The Postcard

by Anne Berest

of what, of whom, am I a slave?”

“Does it make you sad that your son doesn’t believe in God?” Jacques asked his grandfather. “It used to, yes. But now I tell myself, the important thing is that God believes in your father.”

“Indifference is universal. Who are you indifferent toward today, right now? Ask yourself that. Which victims living in tents, or under overpasses, or in camps way outside the cities are your ‘invisible ones’? The Vichy regime set out to remove the Jews from French society. And they succeeded.”