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Les Enfants et Amis AbadiPreserving the memory of Odette and Moussa Abadi and keeping alive the memory of the Shoah

Resistance and Deportation Competition

June 4, 2008

Resistance and Deportation Competition

On June 4, 2008, the prize-giving ceremony of the Resistance and Deportation Competition was held in the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, organised by the Academic Delegation for Arts and Culture (DAAC) in partnership with resisters’ associations and the City of Paris. The aim of the competition is to keep alive among young French people the memory of the Deportation and the values of the Resistance (website of the Académie de Paris).

The national theme of the Competition: “Helping persecuted and hunted people in France during the Second World War: a form of Resistance”.

More than 600 participants, from Year 10 to Year 13, filled the Grand Amphitheatre of the Sorbonne with an awed murmur.
This competition, prepared during the year by pupils and teachers, also mobilised witnesses who gave themselves unstintingly in their meetings with the pupils. Their approach: bringing life stories and passing on values that allow human beings to stay upright.
Beneath Puvis de Chavannes’s famous painting “The Sacred Grove”, representing the symbols of the Sciences, Arts and Letters, a platform had been set up facing the hall, where the jury sat – teachers and former resisters, including Mr Raymond Aubrac, who gave his testimony as a resister and presented his prize to the first named winner.

We were happy to be there as members of our Association. This ceremony followed the week on Deportation organised by Aude de Saint-Loup, head of the Cours Morvan, in January 2008 at the town hall of the 9th: the pupils of this school, extremely involved, produced a remarkable project and worked with their teacher Annie Carcaillon: the Year 10 class “Verlaine” was awarded a Mention. The pupils named were Cyndelle Richter, Clara Mexes-Lebobe, Julien Cagarelho, Anne-Cécile Graine, Brice Poulingue and Jonathan Cohen-Tanugi.
The emotion was strong and brought the hall to its feet when the choir of the Collège Voltaire performed the “Chant des Marais”, the “Chant des Partisans” and the Marseillaise to close the afternoon – and how much this educational work with these young people gives us hope in the citizens they will be tomorrow.