Report on the ceremony awarding the Righteous medal to Pastor Pierre Gagnier and his wife Hélène
January 18, 2012
A few days before the commemorations of the Deportation, Madame Blumenthal opened the doors of the reception room of her town hall to us for a ceremony linking us to the past and to memory. Yad Vashem, represented by Mr Victor Kuperminc, and Mr Elad Ratson, a diplomat from the Embassy of Israel, posthumously awarded the Medal of the Righteous to Pastor Pierre Gagnier and his wife Hélène.
The Mayor recalled the events that, over the years, unite us in the same emotion: the deportation of the Jews of Europe planned at the Wannsee Conference in 1942, “the Final Solution”, with the destruction of six million people made possible in part, she said, by “the coalition of indifference and hatred… condemned to be hunted, to disappear, to be excluded from the human community”.
The witnesses of that time who are still alive – the Dohan family, Mr Georges Isserlis, Mr Picard and his sister, Sister Paula – and also the testimony of the late Madame Rouire, tell us of that hunt, of that fear of the danger that the mere fact of being Jewish represented, of that need for hiding places, false papers and solidarity. They all bring back to life a dark period of our History, when hatred erupted, provoking fear and panic, but also revolt and resistance – for through these life stories there is Hope: men and women rose up, at the risk of their lives, to carry out heroic deeds
It is a couple, Pierre and Hélène Gagnier, that Yad Vashem honours today by presenting their children with the Medal of the Righteous, for, as Mr Elad Ratson said of these Righteous of France, “by their deeds, they not only saved innocent people, they also saved human dignity and the honour of France…” but also “very often the Righteous consider what they did to be natural…” Pierre Gagnier is proof of this. After the war, he refused any honour, explaining: “I believe that we Christians should say nothing about what God allowed us to do for our neighbours in distress. It was a privilege for us to be able to act and fight against that anti-Christian force that was German racism.”
Besides expressing gratitude to this couple, this event represents the thread running through the generations called Memory. Paul Valéry said: “The future in itself has no image. It is the past that gives it the means to be conceived.”
The future, passing on and memory were embodied this evening by the readings of texts by the absent witnesses. Hadrien, grandson of Alain Gagnier and great-grandson of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier, read Madame Rouire’s testimony – all the more moving since Madame Rouire has died since writing it, and Hadrien became a ferryman, a transmitter.
Thomas, grandson of Daniel Gagnier and also a great-grandson of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier, was the voice of Mr Picard and his sister. The presence of these children is a promise made to the memory we so often invoke, a memory that keeps oblivion from engulfing both the innocent victims of barbarity and their rescuers.
We, the “Abadi Children”, had not been able to join the application for the medal by name. Having been helped indirectly by the Pastor through the Marcel network, we would like to express our deep satisfaction and our emotion before the Gagnier families and all their relatives, who came from the provinces and also from the United States.
Like this exemplary couple, Odette and Moussa Abadi kept silent for more than forty years: they too wanted no recognition; they did not want simply to “watch the procession go by…”, they wanted to “save the most vulnerable – the children”. To do so, they asked for and obtained the help of Monseigneur Rémond, who opened to them the doors of the boarding schools throughout the diocese, where Jewish children could be hidden. Pastor Gagnier and Pastor Evrard, for their part, approached Protestant families; Pastor Evrard’s two sons, Daniel and Louis, took part in the rescue by escorting children.
Odette and Moussa Abadi, being Jewish themselves, could not receive the Medal of the Righteous, but through our efforts we have brought them out of the shadows. Madame Blumenthal helped us greatly by naming a square after them in the 12th arrondissement. We can never thank her enough.
With restraint and emotion, the four sons of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier thanked everyone present, evoking their parents and their commitment so vividly. We were certain that their parents would have shown the same reserve.
To close this so emotionally charged evening, the Mayor invited those present to the buffet offered by the municipality. Groups formed, people met, and reunions took place.
These moments will resonate in our hearts and memories for a long time.
On the 8 p.m. news on January 18, TF1 mentioned the presentation of the medal.
Report on the website of the town hall of the 12th arrondissement of Paris: Go