

Key passages with beginning and end phrases and page numbers Themes, character, own observations, questions

We see Jo working for a pro-Pétain old-soldier Monsieur Mancelier who owns a stationer’s and bookshop at the same time as defrauding the rationing system. The old man uses Jo as a sounding board for his racist views not realizing that he is harbouring a Jew under his roof. Jo is initiated to the rites of the Catholic church where he makes a fool of himself infront of the daughter with whom he has fallen in love. Regular task summary, blog) Ecrivez/enregistrez un sommaire du chapitre au présent. Christmas arrives and the boys manage to get some good food together to eat in the snow. There are more and more attacks by the resistance and Jo ends up in a café which is raided by the Pétainiste militians. The resistance leader standing next to Jo slips a message into his newspaper bag before being led off to be shot. Maurice announces to Jo that the Germans have left and the règlement de comptes begin. Jo manages to save Mancelier from being shot for collaboration by announcing that his boss has been harbouring a Jew under his roof. Desperate to get back he has to convince the resistance who are now taking over that he should be allowed to leave. He returns to Paris by train whilst Maurice returns with piles of cheese in lieu of pay. The boys discover on return that everyone has returned safe and sound except their father. Jo realizes that since his departure he has left

La nature du PétainismePétainistes typiques

Le rationnement et le marché noir

Le caractère de Jo

La milice et son role

La résistance et les FFI

La répression

Les règlements de compte

La perte de l’enfance; comment Jo a changé

his childhood behind him.

Chapitre onze Fin 1943 à R Jo trafique les tickets de rationnement avec minutie. Il fait très froid. Jo travaille pour les Mancelier, des libraires pour qui il livre des journaux. Le père Ambroise vénère le maréchal Pétain et déteste les Juifs et ne se doute pas vraiment que Jo en est un. La mère Marcelle, s'occupe de la librairie quant à Raoul le fils, il est clerc de notaire et pétainiste, pro-Allemand. Enfin Françoise la fille, 14 ans, dont Jo est amoureux.

Un libraire-book shop ownerLivrer-to deliverVénérer-to adoreSe douter-to be unawareQuant à-as forLe notaire-lawyerDont-with whom

Jo arrive chez eux après avoir passé deux jours seulement à Aix-Les-Bains. En effet, Maurice et lui ne peuvent pas y rester car Albert, Henri et la mère Joffo sont déjà ensemble et c’ est risqué d'être trop de personnes ensemble. Maurice travaille à R dans un hôtel et Jo chez les Mancelier.

Ensemble-togetherRisquée)-risky

Jo doit assister à la messe chaque dimanche avec eux. Il aime être avec Françoise, admire les vitraux et l'orgue mais Jo se ridiculise en disant bonjour à la dame qui lui tend l'eau bénite. Après la messe, ils déjeunent en commençant par des radis creux. Le père Mancelier explique à Jo qu'il faut un idéal dans la vie et Raoul son fils renchérit en parlant de politique.

Assister-to attendLa messe-massLes vitraux-stained glass windowsSe ridiculiser-to make oneself look stupidL’eau bénite-holy waterRenchérir- to add something t

Après le repas, Jo retrouve Maurice qui lui aussi fait des petites combines et connait quelqu'un qui travaille dans la résistance. Jo veut rejoindre le maquis pour épater Françoise mais Maurice lui dit qu'ils sont trop jeunes.

Une combine-schemeLe maquis-resistance hiding in the forestÉpater-to impress

Noël 1943, Maurice reçoit une carte d'Henri l'informant que toute la famille va bien. Jo est assis dans le stade seul et mange les victuailles que Maurice lui a données. De retour dans sa chambre, Jo se met à trafiquer les tickets de rationnement.

Trafiquer-to do traffic

1er avril 1944, les alliés avancent. A R, les maquisards mènent de nombreuses actions qui agacent le père Mancelier. Jo livre ses journaux puis s'arrête pour voir Maurice à l'hôtel. Soudain arrivent les chasseurs de résistance, les miliciens. Un homme laisse une enveloppe tomber dans la sacoche de Jo juste avant que les miliciens entrent. Ceux-ci laissent partir Jo avec sa sacoche alors que l'homme est arrêté. Jo apporte l'enveloppe à un certain Monsieur Jean qui le félicite. Jo vient d'entrer dans la résistance mais c’ est là sa seule et unique contribution.

Le maquisard-member of the maquisMener une action-to lead an action, attackLe milicien-militia man, chaser of the resistanceLa sacoche-delivery bagFéliciter-to congratulate

6 juin 1944, jour du débarquement Depuis quelques jours déjà, Françoise est partie. M. Mancelier est inquiet. Jo vole des livres à la librairie et les fait passer aux maquisards.

Inquietète)-worried

Jo apprend que l'homme à l'enveloppe a été fusillé par les miliciens. Les Américains avance. Au village, on confectionne des drapeaux. Les Mancelier se cloîtrent chez eux, plus de discours.

Fusiller-to shoot, executeConfectionner-to makeSe cloîtrer-to shut oneself inPlus de discours-no more speeches

8 Juillet 1944, Maurice annonce à Jo la fin de la guerre. La vie peut reprendre son cours normal mais Jo réalise que cela ne l'amuserait plus de jouer aux billes. Les rues sont ornées de drapeaux, les FFI s'attroupent, certaines filles ont le crâne rasé. Le père Mancelier doit payer lui aussi mais Jo essaie de minimiser la sanction en disant qu’il l’a gardé chez lui sachant qu’il est juif. Il n’ est pas tué mais amené en prison. Jo travaille toujours avec ses journaux et se sent puissant.

Ornée)-decoratedS’attrouper-to herd togetherLe crâne rasé-shaven hadLa sanction –punishmentSachant-knowingPuissant-powerful

' Paris libéré' titrent les journaux. Jo imagine son quartier, le magasin de ses parents sans la pancarte 'magasin juif'. Jo se prépare à retourner à Paris. Hélas, sur

Croiser-to come acrossLaisser-to let, allow

le chemin de la gare, il croise la route de trois résistants qui ne veulent pas le laisser regagner la capitale. Mr Jean intervient et Jo part pour la gare. Une foule dense est sur le quai, essayant de monter dans le train qui est en retard. Le train démarre. Pendant ce temps, Maurice, toujours aussi rusé, parvient à regagner Paris en voiture.

Une foule-crowdDémarrer-to set offRegagner-to get back to

1944, Paris XVIII, même rue, même musette, même salon Joffo, la vieille dame Juive n' est plus là mais Albert et Henri coiffent et travaillent à nouveau. La mère Joffo est là aussi mais plus le père. Jo est de retour, bien plus grand.

Jo a 42 ans, 3 enfants. Il se demande pourquoi il a écrit ce livre. Son fils le lira sans doute. Jo s'imagine lui disant qu'il faut partir tout comme il l'a fait ainsi que son père avec une musette et 50.000 Francs. Jo espère que ce temps est révolu mais plane le doute...

Se demander-to wonderRévolue)-bygonePlaner-to hang over, remain