Purpose of the association
With the support of Monsignor Paul Rémond, Archbishop-Bishop of Nice, and of Pastors Gagnier and Evrard, Odette Rosenstock and Moussa Abadi created the Marcel network to resist Nazi barbarism and deportation. Between 1943 and 1944, they hid and saved 527 Jewish children in the diocese of Nice.
“Les Enfants et Amis Abadi” (the Children and Friends of Abadi) is a non-profit association under the French law of 1901, founded on May 4, 2000 by Jeannette Wolgust.
Its aim is to bring together the friends and the children hidden by Odette and Moussa Abadi, to preserve their memory and, more broadly, to keep alive the memory of the Shoah.
Why stones?
Some will have noticed that the logo of the Enfants et Amis Abadi website shows a pile of stones. Those who look for the meaning of things will have linked it to the Jewish custom of placing stones on the graves of the people one wishes to honour and whose memory one wishes to keep alive. Since one of the association’s aims is to perpetuate the memory of Odette and Moussa Abadi (who died in 1999 and 1997 respectively), the symbol seemed fitting. But where does this tradition come from?