[Leica] OT: my French family in film

[rgacpa at yahoo.com (Bob Adler)]

What a wonderful event for a?you, your family and especially Joseph. I wish 
I could join you. It is a once in several generations?celebration of the 
love of life and perserverence to not only survive but live fully.
Please extend my?heartfelt congratuations to your uncle and enjoy soaking up 
every moment of this momentus occasion with your family. I'm looking forward 
to seeing your images?(as well?as the film when it?comes out with subtitles).
All the best, Nathan,
Bob
?Bob Adler
Palo Alto, CA
http://www.rgaphoto.com 




________________________________
From: Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu>
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 10:05:27 PM
Subject: [Leica] OT: my French family in film

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







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