Jacques Presser
The Night of the Girondists
In 1957, Presser published De nacht der Girondijnen (The Night of the Girondists), which became an international beststeller. First published in the UK in 1958, this moving autobiographical novella tells about life in the transit camp in The Netherlands from which Jews were despatched to the concentration camps in Poland.
Its leading character is an assimilated Jewish teacher in the Dutch transit camp of Westerbork, who helped the Germans to select Jews for transport to Auschwitz, until he realised that, being a Jew, he was bound to share the fate of those he had sent away.
