THE DEPORTATION TO BORDEAUX
Fabien Colombo -
I- Bordeaux: in search of the places of internment
The stele of Mérignac-Beaudésert
The house of the deportees from the family of Jean-Marie Matisson
II- The interview with Jean-Marie Matisson
For our TPE, we were interested in deportation in the Bordeaux region. We wanted to go back to the places that were used for the deportation, and see what was left of them, and whether a memorial work had been set up by the Bordeaux city hall. Or if there was still a taboo on this dark period that this city experienced.
To better understand the role that Bordeaux played in the deportation, we called on the knowledge of Jean-Marie Matisson, one of the civil parties in the Papon trial. It was the first time he would visit the internment camps and meditate in these places of memory. While he spends most of his time in Bordeaux. It was important for us to develop this construction from our own documents. In order to better express our feelings.
BORDEAUX: in search of the places of internment (9/04/05)
Visit of the important places in the role of deportation in Bordeaux. The participants were: Jean Marie Matisson, Madame Mallard and Fabien Colombo. We leave the Fleix at 2 pm, without really knowing what we were going to face, we decide to start with the camp of Mérignac.
The stele of Mérignac - Beaudésert:
We have trouble finding the stele; we are in a commercial area and manage to find it at a roundabout where we had already passed.
There are no apparent traces of the three camps. The stele was inaugurated in 1985, which explains why the number of victims is inaccurate. The stele is well maintained, but no flower is placed on it, and it seems ordinary and invisible to people who pass by. The industrial zone was built on this site, and a hotel was even built on the former internment camp.
|
|
Jean-Marie Matisson explains that the camps were guarded by volunteer French police officers. We take some pictures of the stele and the places where we are and decide to leave for the fort of Hâ.
We are in the center of Bordeaux, the Fort du Hâ which has become a school for magistrates is easier to find than the stele.
Easier to find but it remains inaccessible from the outside, because all the gates are closed, which was normal for a fort dating from the Middle Ages, but we are in 2005.
We take some pictures of the outside of the fort that served as an internment camp. The French flag flies in front of the fort’s ramparts.
We try to go back and go around, and by chance a gate opens, we decide to go back. Only problem, we are afraid of staying locked inside. So someone stays in front of the electronics unit so that the gate doesn’t close.
Once inside, we ask someone who works in the magistrates' school if he knows where the memorial is. He seems to be completely unaware of the existence of this memorial, and therefore of the role that this fort played in the deportation. We continue on our way, and we pass in front of police vans. There were some more than 60 years ago, but they were used to arrest and transport the deportees.
We manage to find the memorial.
A tricolor flag floats above the roses created by the Ravensbr ck friendship, in memory of the deportees.
A commemorative plaque is attached to the wall, and another next to the flowers.
We take photos. Then we manage to get out, thanks to the person who had stayed outside in front of the electronic cell. It is impossible for people who want to pray in these places to enter them.
We are heading to the former home of deported members of Jean-Marie Matisson’s family.
The House of the deportees from the family of Jean-Marie Matisson
We are at number 28, the members of his family lived at number 3
As if the coincidences between the past and the present were not enough, from the entrance of the house you can see a church, and a statue, at the top, turns its back to us.
As if it were the physical representation of the silence of the Church during the deportation.
We are leaving for the Synagogue.
The Jewish deportees were locked in the synagogue for more than a week, the only child who was saved is Boris Cyrulnick who is now a renowned ethnologist and neuropsychiatrist. He was adopted by the nurse who took him out of the synagogue; she was also a civil party during the Papon trial.
We see the names of the deportees on the synagogue wall, but more than 700 are missing. Jean-Marie Matisson has already written several times to add these names.
The day ended after that. We have noticed that even though the city of Bordeaux has built memorial sites, they are not well known to the general public and difficult to access.
II. THE INTERVIEW WITH JEAN-MARIE MATISSON
To complete this visit to Bordeaux and address the role she played during the Second World War. We also wanted to know what impact the Papon trial had on French society. We organized the interview of Jean-Marie Matisson, civil party in the Papon trial, on 15/04/05 in the reading room of the CDI.
1- Do you think there is a work of memory on the deportation of Jews to France? Why is it necessary, and by what means?
2- Unlike at Nuremberg, it took years before we tried Papon. Didn’t these years of silence cultivate the notion of taboo in this dark period of the French state?
3- Doesn’t the decision to release Papon prove that the French government has a double discourse? Because Jacques Chirac recognized in 1995, the collaboration of France in the deportations and in July 2002 Papon is released.
4- What impact did the Papon trial have on French society? Did it change people’s minds?
5- Do you think that because Papon was released, the memory can only begin from his death? But, will this mean that he did not actually pay for his crimes?
6- In your opinion, was spreading the Papon trial about history a beginning of collective awareness?
7- Is a film, in the form of testimonies and reenactments like the movie
8- Do you expect more from the French government in this awareness?
9- Have you read a lot of books about the concentration camp world? If not, for what reasons?
For technical reasons, this interview, even though it was filmed, cannot be broadcast. However, it has been possible to retrieve the soundtrack.
This TPE allowed us to better understand the impacts of the Papon trial on our society, and the role of Bordeaux in the deportation. But above all to understand that the forms of communitarianism in our societies can be the source of different racisms. As we see in the interview, working on crimes against humanity inevitably leads us to talk about the situation of our world and its conflicts. But, moreover, we have understood that the work of Mémoire is essential for the future. In order not to repeat the same mistakes, but also not to forget the victims of these different human follies.
We would like to thank you for this EPT:
- Jean-Marie Matisson, for his help and knowledge on the subject, and that he was kind enough to devote time to us.
- Laurent Delord, who helped us retrieve our documents and put them on the CD-ROM.
- Mrs. Mallard who allowed us to meet these two people and who helped us throughout the project.