There is an elderly gentleman at the restaurant where I’m having lunch, he’s alone and physically unsteady, and I remember the scene in Au revoir les enfants in which Julien and his mother have gone out to lunch in a fine restaurant in the provincial town where he goes to school. Some militiamen come in and ask the elderly gentleman for his papers. He is Jewish. They say he must leave. He protests that he’s been dining there for years. They insist, and become aggressive. None of the other diners intervene. Finally one of a group of German officers dining in the restaurant takes notice of the scene and of Julien’s mother. To impress her, he barks at the militiamen to get out. They leave. The officer bows in the direction of Julien’s mother, and she tells Julien that some Germans are decent after all. The elderly gentleman, shaking, continues his meal.
In the restaurant where I am eating lunch, the elderly gentleman is shaking. His hair is tousled and white, his shirt is white. He studies the menu closely.