Back from Israel: the trip for descendants of Righteous Among the Nations

Organised by the Fondation France-Israël – by Sabine Gagnier (granddaughter of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier)

April 29, 2013

The Fondation France Israël, together with the French Committee for Yad Vashem, organised a trip to Israel from April 7 to 10, 2013 for the grandchildren of Righteous Among the Nations.

I was lucky enough to take part in this unforgettable trip as a descendant of Hélène and Pierre Gagnier, my paternal grandparents, who were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations on December 26, 2010.

The trip lasted only four days, but they were four intense, moving and joyful days, between Israel’s past and its present.

The Fondation France Israël had chosen to divide the trip into two parts: the commemorations of the Shoah during Yom HaShoah, and then Israel today.

The commemorations of the Shoah were deeply moving. I will long remember the endless reading, in the crypt of Yad Vashem, of the names of the 6 million Jews who perished, and the commemoration ceremony at the memorial to the deportation of the Jews of France. Our rich exchanges with Shoah survivors and their families helped us understand even better the significance of our grandparents’ actions, and that tribute was being paid to them through us. We were welcomed with gratitude; so many people thanked us, with tears in their eyes, for what our grandparents had done for them and their families, because without their actions they could not have survived the Nazi hell.

As bearers of memory, our role was simply to receive these tributes and pass on these touching thanks – posthumously, unfortunately. But the memory of our grandparents and of their actions will happily be linked for ever to History, for their names are now engraved on the wall of the Righteous in the garden of Yad Vashem.

By contrast, Israel today is the energy and creativity of a country built in 65 years. Visiting Google’s offices in Tel Aviv and the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem gave us a taste of this modernity. Israel today is also the IDF: dining with soldiers our own age let us approach a situation from other perspectives. Through the meeting of these worlds, we understood that the present is deeply linked to the past – and that nothing is simple when it comes to identity and history.

Many thanks to the Fondation France Israël for this trip, and to its patron, Shlomo Selinger, a former deportee, who created the Monument to the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. Thank you to those who accompanied us and shared their stories, in particular Edith Moskovic, a hidden child, and to all the organisers for letting us discover the rich complexity of Israel.

Finally, very special thanks go to Andrée Poch-Karsenti and Victor Kuperminc, who made this recognition possible and enabled me to take part in this trip.

Someone said that to remember is to connect. Thanks to the bond that unites us, we have a duty to be ambassadors of the values of the Righteous and of Memory – those of the equality of all human beings in dignity and in rights.

Sabine Gagnier

The film of the trip

Interview with Nicole Guedj and Sabine Gagnier on TV5 Monde (L’Invité, April 29, 2013)

On Monday, April 29, 2013, Nicole Guedj (former minister and president of the Fondation France-Israël) and Sabine Gagnier were guests of Patrick Simonin on the programme “L’Invité” to talk about the trip.