ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING of Monday, September 5, 2011

at the Centre Communautaire
119 rue La Fayette, 75010 Paris

Agenda:

• Election of the Board of Directors and the executive committee

• Treasurer’s financial report 

• President’s report

• Any other business

At 8 p.m. the meeting is opened by the President

Number present: 17
Represented: 11

I. Election of the Board of Directors and the executive committee

The Board of Directors was re-elected unchanged:

Andrée Poch-Karsenti: President;
Pierre Loeb: Vice-President;
Victor Kuperminc: Treasurer
Gisèle Altman: Secretary ;
Armand Herscovici joins the executive committee as Assistant Secretary.

II. Treasurer’s financial report

Subscriptions and income

Of 48 registered members, 24 have paid their subscriptions, for €1,105.00 – an average subscription of €46.00.

Royalties (Terre de détresse) amounted to €27.50

Total income: €1,132.50

Expenditure

Deficit for the year: €540.46

Cash position

At December 31, 2010, the cash position is €4,609.81

Victor Kuperminc
Treasurer

III. President’s report

I am finding it very difficult to write this report, as I have the impression of emptiness, of very little activity… and sometimes of a certain discouragement. Apart from talks in schools, we have not had a major project as we did in 2009 with the Theatre and Resistance conference.

On our website I did not report on my talk, with Armand Kac, to a Year 10 class at the collège in Champigny. The theme was Solidarity, and we gave our testimony as hidden children. After this extremely rich session, the children and their teacher sent us little notes, which I will put online. At the initiative of Jeannette Wolgust, President of the AMEJD of Noisy-le-Sec, a plaque in memory of the deported Jewish pupils has been put up on the walls of the Pierre Brossolette school. A magnificent fresco painted by two young people decorates a wall of the playground.

Our website

On my own behalf and on yours, I thank Emmanuel Gagnier, grandson of Pastor Gagnier, our webmaster. We regularly receive compliments on the quality of our website. 

The number of visitors has increased: 12,507 in 2010 against 10,429 in 2009, i.e. 2,000 more people. Emmanuel has drawn up a chart of pages read. Thus, in the Testimonies section, number of visitors:

Armand Morgensztern 204;
Gisèle Altman 315;
Jacqueline Denechère 103;
Robert Pouderou 630;
Guy Foissy 124;
Pierre Loeb 350;
Flora Hogman 130;
Joseph Sungolowsky 321;
Eve and Armand Herscovici 210. 

These examples show the importance of the testimonies that each of you could also give us… For a website to live, it must be fed, and that is everyone’s business. Don’t forget that two heads are better than one!.. 

So if you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate…

With Emmanuel, we have thought of creating a new “Notices” section. Hidden children write to us in search of part of their story, others are looking for people they knew during the war, and some discover that they are Abadi Children…

We have a new Abadi Child in the person of Simon Eine, whom we welcome.

Mrs Gisèle Bouhanna, President of the Comité Amelot, is interested in a link with our website.

Excellent news: after three years of waiting, the Medal of the Righteous for Pastor Gagnier and his wife has finally arrived… One of the witnesses, Madame Rouire, has sadly died. She had stayed for a few months with Pastor Gagnier, and she would have been so happy to attend the ceremony, which will take place on October 27, 2011.

Projects

I am still looking for a publisher for Terre de Détresse, Odette’s book. Madame Simone Veil has agreed to write the preface, on condition that we have a written commitment from a publisher.
We are currently in contact with L’Harmattan.

I am going to transfer the association’s registered office to Saint-Maur. Then, given the large number of visits to our website, particularly from the United States (51.90%, i.e. 6,330 visits), I will apply to Saint-Maur town hall for a grant to translate the website into English.
There were 3,704 visits from all over France.

Still in the interests of the website, we could produce reports on the various hiding places used by the Marcel network. I had this idea when, after making enquiries, I received documentation on the Rayon de Soleil in Grasse.
We have several panels on The Theatre and Moussa which were used for only one day at the last conference. Perhaps we could use them on another occasion? Armand Herscovici proposes making a digital slideshow of the Theatre and Moussa panels, with commentary. We could also find out what the theatre was like during the war. What do you think? Robert Pouderou has volunteered to put it together and accompany the slideshow.

Jeannette Wolgust suggests writing a testimony about Odette and her role as a doctor.
We could ask Jacqueline Denechère for the contact details of Annick, a doctor who replaced Odette at the Assistance Publique, and who might be able to give an interesting testimony.

Victor Kuperminc suggests that next year the commemoration of the deaths of Odette and Moussa should take place at their grave in Montparnasse cemetery. To be followed up…

Of course, I am throwing out ideas like messages in bottles, hoping for initiatives and volunteers to take them on. The members of our association are growing older, each with their own personal problems and occupations. But you should know that on my own I cannot sustain work dynamic enough to keep the association going, and that perhaps we should think about what form we could give it.

Andrée Poch-Karsenti, President

The financial report and the president’s report are approved unanimously. The agenda having been completed, the meeting closes at 10 p.m.