Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/12/01

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Subject: [Leica] Nathan's PAD 29/11/2015: my French family
From: steve.barbour at gmail.com (Steve Barbour)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 16:00:46 -0800
References: <0B220F90-D701-494D-9E0D-0221D62AFAF1@frozenlight.eu> <565E1665.9040500@lighttube.net> <000601d12c8e$1e610cf0$5b2326d0$@ca>

> 
> On 12/1/2015 2:53 PM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>> 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 Elys?es 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


lovely Nathan, and I still remember with great fondness the photo of Joseph 
playing boules.


steve




In reply to: Message from photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] Nathan's PAD 29/11/2015: my French family)
Message from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] Nathan's PAD 29/11/2015: my French family)
Message from tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant) ([Leica] Nathan's PAD 29/11/2015: my French family)