Julien Engel – 77 years later at the “Rayon de Soleil”
June 29, 2023
Georges and Julien in 1946 after leaving the Rayon de Soleil
Julien and Georges ENGEL were hidden and protected children from 1943 to 1946 at the “Rayon de Soleil” in Cannes. It was the Marcel network that entrusted the two brothers, separated from their parents, to Monsieur and Madame Fort (the founders and directors of the children’s home) so as to give them a roof over their heads and shelter them from Nazi persecution.
Nearly 80 years later, Julien ENGEL returned there with his wife, Anne-Marie.
A commemorative ceremony was held on Tuesday, May 30, 2023 at the Rayon de Soleil (Foyer Montbrillant). The ceremony gave Julien and his brother Georges the opportunity to thank those to whom they owe their lives. (Unfortunately Georges could not be present.)
Speech by Julien Engel
It is with great emotion that I find myself among you today, eighty years after the events that brought my brother Georges and me to this fine establishment that bears the name Rayon de Soleil. My brother Georges, who lives in California, was unable to come, but of course he is here in spirit.
First of all I would like to thank the director of the Rayon de Soleil, Mr Aimé, and his team for welcoming us today, as well as the director of the Rayon de Soleil Association, Mr Formey. I would also like to warmly greet the members of the Fort family who wanted to be with us for this important event. It is important to recall that Alban and Germaine Fort founded the Rayon de Soleil in 1935 and devoted their lives to this admirable institution until 1976.
I promise not to go on too long, but I would like, in a few sentences, to give you the historical context of the events that brought my brother and me here in 1943, and along the way to pay tribute to the exceptional people who saved our lives.
First, a few important dates. In 1933, Hitler came to power. My parents, Polish Jews by origin, were then living in Dortmund, in Germany. They decided to leave the country because of the extremely antisemitic and threatening atmosphere. They left for Antwerp, in Belgium, where we were born – I in 1933 and Georges in 1938.
In 1940, Belgium was invaded by the Germans. My parents then decided to flee again, to the south of France, not yet occupied – to Nice, to be precise, where my mother had two cousins who had been living in France for a long time.
In August 1942, the massive round-up organised by the Vichy regime throughout the unoccupied zone led to the arrest of thousands of Jews. Terrified by the danger, my parents decided to flee Nice and cross secretly into Switzerland.
Arrested near the border, the family was taken by train to the Rivesaltes camp near Perpignan. My parents were handcuffed during the journey. Two weeks later, Georges and I were separated from our parents and miraculously taken out of the camp. We would learn 70 years later that we owed our release, and therefore our lives, to Paul Corazzi, a senior official in Perpignan who continued to get Jewish children out of the camp despite Vichy’s new directives. It was the Swiss Aid that took us to an old convent near Toulouse, made available to the Jewish charity OSE by the Archbishop of Toulouse, Monseigneur Saliège. One of our cousins came to fetch us and managed to persuade the OSE to let us go with her to Nice.
In September 1943, the Italians capitulated and left the region. The Germans entered the city and the hunt for Jews continued, even more brutally and systematically. Our cousins, who had gone out for food despite the danger, were arrested in the middle of town because they were Jewish. Their non-Jewish friend who was with them was released. This friend came at once to warn us that we had to leave the house. We jumped over the garden fence and found ourselves at the home of the neighbour, Mr Nieborg, who took us in very kindly. A few hours later, when the Germans, accompanied by the Milice, arrived at our cousins’ house, they found no one. After two or three days, Mr Nieborg entrusted us to Mademoiselle Sylvie, a social worker attached to the Bishop of Nice, Monseigneur Rémond. Mademoiselle Sylvie took us by the hand and brought us here, to the Rayon de Soleil.
Now, before saying more about the Rayon de Soleil and the essential role it played in our lives, I must make a little digression, if you will allow me. I have just mentioned Mademoiselle Sylvie. Fifty years after the events, during a trip to Jerusalem, I was to discover Mademoiselle Sylvie’s true identity, thanks to the historian Lucien Lazare, whom I had just met. Mademoiselle Sylvie was not called Sylvie. It was a nom de guerre. This young woman’s real name was Odette Rosenstock, and with her companion Moussa Abadi (both of them Jewish) she had created a network for rescuing children called the Marcel network. This network was able to save 527 children, thanks to the help of the Bishop of Nice, Monseigneur Rémond, and two Protestant pastors, Mr Gagnier and Mr Evrard, who gave them a list of safe hiding places such as convents, religious boarding schools, children’s homes, Protestant and Catholic families, etc. So it was thanks to the Marcel network that we were placed at the Rayon de Soleil.
Monsieur and Madame Fort were wonderful people. They did far more than hide us. They gave us a warm, family environment and allowed us to live an almost normal life. For three years the Fort family became our family and the Rayon de Soleil became our home. We particularly want to pay tribute to them today.
Our parents were deported to Auschwitz and did not come back.
In 1946, I was thirteen and Georges was eight. Having no family left in France, we sailed for the United States, where we were taken in by an uncle and his family.
In my professional life, which was devoted to international development aid, I travelled a great deal, and several times I took the opportunity to visit the Fort family. We were very happy to learn that they had received the Medal of the Righteous. I must add that they sheltered and hid many other Jewish children before and during the war, at the risk of their lives. Alban and Germaine Fort, and Moussa and Odette Abadi, were our guardian angels, and we do not have enough words to express our gratitude for what they did for us.
To conclude, I would like to thank the Rayon de Soleil for all the efforts it has made for nearly a century to support children and teenagers in serious family or social difficulty and to give them a pleasant and enriching place to live – and we know that funds do not always match needs. It is for this reason, and also to say a big thank you, that we have not come empty-handed. We hope that the donation my brother and I are making to the Rayon de Soleil Association will help bring about a project close to your heart.
Thank you for listening – thank you again
Nice-Matin article
An article was published in Nice-Matin. It tells the story of Julien and Georges
BFM TV report
