ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING of Tuesday, May 14, 2012

At the Centre Communautaire de Paris
119 rue La Fayette
75010 Paris

Agenda:

• Report on 2011 activities

• 2011 financial report

• Projects for 2012/2013

• Update on the website.

• Any other business.

I. President’s report

Here we are, gathered again for a new General Meeting: I would like to begin this evening with a thought for our very dear friend Laurent Wolgust, who died on March 10 this year, and whose silences we will miss so much!

Our activities in 2011 were rather modest and mainly focused on school events, carried out by a very small number of us – a band of two: Jeannette and… myself! You will understand that this report weighs on me. It weighs on me for two reasons: first, because I have the impression that our momentum, our reason for creating this association, is fading, and that we are keeping the association’s head above water with difficulty. The other reason is that I feel I am putting myself forward and am always in the limelight, particularly on our website (which I will talk about later). Perhaps it is time to think about the future of our creation, “Les Enfants et Amis Abadi”: does this association still have a reason to exist? Can it take another direction? Another form? Should it purely and simply disappear? We wished – Jeannette Wolgust first of all – “…to bring together the friends and the children hidden by Odette and Moussa, in order to preserve and perpetuate their memory…”. I think this task has been accomplished, even though I would like their names to reach a wider audience.

As for our activities, in chronological order: La Reine et le Calligraphe was translated into Arabic and published in Damascus in January 2011. We owe this pleasure to our friend Charif Kiwan and his wife Maya al Kouri, who translated it. It was very well received there, and today I have many anxious thoughts for that country, and I hear Moussa at the Senate: “…You do not have to thank us, you owe us nothing, but think of the street children of Manila, of Rwanda…” I think of the children of that country and of the courage of its people.

In March, we had the immense joy of seeing the joint application by our association and witnesses (Madame Rouire, Monsieur Isserlis, the Dohan family and Monsieur Picard) for Madame Hélène Gagnier and her husband, Pastor Pierre Gagnier, to be recognised as Righteous Among the Nations succeed. We all know today what they did for the Marcel network: false papers, sheltering hunted people, lending a room at the church… (I suggest you have a look at our website for more details!)

Jeannette set up an AMEJ in Noisy-le-Sec in June 2008. After much research, she traced two little girls, Paulette and Suzanne Itic, deported on convoy no. 64 on December 7, 1943. When approached, Mr Philippe Jacqueline, head of the Pierre Brossolette primary school, agreed to have plaques put up on the walls of his school. The pupils of the three final-year primary classes also painted a fresco.

As for me, to round off 2011, I was invited through Michèle Merowka to the Festival of Films on the Resistance in Nice, and spoke to Year 12 classes in Cannes and Le Cannet and to Year 10 classes in Roquefort-les-Pins.

I would also like to welcome this evening Françoise Gagnier, a member of the family that has been with us for so long. I now hand over to our favourite treasurer, and then we will try to discuss the future.

Andrée Poch-Karsenti, President

II. Treasurer’s financial report

Subscriptions and income

Of 49 registered members, 29 have paid their subscriptions, for €1,573.00 – an average subscription of €54.00.

Total income: €1,132.50

Expenditure:

Deficit for the year: €270.61

Cash position

At December 31, 2011, the cash position is €4,339.20 (at March 31, 2012, it is €3,529.24)

Victor Kuperminc
Treasurer

III. Projects 2012–2013

The reissue of “Terre de Détresse”, still with L’Harmattan, but with a new cover, a preface by Annette Wieviorka and an afterword by Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat.
Andrée Poch-Karsenti has many projects around this book: a lecture, publicity in the media, press and radio. The task seems arduous, but many people have volunteered to approach possible contacts.

Taking part in the OSE’s centenary on the Pelouse de Reuilly on July 1. We will have a stand and will be able to offer Odette’s book.

Victor Kuperminc points out that besides Odette’s book being reprinted, Fred Coleman, whom many of us met for this purpose, has just published a book on the Marcel network in the United States. For those who don’t know Fred, you can read the full article here

Several possible courses of action were discussed:

PIERRE LOEB will contact Katy Hazan about a round table on the Marcel network and to talk about the book Terre de Détresse at the OSE event on the Pelouse de Reuilly on July 1. A request will be made to the Association of Former OSE members for a presentation of the book (and why not of the documentary on Odette?) at their Monday lectures.

ROBERT POUDEROU will handle relations with the publisher L’Harmattan. The proofs of the book have not yet been received. However, we hope the book will be reissued within a month at most.
Discussions with Xavier and Denis Pryen

VICTOR KUPERMINC will handle relations with Jewish radio stations and with the press; he will contact Salomon Malka, director of L’Arche, and Victor Malka, director of Information Juive, as well as the Cercle Bernard Lazare. When the book is reissued, Victor will send a copy to Mrs Florence Noiville, critic at Le Monde des Livres. In this connection, it would be good for Victor to draw up a list (fairly short, however) of the people to whom Terre de Détresse should be sent.
Victor also plans to talk about it at the Hillel circle in La Varenne, where he has been invited this week to present “The Joys of Yiddish” by L. Rosten, which he translated.

Lectures at the Mémorial and at the Museum of Jewish Art and History could be considered, with the help Andrée intends to ask of Annette Wieviorka. In this context, we could screen one of the 14 Auschwitz testimonies filmed by Mrs Wieviorka, in particular Odette’s.

JEANNETTE WOLGUST suggests contacting Liliane Klein-Lieber to organise contacts with Josy Eisenberg, the MAHJ and, at the Mémorial, J. Fredj. She will ask for the book to be presented at the book sale organised by B’nai B’rith.

For the exhibition on the Second World War organised by the City of Paris, ARMAND KAC will contact the organisers to offer to talk about the Marcel network.

The commemoration in memory of Odette and Moussa Abadi will take place on Monday, September 3, 2012, at 4 p.m. Holding the ceremony at Montparnasse cemetery is being considered: we will ask Rabbi Farhi for his opinion to confirm.

IV. Website

Once again, a huge thank you to Emmanuel Gagnier, grandson of Pastor Pierre Gagnier and his wife Hélène. Emmanuel runs our website efficiently, energetically and enthusiastically. He is often there to give me ideas for publication when mine run dry. He has put us on Facebook to give our website a little more visibility. If, like most Internet users, you “subscribe to this social network”, you too can introduce our website to your “friends”. Visitor numbers have fallen considerably since last year. Here is what Emmanuel wrote to me: “Even though they are still good statistics, they are clearly losing ground compared with the previous year – 5,705 visits in 2011 against 12,507 in 2010, a fall of 54%. This is no doubt explained by less news this year, which has in fact kept the website less lively.”

The financial report and the president’s report are approved unanimously.

The agenda having been completed, the meeting closed at 9 p.m. and we raised our glasses to friendship and remembrance.