[Leica] OT: my French family in film

[eric.calderwood at btinternet.com (Eric Calderwood)]

Congratulations Nathan, to both you and your family.

All the Best
Eric


> From: Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu>
> Reply-To: "Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>" <lug at 
> leica-users.org>
> Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 07:05:27 +0100
> To: "Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>" <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: [Leica] OT: my French family in film
> 
> 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
> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> http://www.greatpix.eu
> http://www.nathanfoto.com
> 
> Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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