"Jew is only the name we give to that stranger. Each man has his Jew; it is the other. And the Jews have their Jews. This is the first time that Incident At Vichy (1964) has been published as a Methuen Drama Student Edition and, in Millers view, it is a play about our individual relationship with injustice and violence, and how guilt can override responsibility. This largely forgotten masterpiece is written in one act, portraying 8 men who have been rounded up and detained in Vichy, France, in a disused building serving as a police station. They dont know the reason for their arrest beyond a racial inspection by French and German officials, or when they can leave. It was inspired by a real-life incident in France in which a Gentile gave a Jew his identity pass during a check, which would have resulted in the Jew otherwise being sent to a concentration camp. Through the play, Miller argues that an element of the Nazis treatment of the Jews, in particular, during World War II - and the absence of significant resistance to it - was down to an element of sadism, self-interest - and evil - that exists in us all.

This Methuen Drama Student Edition features commentary and notes by Joshua Polster, Emerson College, US"--.