Feuilles de Nuit written by Claude Zenatti Complete version in French available at http://www.lulu.com/shop/view-cart.ep
Part 2 tells the story of eleven year old Claude and his family as they escape the grasp of the Gestapo and Vichy police. Four of the people were awarded Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Memorial of the Shoah in Jerusalem. First was Céline Morali who provided refuge and arranged transportation out of the Occupied Zone of Paris travelling SE to cross the border line at Chalons sur Saôme. Then there was Sister Suzanne (née Simone Bondurand) a Dominican nurse in the Diocese of Albi who befriended and protected the family. The bishop of Albi, Mgr. Joseph Moussaron provided spiritual support and refuge in his diocese for many Jews including the Zenatti family. And Canon Raoul Manen, Headmaster of the St. Etienne seminary, where Claude was enrolled under the false name of Grange and completed his Baccalaureate at age fifteen. Claude pays homage for the great risk they took for the Zenatti family by telling their stories. This autobiography is a page turner for those interested in rescue and resistance during the Second World War, and students studying the lives of the Righteous Among the Nations--Les Justes. For Sale at Lulu.com $7.94 paperback edition http://www.lulu.com/shop/claude-zenatti/feuilles-de-nuit/paperback/product-22749020.html Celine Morali started saving lives in May, 1940 and she continued through September, 1942. In all, approximately 300 Jewish refugees and prisoners of war escaping Nazi Germany made their way to her hardware store, Quinquaillerie ROMO, 113 rue de Patay in Paris. In small groups they came, hiding either below the store in the basement or above it in the family living quarters. Her teenage daughter, Simone, practiced the piano to help mask the sound of hidden refugees. After a few days those in hiding would leave in a truck driven by Alfred Fuhrman. They were spirited over the border at Chalon-sûr-Saône to hiding places in the southern Zone.
Among those saved was the family of Emile Zenatti: son Claude, daughter Arlette, wife Lucie, and Lucie’s sister Marietta Bloch. Arlette and Claude Zenatti were 11 and 13 years old at liberation. It was their testimony that resulted in Celine Morali posthumously receiving Yad Vashem’s highest honor, Righteous Among the Nations, on June 29, 2015. The award ceremony will take place 3 pm Monday April 18 at the 3rd Arrondissement Mairie, 2 rue Eugene Spuller, Paris. The public is invited. Fictionalized version of real events based on the lives of real people. For mature audiences because many scenes are heart wrenching.
Stories of Deliverance by Marek Halter pays homage to the one half of one percent of civilians who rescued during the Shoah. He interviews rescuers like Irena Sendler, a social worker who managed to smuggle children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and place them in hundreds of homes. The author is also the film maker of the French film "Tzedek: The Just." He believes that studying the just, the rescuers, is important-- to share role models to prevent evil from taking hold again.
Halter, Marek. Stories of Deliverance: Speaking with Men and Women who Rescued Jews from the Holocaust. Chicago: Carus Publishing, 1998. "It should have been said a long time ago, said loud and strong: in these times dominated by bullies and killers, that there are some individuals who allow us not to despair of humanity, some men and some women who did not hesitate to risk death in order to save lives." Betrayal at the Vel d'Hive by Claude Levy and Paul Tillard contains primary sources in the form of interviews with witnesses and victims, and copies of actual documents with revealing side notes by German occupiers and government officials. They document the collaboration of the French police, bus drivers, train employees, civil servants, journalists and many others, at the direction of the Vichy government.
"Commanding Officer in Gross Paris [Paris and surrounding suburbs] had dictated a grim warning, the barbarity of which seems hardly credible. From July 13 [1942] onwards, this warning, signed by General Oberg, der Hohere SS und Polizeifuhrer im Bereich des Militarbefehlshabers in Frankreich, was pasted on every wall and published in every paper in the city, so that the Parisians would be sure to see it. The notice described what measures would be taken by the German authorities against the family of anyone who dared to offer resistance: 1. All the male next of kin in the ascending line, as well as brothers-in-law and cousins over 18 years of age, will be shot. 2. All female next of kin similarly related will be condemned to hard labor 3. All children of men or women against whom these measures are taken, up the age of 17 years, will be put into a house of correction controlled by the German authorities." p. 8 Levy, Claude and Paul Tillard. Betrayal at the Vel d'Hiv. New York: Hill and Wang, 1969. Attention World Language Teachers:
Madame Harkness gives her presentation in either language--English or French |