Last Twilight in Paris

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of graphic violence, illness, alcohol dependency, religious persecution, and death.

Helaine’s experiences before and during the German occupation of Paris highlight the way even the most mundane civilian spaces can become synonymous with oppression, a transition that mirrors and emphasizes the way the lives of oppressed individuals can change so dramatically. 

The streets of Paris, which were once lively and colorful, quickly become “sparse and drab” (131) after France falls. Helaine once associated those same streets with freedom, independence, and even her own personal strength after her prolonged confinement at home. However, after the Germans invade, they begin the persecution of French Jews, and Helaine’s freedom and independence are once again threatened, causing her to question her own power and agency to direct her own life.

Not only do the city streets become “dark and menacing,” but Helaine feels as though “unseen dangers lurked at every turn” in the spaces that “had once seemed a wonderland to her” (133). She gains a renewed sense of ability and purpose when she joins the women gardening in the park, but when the Germans prohibit Jews from entering—further limiting her access to food—”Helaine waited for [her friend] Isa to tell her that it did not matter, that they would ignore the German decree so that she could keep working in the garden” (157), but Isa cannot bring herself to defy the orders because she needs to feed her own family.