Contents
Illustrations
Prologue
I. Salonika, Oh Salonika: Born In The Orient
The Great Fire
Ancestors
Rafael, first in the family tree
Fathers and sons: Rafael and Maïr, ancient and modern
Marie Benveniste and the Alliance
Allegra’s mésalliance
Janja is born
The pazvan
The great departure
Talking stones
II. A Francia… Growing up in Paris
“I’m handing in my notice”
Annie and Uncle Corentin
How little Jenny became truly French
A little brother for Jenny—or boys’ privileges
Maids and mistresses: kitchen power
Girl talk
Sacrilege
Men’s talk
The tribe in the thirties
The Captain’s granddaughter
Kiko, the enfant terrible
First love: from chrysalis to butterfly
A gray year
Enter Jacques
A tea dance at the Pavillon Dauphine
Jenny’s engagement
People from Romania and elsewhere
Jenny’s wedding
The patriarch takes his leave
1939: end of a world
III. The Sound and the Fury
It’s war
I am born
Kiko dies
Summer 1940
On becoming pariahs
Fit for… Aryanization!
Terrorist or resister
Buffon’s way: the Five, the Seven, and the arms of wrath
Spring Breeze
Rounding up Bulgarians
One live child for a dead hare …
Operation Anton: the Free Zone has had its day
Roundup in Marseille
Dispersal…
A dove from the Ark
An angel named Donati
Brunner, the genius of evil
The maestro of Fleur des Alpes
“Les sanglots longs….”
The Free Republic of the Vercors: an islet in enemy territory
July 14, 1944: the Vassieux trap
Last news from Argegno
Fleur des Alpes under the Germans
The Battle of Vercors: clay pot versus iron pot
“I would have climbed Mont-Blanc…”
Monsieur Bienenfeld, or the “musicians’ ’’ bridge game
My first childhood memory
The Executed of the Cours Berriat
Liberation… and a Jewish godfather
IV. The Silence
Joy
Noah’s mantle
Waiting…
The Returnees
Anguish… En tierras ajenas yo me vo murir
Brotherly love… The longest night
No way back… A tale of two undesirables
Accident or suicide?
Their “sad Odyssey”
Afterthoughts
And what about Michou?
The Gordian knot
Where is God?
Yes, I do believe my mother was crazy…
Catholic years
Excommunication
Epilogue
Acknowledgments