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BERR, HELENE: : Journal: The diary of a young Jewish woman in occupied Paris

LONDON.MACLEHOSE PRESS/QUERCUS,2008.

ISBN 9781847245748.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn.[Complete number line 10 - 1 descending.Translated from the French by David Bellos,with an Introduction and an essay by him,and an Afterword by Mariette Job.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,matt superimposed sepia photographic illustrated front panel of dw/dj,with brown+blue lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+ fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright, tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners, appears unread apart from my own collation. Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, original plain chocolate brown cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip,a dark blue headband and immaculate plain cream endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj, illustrated,1st edn,2-306pp [paginated] includes an Introduction by David Bellos,2 double-page b/w city maps (Paris and Paris's Latin Quarter, 1942),journal covering 1942-44,Helene Berr letter,an essay by David Bellos,contemporary b/w biographical photographs interspersed throughout the text and the book,Glossaries (3),an Index of Personal names; plus [unpaginated] half-title+ title pages and Contents list/table and 8pp blanks at the rear. From April 1942 to March 1944,Helene Barr,a recent graduate of the Sorbonne,kept a journal that is both an intensely moving,intimate, harrowing,appalling document,and a text of astonishing literary maturity.At the outset,her friendships with other students and professors, her music and her family life combine to give a picture of a happy,fulfilled young woman. She is 21 years old and from the photographs that accompany the text we can see that she is as beautiful as she is talented. With her colleagues,she plays the violin and seeks refuge from the everyday in what she calls the "selfish magic" of English literature and poetry.But this is Paris under occupation and her family is Jewish.Although her father - decorated in the First World War as a French soldier and the distinguished head of a big chemical company - is entirely assimilated,she begins to be assailed by anxieties.And then comes the time when all Jews are required to wear a yellow star.With difficulty,Helene remains calm and rational,keeping to what routine she can: studying,reading,enjoying the beauty of Paris,looking after the children of other arrested Jewish families.Eventually,in March 1944,Helene and her family are arrested,taken to Drancy Transit Camp and soon sent to Auschwitz.She went - as is later discovered - on the death march to Bergen-Belsen and there she died in 1945,only days before the liberation of the camp. The last words in the journal which she had ordained would be kept for her fiance in England with the Free French were "Horror! Horror! Horror!",a hideous and poignant echo of her English studies. Helene Berr's story is almost too painful to read,foreshadowing horror as it does amidst an enviable appetite for life,for beauty,for literature,for all that lasts. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/ P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!   N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE.  ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard US AIRMAIL to these destinations can now,in some cases,cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence, then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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