Sins of the Innocent
A politically naïve French country girl when she entered the Sorbonne in 1928, Marokvia (Immortelles: Memoir of a Will-o'-the-Wisp), who today is almost 98 years old, soon fell in love with art student Abel; the two enjoyed the Parisian bohemian scene of the 1930s, without worrying much about world events. Even when Hitler took Austria in 1938, no one seemed too shocked—it "was as if we had begun to think he had the right to do what he was doing." Alas, Abel was German and by 1939, he decided to return to Stuttgart. Marokvia followed and the two married, each verifying that they came from four generations of Jew-free ancestry. While both hated the Nazis and refused to collaborate actively, neither felt able to do anything against the regime. Abel avoided the military by working for a propaganda ministry, traveling throughout the Reich sketching for various government publications, while Marokvia variously worked as a weaver, translator and subsistence farmer. They considered themselves innocent of Nazi atrocities, yet sullied by the passive sin of complicity. At times they contemplated suicide or murdering Hitler, but then went on with finding housing, food and work, like other citizens. Readers of last year'sA Woman in Berlinwill find the similarities (constant suspicion of neighbors, ignorance about Jews) and contrasts (Marokvia reports no rapes or prostitution) illuminating.(Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.