Exhibition on the Marcel network at the town hall of the 11th in Paris
June 14, 2010
Following a meeting with Mrs Rosalie Lamin (municipal councillor at the town hall of the 11th arrondissement, responsible for remembrance and veterans’ affairs) and Mr Roger Fichtenberg (president of the veterans’ associations), we took part in putting together an exhibition in the entrance hall of the town hall. The aim of the exhibition was to honour and make known the actors of this great page in the history of the Jewish resistance (the Marcel network), focused on rescuing children threatened with deportation in the Alpes-Maritimes department.
Two teachers who are involved in our work also took part in this meeting.
The panels presenting the life and work of Moussa Abadi and Odette Rosenstock were therefore exhibited at the town hall of the 11th arrondissement from June 14 to 16, 2010.
Andrée and Jeannette each welcomed children from final-year primary classes whose teachers had accepted the invitations sent by Mrs Lamin. In a reception room of the town hall, they explained the history of that tragic period and answered their questions. Mrs Lamin and Mr Ducloux (deputy mayor) presented the purpose and programme of the meeting to the children. The pupils had come with their teachers.
Gisèle, Paulette and Armand, as well as other members of our association, were present in the hall for a few hours. They welcomed people interested in our exhibition and in the one about the deportation of the 1,540 children of the same arrondissement, whose lives ended tragically at Auschwitz.
Armand: “We had the pleasure of talking to a few people who were very interested in our story during that period, in the context of the rescue of Jewish children.
We told them that we are also memory activists with the AMEJD (Association for the Memory of the Deported Jewish Children) of the 11th arrondissement. In that capacity we have taken part in searching school registers for deported children, explained our story to children in classrooms and had plaques put up (with the names and ages of the deported children) in schools during ceremonies – all with the moral and financial support of the town hall, the education authority and the City of Paris.”
Among others, we had the pleasure of meeting a mother of two children who promised to come back in the evening with her elder son (which she did). This mother would like us to come and talk in her children’s class. Of course we would like that too, but it depends on the teachers and the school management.
After listening to Andrée and asking many questions, the children and their teachers came to see the panels of our exhibition. A little girl to whom I offered explanations asked me whether I knew Jean Zay. I replied that I knew the name but could not remember who he was. She told me he had been a minister in the Popular Front and was shot by the Germans in 1944. A direct descendant of this great man is related to the child’s family. I congratulated her on teaching me about another tragic episode of that war….
I would add that a number of AMEJD activists from the 11th, having been told about our exhibition, came to support us and on this occasion got to know the Marcel network.