by Albert Memmi

Born in 1920, Albert Memmi grew up in a religiously conservative Jewish family of humble origins in the old city of Tunis. His father was a saddler who barely earned enough to feed his wife and eight children; his mother was illiterate and spoke only the Judeo-Arabic dialect of Tunisian Jews. In his boyhood Memmi attended a traditional religious school to learn Torah and Hebrew, then a private school, Alliance Israélite Universelle, for a secular education. In 1932 he was chosen as a scholarship student at the Lycée Carnot, which educated mainly French or European boys. By the eve of World War II he had gained a post at his school and was pursuing university studies. During the 1942-43 German occupation of Tunisia, Memmi and other Jews were rounded up and sent to harsh labor camps in the countryside...