The Interpreter

Louis Guilloux was a French writer and member of the resistance during World War II. In 1944, he served as translator in the trial of an African American soldier accused of murder and attempted rape of a French woman. The soldier, James Hendricks of North Carolina, was hanged for the crime. Writer and professor Alice Kaplan first read about the case in Guilloux’s novel “OK, Joe.” Her research revealed scores of cases like it. In fact, 55 of the 70 men executed by the American army in France after World War II were African American — 79 percent in an Army that was 8.5 percent black. Host Melinda Penkava talks with Alice Kaplan about the case and her book, “The Interpreter” (Free Press/2005). (30:00)

Alice Kaplan

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