The Marcel network in Carrières-sous-Poissy

April 29, 2012

On Sunday, April 29 in Carrières-sous-Poissy, the day of remembrance of the deportation was marked by the exhibition of the panels on the Marcel network. Organised by Monsieur Anthony Faure of the Cultural Affairs department, the event continued on Thursday, May 3 with my talks in two of the town’s schools.

In the morning, I was welcomed by twenty attentive pupils in Monsieur Corbier’s final-year class at the Du Guesclin school. They had watched “Le Réseau Marcel” and had fully understood what the need to hide meant for children. We talked about what a network was and how it worked; about who Odette and Moussa were; about “why did they want to kill the Jews”…

I would like to thank each pupil by name for these exchanges, so full of empathy:

Thank you to:

Ben Yamine, Ambre, Chayma, Emma, Manel,
Boutier, Founé, Katia, Corentin, Ryan, Abdeljalil, Sanya,
Iness, Belinda, Chaïma, Ozan, Stéphane, Azat, Fatoumata, Loïc.

Many thanks to their teacher, without whom this morning would not have been so fruitful.

The afternoon continued with just as much emotion at the Giono school with three Year 5/Year 6 classes. The pupils of Mesdames Richard, Tsila and Ourad had prepared four questions per class. These were more personal; you could feel that the children were younger, more concerned with the hidden children and what they had lived through, showing their incomprehension at situations they found hard to imagine.

Thank you to these teachers and to the head teachers who make it possible to pass on this memory.

Andrée Poch-Karsenti