However, I cannot allow these pages to be printed again without saying what they represent. They were written and published illegally. Their purpose was to shed some light on the struggle we fought blindly, and in this way to make it more effective.
These are occasional writings that can thus create some impression of injustice. If we were actually to write about defeated Germany, we would need to adopt a somewhat different language. However, I would only like to preempt a misunderstanding. When the author of these letters says 'you', he does not mean 'you Germans', but 'you Nazis'. When he says 'we', it does not always mean 'we the French', but 'we the free Europeans'.
I am contrasting two attitudes, not two nations, even though at some point in history these two nations represented two hostile attitudes. To repeat words that are not mine, I love my country too much to be a nationalist. And I know that neither France nor Italy would lose anything - on the contrary - if they opened up to a broader society. But we are still far from that, and Europe continues to be torn apart.
That is why I would feel ashamed today if I allowed them to believe that a French writer can be the enemy of only one nation. I only hate the executioners. Any reader who wishes to read the Letters to a German friend with this perspective, that is, as a document of the struggle against violence, will admit that now I can say that I do not renounce a single word of them.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
