Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/04

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] OT: my French family in film - Vince
From: philippe.amard at sfr.fr (philippe.amard)
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 08:54:12 +0100
References: <2D598689-0994-4A11-A841-737F573ACBBD@frozenlight.eu> <19b6d42d1003042335q2a38b1eak99cd3a9bb873e372@mail.gmail.com>

Le 5 mars 10 ? 08:35, Vince Passaro a ?crit :

> Is it true that there are laws against taking pictures in France????
>

Yes, but public places are safe and not every policeman is interested  
in enforcing them, see here

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Phileica/Playground/Tuileries-1010767.jpg.html

Best
Philippe



> Yikes.
>
>
>
> 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
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>



In reply to: Message from photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] OT: my French family in film)
Message from passaro.vince at gmail.com (Vince Passaro) ([Leica] OT: my French family in film)