He refuses categorically, then changes his mind.
He says he needs to return to Amsterdam with Paula, his assistant.
To pick up the necessary instruments.
They take advantage of this opportunity to flee.
And go into hiding until the end of the war.
Once peace returns, they try to find out what has happened to Charlotte.
After months of uncertainty, they learn of her death.
Devastated, Paula and Albert blame themselves.
They should never have sent her to France.
In 1947, they decide to follow her footsteps.
To see the places she spent her final years.
They find Ottilie Moore, who has returned to the Ermitage.
The American tells them about her memories of Charlotte.
How things unfolded.
The grandmother’s suicide.
The grandfather’s reign of terror.
And then the marriage with Alexander.
Vittoria, the cook, is also there.
She is the one who prepared the wedding meal.
She describes the menu in great detail.
And the atmosphere at that beautiful celebration.
Was Charlotte happy? her father asks.
Yes, I think so, Vittoria replies.
At that moment, no one dares tell them that Charlotte was pregnant.
They will learn this later.
Another important witness joins them.
It is Dr. Moridis.
He seems deeply moved at the idea of meeting Paula and Albert.
He talks about wonderful moments spent with Charlotte.
He avoids mentioning his concerns about her mental health.
Consultations when he doubted her lucidity.
I admired her so much, he adds.
His voice trembling with emotion.
A few months before this, he had handed the suitcase to Ottilie.
Now that lady goes off to find it.
Moridis repeats the phrase Charlotte said to him: it is my whole life.
A life in the form of a work of art.
Albert and Paula discover Life? or Theater?
It’s a terrible shock.
They hear their little girl’s voice.
She is there, with them.
Their Lotte, lost to them years ago.
Thanks to her, the memories breathe again.
It is their whole life too.
For hours, they pore over the drawings.
They have become characters.
It is proof that they have lived.
2
They return to Amsterdam, their new hometown.
After hesitating for a long time, Ottilie gives them the work.
They spend whole evenings analyzing it.
Some parts make them laugh, others offend them.
It is Charlotte’s truth.
An artistic truth.
They could never have suspected all the thoughts in her head.
And especially not her extravagant love for Alfred.
Later, Paula will say that it could not have been anything more than a fantasy.
According to her, Charlotte and Alfred can’t have seen each other more than three times.
She does not seem to believe that they might have met in secret.
That is the whole beauty of Charlotte’s project.
What is life?
What is theater?
Who can know the truth?
And years pass like that.
In Holland, Paula finds old friends from the world of culture.
She begins to sing again, and life starts over.
From time to time, they show the drawings to visitors.
People are always moved and amazed.
An art connoisseur tells them they should organize an exhibition.
Why did they never think of that before?
It would be a fabulous tribute.
This takes time, and they must also prepare the catalog.
Charlotte’s work will finally be exhibited in 1961.
It is a considerable success.
Beyond the emotional impact, her work fascinates through its inventiveness.
Through the total originality of its form.
And its eye-catching warm colors.
Charlotte’s reputation immediately starts to spread.
In the years that follow, several other exhibitions take place.
In Europe, even in the United States.
Life? or Theater? is published as a book.
It is translated into several languages.
Paula and Albert are interviewed on television.
Though they appear embarrassed on camera, they speak very movingly about Charlotte.
They tell her story.
She is alive, through their words.
A team of reporters travels to the South of France.
Witnesses speak, such as Marthe Pécher.
No one seems very surprised to be questioned about Charlotte.
More than twenty years after they knew her.
As if everyone had already guessed that she would become famous.
But the work’s fame does not last as long as it should.
The retrospectives become less frequent.
Until finally they are rare, too rare, unjustly rare.
Albert and Paula grow old and unable to take care of Charlotte’s legacy.
In 1971, they decide to bequeath everything to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam.
The collection is still there, though not as a permanent exhibition.
Most of the time, it is kept in the basement.
In 1976, Albert dies.
Much later, in 2000, Paula joins him.
They are buried together in a cemetery near Amsterdam.
3
And Alfred?
With help from one of his students, he manages to escape Germany.
In 1940, he moves to London, where he will remain for the rest of his life.
After the war, he gives lessons again.
Very quickly, his methods meet with great success.
People respect him, people listen to him, he exists.
He also starts writing, and publishes a novel.
Finally relieved of his angst, he lives through the 1950s.
No longer feeling like a dead man among the living.
The past seems distant to him now, perhaps nonexistent.
And he no longer wants to hear about Germany.
Thanks to some mutual friends, Paula finds out where he is.
She writes him a long, friendly letter.
What a pleasant surprise, after all this time.
In his reply, he begs her to sing again.
And repeats that she is the greatest.
But he does not mention Charlotte.
Because he fears the worst.
A few months later, he receives another letter.
Although, in fact, it is not a letter.
It is Charlotte’s exhibition catalog.
There is also a pamphlet with a biographical note.
And so what he knew without knowing is confirmed.
She died in 1943.
He starts flicking through the pages of the book.
And quickly realizes how autobiographical it is.
He sees drawings of her childhood, her mother and the angels.
Then, Paula appears.
And …
Alfred discovers himself, suddenly.
One drawing.
Two drawings.
A hundred drawings.
Leafing through the book, he sees his face everywhere.
His face and his words.
All his theories.
All their conversations.
Never could he have imagined having had such an influence.
Charlotte seems obsessed by him, by their affair.
Alfred feels a shiver all over his body.
As if so
mething had grabbed him by the back of the neck.
He lies down on the couch.
And remains there, prostrate, for several days.
…
One year later, in 1962, Alfred dies.
He is discovered fully dressed on his bed.
He looks like a man who is going on a journey.
As if he knew the time and date of his departure.
This gives him a wise appearance.
And even a form of serenity, which is rare for him.
The woman who finds him runs a hand over his suit.
And feels the shape of a document in a pocket.
An interior pocket, close to his heart.
She pulls the paper toward her.
And discovers an exhibition catalog.
For an artist named …
Charlotte Salomon.
1 Billy Wilder said: “The optimists died in the gas chambers; the pessimists have pools in Beverly Hills.”
DAVID FOENKINOS is a screenwriter and the author of fourteen novels translated into forty languages, including La Délicatesse, Les Souvenirs, and Je Vais Mieux. In 2011, with his brother, he adapted his book La Délicatesse for the film Delicacy, starring Audrey Tautou and François Damiens.
SAM TAYLOR is a novelist and translator. He is the author of The Amnesiac and The Island at the End of the World and has translated more than a dozen novels from the French, including Laurent Binet’s acclaimed HHhH and the bestselling The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.
Jacket design: Yellowstone Ltd
Jacket image: Collection Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam,
© Charlotte Salomon Foundation, Charlotte Salomon®
www.jck.nl
Author photograph: Catherine Hélié
Printed in the United States Copyright © 2016 The Overlook Press
THE OVERLOOK PRESS
NEW YORK, NY
WWW.OVERLOOKPRESS.COM
Charlotte Page 15
