Section 1: pages 1-10 Summary

"Incident at Vichy" by Arthur Miller is a one-act play about a group of ten men detained by German officers during World War II upon suspicion of being Jewish. As these men begin to understand why they have been detained, they begin to react with fear and anger, yet none try to escape. "Incident at Vichy" offers a view of why the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust for so long due to denial and complicity.

In a place of detention in Vichy, France in 1942, a corridor on the right leads to an unseen door which opens onto the street. There is a private room in the back, and a long bench faces an empty area. As the light rises, it reveals six men and a fifteen-year-old boy sitting frozen on the bench. Marchand, a well-dressed businessman, seems...