The Keeper of Happy Endings

Soline remembers when the Nazis first occupied Paris and reflects on life during the two years since. While the wealthy fled Paris for the coast, those who remain are subject to curfews and shortages. The Germans have changed street signs and clocks, and rations are in place for food and clothing. German soldiers are in control and move freely about the city, “as if everything in France is theirs for the taking […] But no one suffers more than the Jews” (94). All Jewish citizens over the age of six are made to wear the Star of David, and soon the roundups to concentration camps begin, with thousands of Jews taken from their homes in France. Maman’s health is rapidly declining, and one night she beckons Soline to her bedside and shares details about Soline’s father, Erich Freede. He was a German music student studying in Paris when they met and fell in love, but duty to her family and her mother’s insistence led Maman to end the relationship and break Erich’s heart. He is Jewish, and Maman is devastated at the thought that he has been killed by the Nazis. Maman reveals that she always kept Soline at an arm’s length because she reminded her so much of Erich, which gives Soline new