AMEJDAM: screening of the film “Le Réseau Marcel” in Nice (November 4, 2008)

Since September, a new cultural and religious centre has been welcoming the Jews of Nice. Located in the heart of the city, on Place Masséna, the Espace Jean Kling (named in tribute to a rabbi who left his mark on the Nice community) opened its doors with an exhibition on the rescue network of the Comité Amelot in Paris.

AMEJDAM (Association for the Memory of the Jewish Children Deported from the Alpes-Maritimes) is very involved in passing on the memory of the Shoah and works in collaboration with the centre.

Jewish resistance is too little known, and it is our duty to make it known that Jews were able to organise resistance to fight the Nazis and save their own. Pupils were invited to film screenings.

The film Le Réseau Marcel was shown to final-year primary pupils of the Or Thora school. About fifteen children attended, accompanied by their teacher and several mothers. After the film, two hidden children, Daniel Wancier and Rebecca Maraschek, were there to answer the audience’s questions. Children and adults asked about their wanderings and the conditions of their rescue.
Rebecca is one of the “Abadi children”; she described the events that brought her family to Nice, where her father was arrested and deported, never to return, on Convoy 73. Daniel was interned at Rivesaltes. His father, who was deported, is one of the few survivors of the Shoah (only 3% came back from the death camps).

The children were given a snack to help them recover from their emotions before returning to school.
Deeply moved by the film and the testimonies they had just heard, the pupils sent touching letters of thanks.

Michèle MEROWKA
President of AMEJDAM