ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING of 24 MARCH 2015

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

Agenda:

• 2014 president’s report

• 2015 projects

• 2014 financial report

• Any other business

I. President’s report

I don’t know why – nostalgia for the passing of time, absences that are sometimes felt more keenly than at other moments – but I would like to open this general meeting by recalling the members who have left us, as a tribute to who they were. This period of violence, of savagery, of resurgent antisemitism and of the presence of the Front National, which I believe is at the heart of our concerns, takes us back to a past still close in our minds, and thereby to those whose memory we honour: Odette and Moussa, followed as if in single file, a few months or years apart, by Bassia, Susy Alexandre Heilbron, Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, René Dupuy, Olga Fink, René Sicart, Laurent Wolgust, Françoise Bram, General d’Astorg and Mihaela Herscovici.

2014 was a year rich in events: on January 27 Jeannette Wolgust was received at the Grand Orient de France lodge in Le Perreux to talk about Odette and Moussa. She had taken our panels, which were much appreciated, as was Jeannette’s talk. It must be said that she is a true storyteller and knows how to captivate an audience!

Following on from January, Danielle Abraham-Thisse, a municipal councillor in Villiers-sur-Marne and a general councillor of the Val-de-Marne, gave a lecture on hidden children to the audience of the University for All Ages in Créteil. Her thorough, well-documented presentation fascinated the audience. It was in this context that she invited me to talk about the Marcel network and about Odette and Moussa. Several “hidden children” heard this story as an echo of their own, but unfortunately none of them talked about the conditions in which they were hidden.

It is not only the “Abadi Children” who are active – the Friends are too, notably Robert Pouderou, who in February recorded for France Inter a half-hour docudrama, “Odette et Moussa Abadi, il faut passer par les nuages” (still available to listen to on our website). He has also written a new piece, “Le Choc”, an oratorio. It was performed in 2005 by Year 10 pupils at the Collège Montaigne in Périgueux who were taking part in the Resistance competition, directed by Robert Pouderou himself. I warmly recommend it to everyone.

And since we are on the subject of theatre – which Moussa would certainly not have minded – Simon Eine, a member of the Comédie-Française, gave an interview to Radio Chalom Nitsan on May 24. The programme “Le Rideau rouge” can also be heard again on our website.
In September, as every year since Odette’s death, the commemoration ceremony took place at Montparnasse cemetery, led by our friend Daniel Farhi.

On the centenary of Odette Abadi’s birth, AMEJDAM recalled her memory on Tuesday, November 4 at 5.15 p.m. on Radio Chalom Nitsan Côte d’Azur, and organised an evening on the Marcel network in the presence of several children saved by the network: Marthe Kuperminc, Jeannette Wolgust and Andrée Poch-Karsenti.

On November 6, 2014, a study day was devoted to the persecution of the Jews in the Alpes-Maritimes during the Second World War, together with the exhibition produced by the Mémorial de la Shoah and the ONACVG, “The Jews of France in the Shoah”.
Adolphe Colrat, Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, officially opened the study day at the Prefecture.

The debates were chaired by Michèle Merowka (doctor of anthropology, President of AMEJDAM), standing in for Mr Serge Klarsfeld, who was unable to attend, with contributions from Éric Gelli, history and geography teacher at the Collège de la Vésubie and associate researcher at the Rhône-Alpes Historical Research Laboratory (LARHRA); Philippe Boukara, historian and trainer at the Mémorial de la Shoah; and Andrée Karsenti, President of Les Enfants et Amis Abadi. (read the summary)

Jeannette Wolgust and Marthe Kuperminc, former “hidden children” of the Marcel network, and Roger Wolman, a former “hidden child”, gave their historical testimony.
The day was attended by, among others, Christian Estrosi, MP and Mayor of Nice, President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis; Gilbert Mary, General Councillor, representing the President of the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes; Ladislas Polski, Regional Councillor, representing the President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region; and Michel-Jean Floc’h, Academic Inspector.

Olivier Lalieu, head of memorial sites and external projects at the Mémorial de la Shoah, and Jacques Fredj, Director of the Mémorial, closed the day, which drew a large and attentive audience. (read the summary)

A commemorative ceremony in tribute to the Jews of the Alpes-Maritimes arrested and deported during the Second World War was then held at the Deportation Memorial in Caucade cemetery in Nice.

In this report, I would not want you to forget a central figure in our work: Emmanuel Gagnier, our webmaster. Not only does he come up with many proposals, but he looks after our website with skill, intelligence… and affection! I remind you that he is the grandson of Pastor Gagnier and his wife Hélène Gagnier, both involved in the Marcel network. Emmanuel does his utmost to make our work known in France and beyond (see the map and comments), and our contribution is to visit the website regularly – OUR website. There is a Facebook window you can click on to leave your comments. Very many thanks to him.

II. 2015 projects

Emmanuel has made two proposals:

1. An appeal for membership fees/donations? We could use our various media to encourage people to support the association financially. Emmanuel speaks of 40,000 visitors a year and says he is willing to take care of it!

