“Hidden children and deportation” week
January 7 to 11, 2008
Speech by Aude de Saint-Loup
“On behalf of the Cours Morvan, to remember the wonderful Odette Abadi, our former school doctor, and to bring together those who work for the best in humanity after escaping Nazi barbarity, I thank Mr Jacques Bravo; Mr Yves Lescure, director of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation, who trusted us from the very start of this project and offered to exhibit the 42 panels that set out the general history of deportation fully and clearly, also providing visitors with high-quality documentation; and Mr Olivier Tcherniak, general secretary of the Fondation Orange (France Télécom), who has already supported projects of the Cours Morvan and who here again has made the whole of this week accessible to deaf people.
I thank our very precious witnesses:
Mrs Andrée Poch-Karsenti, unfortunately laid low today by a high fever and unable to be with us – little “Dédé”, as Odette and Moussa Abadi still called her when they re-adopted her a few decades later – now president of the association Les Enfants et Amis Abadi, succeeding Mrs Jeannette Wolgust, the big sister, who is also with us and who founded the association, which was no small matter. You were so well hidden, Children, and Odette Abadi was so discreet, that I discovered you late – but happily: let me tell you again how happy I was to see you all together three years ago, forming, beyond your impossible bereavements, a family of life around Odette and Moussa; your welcome was warm and generous, right down to the salted gherkins Romain Gary loved so much.
Mrs Jeannette Dreyfuss, retired history and geography teacher. A hidden child from 1942 to 1944 at the Institut Notre-Dame in Versailles, then at the Château de Saint-Ange in Villecerf (Seine-et-Marne) with the Marquis and Marquise René de Roys, who were posthumously awarded the medal of the “Righteous Among the Nations” on April 30, 2000. Jeannette Dreyfuss has supported us with her energy and advice from the start of this undertaking.
Mr Stéphane Hessel, Ambassador of France, co-author of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, repeat escaper during the war, survivor of Dora, pacifist rebel and poet, tireless campaigner for humanitarian causes and tolerance. (Was not present).
Mr Bertrand Herz, unfortunately also unable to attend today as he is in hospital; we hope, for his sake and ours, that he will be “released” in time to take part in Saturday’s round table. Bertrand Herz is president of the International Committee of Buchenwald-Dora and Kommandos and general secretary of the French Buchenwald-Dora association; both a poorly hidden child and a deportee, you were the first to welcome me in the premises of the aptly named rue des Martyrs. (Was not present).
General Bernard d’Astorg, survivor of Dora and Bergen-Belsen and – irony or revenge of History – governor of Berlin from 1977 to 1980, responsible among other things for the custody of the prisoner Rudolf Hess. Bernard, a very great friend, has been fully involved at every level in this week.
We associate with him his friend and ours, General Louis Garnier, another companion in distress at Dora, himself very involved in bearing witness, who shares with Mr Hessel a taste for letters – adding to it a taste for the trout he goes fishing for in Germany…
And those who pass it on
The members of the Dora-Ellrich and Kommandos Commission, who supported our project as much as they possibly could.
Mr Jean-Marc Cerino, painter and friend, who through his canvases weaves the necessary link with the living memory of the martyrs of Nazism, and ensures that the traces of the silhouettes of these dead without graves are not erased. He is exhibiting here some works from his series “A des amis qui nous ont manqué” (To friends we have missed), already shown in many French cities, notably at the Museum of the Resistance and Deportation in Besançon and in Marseille. So as not to speak in place of others, he has chosen white – the colour of withdrawal, of aesthetic minimalism in the name of the highest ethical standards. His presence here is a great honour for us.
Miss Annie Carcaillon, my little sister in History, a teacher at the Cours Morvan with a true vocation, produced the subtitles and surtitles, and worked hard to make pupils and colleagues aware of the event.
I thank everyone present and invite you not only to visit the exhibition and take part in the various events on offer, but above all to meet the witnesses who will be present throughout this week.
Finally, Mr Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat, president of the ADJS, translator and author, who, when embarking on this story, did not hesitate first to write a major book and then to commit himself personally throughout this week: I plead guilty, but it would have been a pity not to.
I now give him the floor…