I Was Good And He Was Evil

A self-appointed avenger named Christian Didier got to him first. One morning last week he went to Bousquet’s Paris apartment with a pistol. When Bousquet, 84, came to the door, he shot him four times at point-blank range. Police arrested Didier and charged him with murder. Didier-a 49-year-old frustrated novelist-appeared to enjoy his moment in the spotlight. Before police arrived he summoned TV cameramen to a hotel in a Paris suburb and told them why he had killed Bousquet. “I was good and was evil,” he said. “I wanted to do something good for humanity.’ The assassination dismayed leaders of France’s Jewish community. They had hoped that Bousquet’s trial would finally force France to acknowledge the extent to which even many ordinary French citizens had collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation. “For 15 years I worked to get this case heard,” said Klarsfeld. “In the general interest, Bousquet should have been tried.”