Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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