Joseph Weismann is a survivor of the 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in Paris. Until he was 80, Weismann kept his story to himself, giving only the slightest hints of it to his wife and three children. Simone Veil, lawyer, politician, president of the European Parliament, and member of the Constitutional Council of France, urged him to tell his story. It would inspire the French film La Rafle. Now 91 years old, he lives in Le Mans. Richard Kutner is an independent literary translator. His translations include Fear of Paradise by Vincent Engel and Cast Away on the Letter A by Fred, for which he was awarded a Hemingway Translation Grant.