2. The second project could follow on from the first: on Facebook (yes, Facebook again!!!) came news of the publication of a book – or rather a play – discovered by a young woman, Claire Audhuy, a theatre research student in Strasbourg. (She founded the association Rodéo d’Âme.)

   In 1943, Hanuš Hachenburg, aged 13, found himself, like thousands of other young people, interned in the Terezín concentration camp. He created a theatrical work that has since fallen into oblivion. “On a besoin d’un fantôme” (We need a ghost) tells the story of a king, Illiterate the First, who absolutely insists that everyone think as he does. To terrify his subjects, he decides to create a State ghost. The Brutal Sausages, his close guard, arrest everyone over sixty in order to collect their bones. The collection centres fill up with the kingdom’s old people, whose bones will be used to make the ghost. Honza hands over his starving grandfather for the good of the nation, the Jew pleads with the tyrant, and Death is no longer frightening… Despite his young age, the 13-year-old boy handles irony and black humour with talent. This puppet play appeared in manuscript form in 1943 in Vedem, a clandestine magazine run by the children of barrack no. 1 at Terezín – a precious space for analysis and creation unique in the history of the Nazi camps. (Article from Figaro.fr, 14/03/2015.)

   The idea would be for the association to sponsor a project to stage this play. There is enough talent among our Abadi Friends and Abadi Children… shall we dare?????

Since last year I had been in touch with the bookshop in Saint-Maur and its energetic bookseller, Mr Collard, to organise an event around the reissue of Odette’s book. For various reasons this project did not happen, but I have renewed contact with the new municipal team. First I was received by a deputy mayor together with the Vice-President of AFIS (France-Israel Association of Saint-Maur). I told them about the Marcel network and our wish to promote Odette’s book. A second meeting allowed me to meet the President of AFIS, and a project is under way for September. The themes will be linked to the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps and will cover:

• The history of occupied France

• The camps and their differences: extermination, concentration, military camps

• Places of memory such as Nice and the Italian border; passing on memory: an objective? A necessity?

• What is a resistance network? How it works.

• Jewish resistance and the Righteous.

• Questions and answers with the audience.

This is only the outline: the organisation is still entirely open, but the people already approached – Katy Hazan, Michèle Merowka, Jeannette Wolgust – have already agreed. The President of AFIS would like history teachers from the Saint-Maur lycées to take part, and we are waiting for the opinion of Mr Kaspi, historian and deputy mayor of Saint-Maur. I won’t hide that I would like someone from Yad Vashem to take part, but nothing has been settled yet.

This event would be open to all and would take place in the reception rooms of Saint-Maur town hall. As supporting material we have the panels and Odette’s testimony filmed by Annette Wieviorka.

Last year we also discussed changing the presentation of our brochure for schools: shall we do it this year?

Also worth mentioning is the evening organised by the UEJF and hosted by Katy Hazan around Georges Loinger, Michèle Merowka’s uncle. This sprightly young man of 104 and a half spoke at the Sorbonne about his life. Many enthusiastic young people gave Georges Loinger a long ovation.

To close this report: our friend Jacqueline Denechère, a very dear friend of Odette, being unable to travel, sent me a letter asking me to read it to you: here it is.
Guy Foissy also wrote to me, saying some lovely things about Odette and Moussa, which I share with you here.

I don’t think I have forgotten anything, and I hand over to our treasurer for the financial report.

Andrée Poch-Karsenti, President

III. Financial report for 2014 (at December 31, 2014)

Subscriptions and income

Expenditure

Victor Kuperminc
Treasurer

IV. Any other business

Regarding Emmanuel’s idea of organising an appeal for donations via the Internet, Andrée supports it, but Victor recalls his experience in the “big” Hidden Children association (about 1,500 members): too heavy a burden for a few activists who are no longer young. He prefers a small, “club”-type structure.

Armand suggests approaching the children, and even grandchildren, of EAA members and supporters.

Robert suggests writing to head teachers to propose “theatre” projects.

IBK is asked to propose a standard text to Andrée.

Regarding Emmanuel’s proposal to sponsor “On a besoin d’un fantôme” (from the Terezín journal), a project by Claire Audhuy (Strasbourg): Andrée is in favour, but Jeannette is against it (the association works on hidden children, not deportees).

Andrée mentions a project with Juan Freund, a member of the EAA and president of the Yiddish Theatre of Buenos Aires.

Andrée is in contact with Saint-Maur town hall. Discussion of the number of themes to be covered. Promotion of Odette’s book.

Publication of the French version of Fred Coleman’s book. Signings in Nice in March 2015, then in Paris (bookshops and associations).

A 7-page article appears in L’Express (March 25–31, 2015) entitled “Moussa and Odette, the resisters of the 500 children”. This article is certainly a strong lever in terms of communication and of search ranking for the association’s website.

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

After some very lively exchanges of views, the evening ends with a friendly drink.