Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Congratulations to your family, Nathan! The film will help us remember history, so we won't repeat it. Have a great time in Paris! Tina On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 1:05 AM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote: > Around 1920 my granduncle Shmuel (Samuel) Wajsman emigrated from Lublin in > Poland to Paris in search of a better life. There, he and his wife did > indeed build a new life, under the name Weismann, courtesy a French > immigration official who had trouble with our Polish-Yiddish name. In > Paris, > they had 3 children, two girls and a boy, the latter named Joseph and born > in 1931. > > In 1942 the Vichy government rounded up French Jews at the behest of the > Germans. Most ended up in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, including Joseph's > entire family. But not Joseph. He escaped the French holding camp together > with another boy. They made their way back to Paris only to find empty > apartments, and parted company there. Joseph eventually was whisked off to > a > village in the Loire Valley where he was taken in by the villagers and > pretended to be just another French village boy. > > After the war, Joseph settled in Le Mans and became an apprentice in a > furniture shop. He later took over that shop and built a successful > business > on that basis. For the first 10 years or so after 1945 he was unaware that > any part of his family in Poland had survived the war. He assumed that > everyone had met the same terrible fate as his parents and sisters, and > anyway he had never had any contact with his Polish family as a child. > Then, > one day in 1957 or 58, my father "found" him. How it happened is another > story. But it did happen, and Joseph discovered that he was not alone in > the > world as he thought. Since then he has been incredibly devoted to the whole > family. He attends all family gatherings and major events, whether in > Europe, the US or Israel. > > Since he retired, Joseph has devoted much of his life and energy to telling > the story to schools, civic groups etc. around France. He is usually one of > the people who gives a little speech at the annual 8th May celebration in > front of the prefecture in Le Mans. During the past couple of years he has > been collaborating with the director and screenwriter of a feature film > about his life: > > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1382725/ > > It may not be a Hollywood blockbuster, but it is a substantial film with > some well-known actors. For Joseph, who has strived so much to tell the > story, this is of major importance--this film will be seen by a 100 times > more people than he has reached so far with his message of "never again". > > And now the big moment has arrived. The film will be released in the > Francophone world on Wednesday, and on Monday evening there is the > "official" avant-premiere organized by Gaumont on Champs-Elys?es. We will > be > there together with our French family, to celebrate this big event on our > family's history. > > Over the years, I have shown many pictures of Joseph here on the LUG, for > example: > http://www.nathanfoto.com/paw/20.jpg > http://www.nathanfoto.com/L2002_39_3.jpg > http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws/uploads/2008/32alt2.jpg > (the last one at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin in the summer of 2008) > > This is all a long way of saying that I am off to Paris on > Saturday--besides the film, I want to take my daughter to the Louvre and I > want to visit the graves of two very different musical geniuses at the P?re > Lachaise cemetery, Chopin and Jim Morrison. And, if the weather permits, to > violate French laws and take some people pictures in the Jardin du > Luxembourg and other similar spots. > > > Nathan > > Nathan Wajsman > Alicante, Spain > > > _ > -- Tina Manley, ASMP www.tinamanley.com