I like going shopping with Mum at the deli. The tall barrel of pickled cucumbers smells so good. One day Mum buys a fish, a carp. The fish is wrapped in newspaper and wriggles in my hands, even though the fishmonger hit it with a wooden mallet. It’s really hard for me to hold but I carry it all the way home. I’m so proud of myself.

 

I’m waiting to buy some bread when I see someone I know from school in the queue. He calls me a ‘dirty Jew’. I’ve never heard the word Jew before and don’t understand why he was calling me dirty. I had a bath this morning. When I get home I ask Mum ‘what is a Jew?’ She tells me to be proud of being Jewish, that I am clean and to ignore that mean boy.

 

A French policeman who Dad knows comes to our house. The policeman says he’ll be back in the morning to arrest Dad because his name is on a list. Dad gets in his car and leaves straight away. I wonder where he is going and when he’ll come back?

 

My Mum and sister are going to join Dad. He’s in the south of France now. Mum says it‘s too dangerous for me to go because I am too little so I am going to live with my Grandma and Grandpa.