ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING of May 21, 2013

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

Agenda:

• 2012 president’s report

• Any other business

• Projects

• 2012 financial report

I. President’s report

Unlike last year, I am much more optimistic and full of drive to carry through the projects started this year and to lead those of next year.

A brief look back at our activities over the past few months, in chronological order.

• We commemorated the anniversaries of the deaths of Odette and Moussa at Montparnasse cemetery on Tuesday, September 11, 2012, in the presence of Rabbi Farhi. It was a moving and tender ceremony as we recalled our dear friends.

• November 2012 saw the birth of the history of the Marcel network in English: “The Marcel Network” by Fred Coleman, former bureau chief of Newsweek in Moscow and Paris. The book was selected in the United States by the “Book of the Month Club” (1) for January 2013.

• A presentation evening organised by Pauline Dubuisson was held on February 28 at the CDJC for the reissue of Odette’s book, Terre de Détresse, with a preface by Annette Wieviorka and an afterword by Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat. As part of the promotion of the book, Victor Kuperminc and Marthoune recorded a radio programme on Radio Judaïca on April 8, 2013, and will be interviewed on Radio J tomorrow, May 22, for a deferred broadcast.

• On April 8, 2013, Victor Kuperminc gave a lecture at the OSE, again as part of the promotion of Odette’s book. Marthoune and Jeannette were present and also spoke.

• Gérard Collard, a bookseller in Saint-Maur, founder of “Saint-Maur en poche” (the international paperback fair) and presenter of his favourite books on the programme “Le Magazine de la Santé” on France 5, talked about the reissue of Odette’s book “Terre de Détresse” on Friday, April 12. This was not insignificant: that day the book was top of the sales on Amazon.

• The Fondation France Israël, together with the French Committee for Yad Vashem, organised a trip to Israel from April 7 to 10, 2013 for the grandchildren of Righteous Among the Nations. As our Association is one big family, one of those who made this four-day trip was Sabine Gagnier, granddaughter of Hélène and Pierre Gagnier (now known to all the Abadi Children and Friends for their help to the Marcel network).

• On Thursday, April 25, I spent a full and rewarding day in Carrières-sous-Poissy presenting the Marcel network to two final-year primary classes. At the invitation of Anthony Faure, head of the Cultural Activities Department, we went in the morning to Mr Corbier’s class at the Du Guesclin school, and in the afternoon to Mrs Massello’s class at the Champfleury school.

As for the association’s presence at the Cercle Bernard Lazare, I can only refer you to Victor’s text, posted on our website, about our evening of May 2.

Read the article (in Italian)

II. Any other business

Website

On this subject, as last year, I must pay tribute to our webmaster Emmanuel Gagnier, who makes our website a real showcase for the Association. He lays out the news, videos, photos and notices. Besides this considerable work, Emmanuel is full of proposals, the latest of which is a brochure for schoolchildren, based partly on ours but adding the addresses of our website and our Facebook page. I cannot urge you enough to visit the website and to “click” the Facebook “likes”. First, it would be recognition by the Association’s members of the work done; it would bring more visitors and greater visibility among Internet users… and you would have full reports of all our activities.

Commemoration of Odette and Moussa

Shall we form a circle again at Montparnasse cemetery, as we did last September?

III. Projects

The future of our Association

Referring again to our last General Meeting, the question was raised of how our work as an Association could continue. It seems we may be on the way to a solution: Olivier Kuperminc (I believe), IBK, Jérôme and Natacha Karsenti have agreed to carry on in this direction… and judging by Emmanuel Gagnier’s involvement, they will have no communication problems!!! It is up to us to define the details.

Bergen-Belsen

I have been in contact with someone in charge at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Dr Gödecke, who asked for permission to use a photo of Odette for a publication planned this year. I am going to contact the President of the Bergen-Belsen Association in Paris to see what we could place at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial concerning Odette: book, text, panels…
I think I have covered this year’s ground, and I am always glad to receive suggestions from all our members.

Andrée Poch-Karsenti, President

II. Financial report for 2012

Victor Kuperminc, treasurer, presents the accounts, indicating that the association now has 49 members, but only 28 have paid their subscriptions. Some members will be telephoned.

The association shows a positive balance of €3,831. Victor Kuperminc points out that the amount of subscriptions (€2,279) is much higher than last year because of larger donations for the reissue of “Terre de détresse”.

Income

Expenditure

Victor Kuperminc
Treasurer

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.