After the Second World War was over, 220,000 cards were distributed among French citizens to attest that their bearers had been Voluntary Resistance Fighters. Yet André Malraux, talking to Sanche de Gramont in 1970, asserted that 'we' Resistants were 17,000, while 'they' - French members of the Waffen SS - were 40,000. That begs a question to which I know no answer, though Malraux's own story may provide some clues.

LRB 10 June 1993 | PDF Download