[Leica] Nathan's PAD 29/11/2015: my French family
Douglas Barry
imra at iol.ie
Tue Dec 1 13:29:52 PST 2015
I like all the images, Nathan and the one of your cousin works well. Even
though I remember you mentioned the backstory before, it's a powerful tale
of the inhuman side of homo sapiens. I must get my son - the family techie -
to get The Roundup. I see - per Wikipedia - they seem to have changed the
family name to Weisman. Any reason?
Douglas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathan Wajsman" <photo at frozenlight.eu>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>; "Olympus Camera Discussion"
<olympus at thomasclausen.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2015 8:53 PM
Subject: [Leica] Nathan's PAD 29/11/2015: my French family
> As some of you know, the Wajsman clan has a branch in France (and a branch
> of that branch in Brussels). Actually, it was the first part of the family
> that emigrated from Eastern Poland, when Shmuel Wajsman left Lublin for
> Paris in 1920 in seach of a better life. He settled in to a working class
> existence in Paris and had three children, one of whom was Joseph, who is
> not technically my uncle (I think the correct term is granduncle or some
> such, but is totally immaterial—he is simply “mon vieux oncle” when we
> speak). Joseph was born in 1930, and in 1942, like most other French Jews,
> he and his family were rounded up and sent to a transit camp, from where
> most were sent on to Auschwitz and perished there. But Joseph managed to
> escape the camp with a friend and was hidden by villagers in the Loire
> valley during the remainder of the war. He later settled in Le Mans where
> he lives to this day in an old house in the centre with a great wine
> cellar. In 2010, the story of his capture and escape in 1942 was made into
> a movie, La Rafle, the premiere of which I had the pleasure to attend at a
> theatre on Champs Elysées in March of that year (the English title is The
> Roundup).
>
> Anyway, yesterday I had meetings at the OECD in Paris which required me to
> travel there on Sunday, and thanks to the French TGV it takes only 50
> minutes to travel from Gare Montparnasse in Paris to Le Mans, so I spend
> Sunday night visiting Joseph. While I have seen him on various occasions
> here in Alicante or in Brussels in recent years, I had not been to Le Mans
> for 10 years or so. So it was nice to spend a quiet evening talking with
> him, and also having dinner with his daughter (so my cousin) Isabelle who
> lives just 100 meters away. Of course I took pictures:
>
> A portrait of Joseph in a pensive mood:
> http://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-pxv9nwz/A
>
> At his desk in his home office (explanation in the caption):
> http://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-9vTh6DD/A
>
> Isabelle:
> http://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-gRq72bT/A
>
> The portrait of Isabelle is technically deficient, but I still like it as
> it portrays her personality very well.
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
> http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> <http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
> <http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
> Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator
> <http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
> YNWA
>
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