Maman, What are We Called Now?

More about the book

Jacqueline Mesnil-Amar (1909-87), the daughter of Jules Perquel, a financier and newspaper editor, and Ellen Allatini, was brought up in the Paris suburb of Passy. In 1928 she went to the Sorbonne and in 1930 married André Amar (1908-90), who was at the École Normale Supérieure; he was the son of a banker who had come to Paris from Salonika. The Amars' daughter Sylvie was born in 1934; meanwhile Jacqueline wrote magazine articles. When war broke out the family lived in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice and nine different places in Paris, often separately because André was first in the French army and then joined a Jewish resistance network. After 1945 the Amars largely devoted their lives to Jewish causes. In 1957 Jacqueline's diary for 18th July-25th August 1944, together with some of her post-war articles, was published as Ceux qui ne dormaient pas, translated by Persephone Books as Maman, What Are We Called Now?