GEORGE STEINER
This is called History
“I was quite close to the march, near the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, and was running home up rue de la Pompe with my nanny because a small group of demonstrators of the extreme Right was approaching, led by Colonel de La Roque. “Kill the Jews!” This was happening in a neighbourhood where there was a large population of Jewish bourgeois. My mother, not because she was afraid, but rather out of respect for old-fashioned conventions, said to my nanny and me, “Oh! lower the blinds.” In came my father, who exclaimed, “Raise the blinds.” He led me onto our little balcony. I remember the scene vividly: “Kill the Jews! Kill the Jews!” He said to me very calmly, “This is called history, and you must never be afraid.” For a child of six, those words were transformative. Since that time, I know what to call history, and if I’m afraid, I’m ashamed; and I try not to be afraid.”
George Steiner in Conversation with Laure Adler
A Long Saturday
Chicago University Press, 2017