News 2014
“Le Choc” – an oratorio by Robert Pouderou
December 21, 2014
Robert Pouderou, a loyal friend of Moussa and Odette, has just written not a new “book” but an oratorio.
It is strange for a writer as prolific as Robert Pouderou to turn to this theatrical form. But words sing too. They weep too… And with music and words intertwined, they speak to us of the crimes against Humanity that men are capable of committing, and of the Memory that has fallen to us and that we try to honour with our website.
The persecution of the Jews in the Alpes-Maritimes (1940–1944)
November 6, 2014
As part of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Nice, a day was organised on Thursday, November 6, 2014 on the initiative of the Mémorial de la Shoah and the ONACVG (National Office for Veterans and Victims of War), in partnership with the Prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes, the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes and the City of Nice.
Prefecture building – 16 rue Alexandre-Mari – 06000 Nice
Lectures:
Serge Klarsfeld: the Shoah on the Côte d’Azur
Philippe Boukara: Honig and Salomon, escapees from Auschwitz, bear witness
Andrée Poch-Karsenti: the Marcel network, Odette and Moussa Abadi
Testimonies:
Jeannette Wolgust: the life of an “Abadi child” from Paris to Nice (see the France 3 Côte d’Azur report)
Roger Wolman: the journey of a child of the war: Paris, Nice, Izieu
The study day ended with a ceremony at the war memorial in Nice.
Download the official invitation
This event was preceded on November 4 by an evening at the Centre Jean Kling in Nice. To mark the centenary of Odette Abadi’s birth, under the aegis of AMEJDAM, Odette’s memory was recalled with emotion.
Odette Abadi evening at the Centre Jean Kling in Nice
November 4, 2014
On November 4 at 7 p.m., AMEJDAM is organising an evening on the Marcel network.
In the presence of several children saved by the network – Andrée Poch-Karsenti and Jeannette Wolgust, who will speak during the day, Marthe Kuperminc and very probably Rebecca Maraschek, who were also saved by the network – we will remember an extraordinary woman who would have been 100 this year: Odette Rosenstock.
Free admission
AMEJDAM on Radio Chalom Nitsan Côte d’Azur
November 4, 2014
To mark the centenary of Odette Abadi’s birth, AMEJDAM will pay tribute to her memory on Tuesday, November 4 at 5.15 p.m. on Radio Chalom Nitsan Côte d’Azur.
The French Committee for Yad Vashem at the AMIF conference
November 6, 2014
Dr Jean-Raphaël Hirsch, President of the French Committee for Yad Vashem, will speak at the conference of the AMIF (Association of Jewish Doctors of France) to be held on November 6, 2014 from 8.45 a.m. to 12.45 p.m. at the Académie Nationale de Médecine, 16 rue Bonaparte, Paris 6th.
The conference will be attended by Madame Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights, who will give the opening speech. Speakers will include Professor Robert Haïat, Monsieur Serge Klarsfeld, Monsieur Elie Wiesel, Dr Xavier Emmanuelli, Dr Bernard Kouchner, Professor Didier Sicard, Dr Richard Prasquier and Madame Nicole Guedj, alongside three doctors who are “Righteous Among the Nations”: Professor Beaumanoir, Dr Beltrami and Dr Thomas.
The French Committee for Yad Vashem hopes that many members and friends will be able to attend this event and sends you all its warmest regards.
… even in Auschwitz
November 5 and December 3, 2014
Hélios Azoulay and the Ensemble de Musique Incidentale, with Marielle Rubens, Jonathan Benichou and Pablo Schatzman, perform music composed in the concentration camps.
Wednesday, November 5 – 8.30 p.m.
Wednesday, December 3 – 8.30 p.m.
Théâtre de la Vieille Grille
1, rue du Puits de l'Ermite - PARIS
(métro Place Monge)
Death of Mihaela Herscovici
October 24, 2014
We are saddened to announce the death of Mihaela Herscovici, née Cosma, wife of Armand Herscovici, an “Abadi child”, on Saturday, October 24, 2014 at the age of 66.
