Memoir of War

As the Allied armies draw near to Paris during the summer of 1944, a writer and member of the resistance, Robert Antelme, is arrested by the occupying Germans. His wife, Marguerite Duras, who is also a writer entrenched in the same resistance network, is left in turmoil. In her distress, she encounters a French collaborator working for the Gestapo, who slyly offers a potential link to her husband’s fate. In a trade for information, he reveals a desire to know about the prominent resister François Morland while hinting at a personal interest in Marguerite herself.

Despite her initial reservations, Marguerite consults Dionys Mascolo, the leader of their resistance network and her lover, and ultimately decides to engage with the collaborator. Their encounters become routine, as he showers her with scarce provisions and fine wine, yet Marguerite remains steadfast, revealing neither information nor engaging in illicit activity. However, he does manage to disclose that Robert has been sent to a concentration camp in Germany.

Once Paris is liberated and the Gestapo dissolved, the focus for the resisters shifts to uncovering the fates of their arrested colleagues and assisting their families. As the Allied forces commence liberating the concentration camps in the spring of 1945, hard-won intel begins to surface about who has survived and who has not. Marguerite endures an exhausting wait, fraught with an emotional tug-of-war between hope and despair, until she learns of Robert’s grim status in Dachau, where he is gravely ill.

With the aid of Dionys and Morland, arrangements are made to retrieve Robert and bring him back to Paris. Once he regains some strength and is ready to travel, Marguerite decides to take him on a holiday to Italy. However, upon returning, she makes the heart-wrenching decision to divorce him.

Last Updated: November 15, 2024 at 20:34