After the Roundup by Joseph Weismann

Author:Joseph Weismann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Weeks pass, and I regain confidence. The lady of the house asks me to call her maman, and I explain to her as gently as I can that I’m keeping that name for my real mother. So we come up with a compromise: I’ll call her mamine. By her side, I feel myself becoming a normal child again. Until one day Léontine comes to get me in my room.

“Joseph, Grandmother would like to see you.”

I walk to the living room, without any particular concern. Her daughter-in-law is there, visibly agitated, already worried about what is going to follow.

“Joseph,” the old woman begins, standing, supported by her cane, . . . “Joseph, you took one of my rusks.”

“What? No, madame, I didn’t take any rusks.”

“I know you did. I counted them, and one is missing. Why did you take it without asking me?”

“Madame, I assure you. . . .”

“Admit that you stole it, and it will be over and done with.”

“But I can’t, because I didn’t take it!”

A terrible scene follows. While I’m crying because of this unjust accusation, Madame is crying about my future. Does she realize that her mother-in-law cooked up this whole story to get me thrown out of the house? Does she think that I really stole the rusk, and has she already forgiven me?

In any case, the next morning I’m back in the Rue Lamarck orphanage. Mamine, so sweet and gentle, won’t be coming at night anymore to kiss me tenderly in my bed. We won’t be walking hand in hand in the fancy neighborhoods. I won’t be sitting next to her reading in front of the fireplace. The fairy tale is all over without my having been able to prove my innocence. I didn’t see the old lady’s plot coming, this old woman in a black dress, with her hair pulled back and her air of total serenity. Because of me, they neglected her, so she got rid of me.

So here I am, alone in the world again. I’m not upset at having to give up material comfort that I didn’t even have time to get used to: it’s Mamine’s tenderness that I miss most. Little Joseph may be a hero, a real tough guy hunted by the Nazis everywhere on the planet, but he still needs love like everyone else.

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