Hélène Berr was a 21 years old student at the Sorbonne when she started keeping a diary. After the introduction of the anti-Jewish laws under the Vichy government, her life would take a major downturn in 1942. Deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau with her family, she would die shortly before the liberation of the camp. In 1992, Hélène Berr’s family found her fiancé, Jean Morawiecki, to whom the diary was dedicated and who had kept the journal with him for over 50 years. This exceptional testimony was published in 2008.

Hélène Berr was a realistic victim of Vichy politics. In her brisk and penetrating style, her writing tells of her daily life in occupied Paris: her joys and fears, her hopes and intuitions, her love for Jean Morawiecki, the indifference of Parisians to the persecution of Jews, the obligation of wearing a yellow Star of David on clothing, anti-Semitic laws, raids, deportations. This film presents a soft and restrained reading by Céline Salette over images that illustrate the words and enhance the content, making it a work that can be seen as much as it can be heard.