Odette Rosenstock honoured
March 8, 2017
On March 8, for International Women’s Day, the CRIF honoured 6 exceptional women. Among them was Odette Rosenstock.
A first post on Facebook and by email to subscribers featured a short presentation of these women, accompanied by an illustration bringing together photos of each of them.
For International Women’s Day, we have decided to honour 6 women who, through their struggles and their vocations, left their mark on their times.
Today we salute these 6 female figures, but also all the women who work every day to make life better!
Simone Veil, born on July 13, 1927, is a politician behind the law on the voluntary termination of pregnancy. Deported by the Nazis at the age of 16, she has testified many times to the horror of the camps.
Isabelle Breitman, known as Zabou Breitman, born on October 30, 1959 in Paris, is a French actress and film and stage director, long known simply as Zabou. She says: “My grandfather had been deported. At the end of the war, when he came back from the camps, my father went to fetch him at the Hôtel Lutetia. Taking back my name is what I am proudest of.”
Sonia Rykiel, a renowned fashion designer, born in Paris on May 25, 1930, died on August 25, 2016 at the age of 86. From a Romanian and Russian Jewish family, she imposed her philosophy of fashion: “démode” (un-fashion) tells women to adapt fashion to themselves rather than follow the diktats of designers.
Delphine Horvilleur, 38, is one of the two women rabbis practising in France. This mother of three campaigns for religions eventually to reconsider the role and place of women – and not only in synagogues.
Odette Rosenstock, born in Paris on August 24, 1914, died at 84 on July 29, 1999. A doctor and French resister, she was repatriated from deportation in May 1945. She is particularly known for her action during the German occupation in creating the Marcel network. Thanks to this network, 527 Jewish children were hidden and saved between 1943 and 1945 in the Nice region.
Françoise Dolto, born on November 6, 1908 in Paris, was a psychoanalyst specialising in children. Her institutional career is part of the eventful history of psychoanalysis in France. Françoise Dolto made the suffering child and the child’s relationship with the mother her chosen field.
Imagine our surprise when we realised that instead of Odette’s photo, that of our dear President Andrée Poch-Karsenti was proudly displayed above Odette’s name.
Despite this place of honour, it seemed right to us to correct this amusing mix-up. We immediately pointed it out to the CRIF, who received the remark charmingly and quickly published a correction through the same media.
#MémoireJ – A wink of fate slipped into a photo
Yesterday, for International Women’s Day, we honoured 6 personalities. Among them was Odette Rosenstock, founder of the Marcel network, created in early 1943 in Nice with her companion Moussa Abadi.
The young couple hid hundreds of Jewish children in Catholic convents and with Protestant families. More than 500 children were saved.
Hunted by the Nazis, panic-stricken parents entrusted their children to the Abadi-Rosenstock couple. Odette and Moussa provided them with false baptism certificates and gave them a new identity.
Odette was arrested by the Gestapo on April 25, 1944; she gave away no names despite torture, and was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then Bergen-Belsen. She was repatriated to Paris in May 1945.
This morning we received a call. At the other end of the line was Andrée Poch-Karsenti, the 72nd child saved by Odette, and president of “Les Enfants et Amis Abadi”.
“Thank you for your post about these exceptional women, but there is a mistake in the picture illustrating the post: it is not a photo of Odette, but of me, Andrée Poch-Karsenti, a child saved thanks to her.”