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: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2015 21:53:09 +0100

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















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