The funeral will take place on Thursday, October 30 at 4 p.m. at the Cimetière du Montoir, rue Nouvelle, Houilles (78).
We offer our most sincere condolences to Armand, her husband, to Eve Schmidt, her sister-in-law, and to the whole family.
Commemoration, remembrance, a journey of memory….
September 19, 2014
This year, the annual commemoration in honour of Odette and Moussa Abadi took place:
on Friday, September 19, 2014 at 3 p.m.
at the grave of Odette and Moussa
MONTPARNASSE CEMETERY
DIVISION NO. 30
LINE 14 SOUTH
GRAVE 12
Our friend Rabbi Daniel Farhi will lead the ceremony.
There were… fifteen of us, perhaps twenty (when you love, you don’t count), with Daniel Farhi officiating around the grave of Odette and Moussa on Friday, September 19, 2014.
Unlike last year, the sun was shining…
Death of General Bernard d’Astorg
September 19, 2014
The Commission Dora Ellrich informs us that:
General Bernard d’Astorg
deported to Dora, prisoner number 20181,
died yesterday in his 93rd year.
The association Les Enfants et Amis ABADI joins the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation in offering its sincere condolences to his family and close friends, in particular Aude de Saint-Loup and Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat.
We met General d’Astorg in January 2008 during a week on the theme “Hidden children and deportation” organised by Aude de Saint-Loup (then head of the Cours Morvan in Paris) at the town hall of the 9th arrondissement.
The General commented for secondary school pupils on the panels on the Deportation. His kindness, his warmth and the simplicity of his explanations helped these pupils better understand both the historical period and what the Deportation was.
The funeral took place on:
Wednesday September 17
at 4.30 p.m.
in Étrépagny (27150)
Simon Eine on Radio Chalom Nitsan
May 29, 2014
Do you love the theatre, and are you curious to hear an honorary member of the Comédie-Française talk about it? Would you like to follow the journey of a child hidden by the Marcel network?
Listen to the podcast of the programme “Le Rideau Rouge” of May 29 on Radio Chalom Nitsan to follow the fascinating account of Simon Eine, an Abadi child. You will hear an actor and director’s rich account of his career and his childhood.
Robert Pouderou on France Inter
February 19, 2014
On February 19, Robert Pouderou recorded for France Inter a half-hour docudrama, “Odette et Moussa Abadi, il faut passer par les nuages” (Odette and Moussa Abadi: you have to pass through the clouds).
February 13, 2014
On January 27, 2014, I went to the Grand Orient de France lodge in Le Perreux to talk to them about Odette and Moussa and the Marcel network.
There were seventeen brothers. I set up the panels tracing the history of the network, which were very well received. I did not talk very much – my presentation lasted barely half an hour – but I was touched by the audience’s attention. There were a great many questions. Each brother asked two or three, and they allowed me to expand on my story. One of the brothers, very interested, asked me: “How could we pass this story on to our children, to our family?” On my table I had two books, which I presented: Odette’s Terre de Détresse and Andrée Poch-Karsenti’s Les 527 enfants d’Odette et Moussa. Both books were bought to learn more about the Marcel network.
A moving evening, full of emotion.
Jeannette Wolgust
February 13, 2014
On January 16, 2014, Danielle Abraham-Thisse, a municipal councillor in Villiers-sur-Marne and a general councillor of the Val-de-Marne, gave a lecture on hidden children to the audience of the University for All Ages in Créteil.
Her thorough, well-documented presentation fascinated the audience. It was in this context that she invited me to talk about the Marcel network and about Odette and Moussa. Several “hidden children” heard this story as an echo of their own, but unfortunately none of them talked about the conditions in which they were hidden.
Every little stone in the story we tell about them adds to the goal our association has set itself: to make their actions known and to anchor them in people’s memories.
Andrée Poch-Karsenti