True stories: discovery / historical / scientific
August 2020
The Tailor of Relizane
by Olivia Elkaim
“Algeria, 1958: my grandfather was Jewish and a tailor by trade. He had to give up everything.” When someone knocks at Marcel’s door in the middle of the night, he fears for his life and those of his wife and children. A bag is pulled over his head, he is bundled into a truck and driven into the desert. Will he be killed or released? Three days later, he returns to Relizane safe and sound. His family wonder what his safe return means. What forfeit has he paid and who to? His wife Viviane, his brothers, mother and neighbours all question him. But he says nothing. When a young Arab apprentice turns up outside his shop, Marcel realises that sooner or later he will have to leave his country. But even in France, where he makes a new life for himself, he never gives up the wild hope of returning to his shop in Relizane…
