Yom HaShoah 2019

Some 200 people, former deportees, parents, volunteers, children... took turns to read in turn, from the lists from Serge Klarsfeld’s Deportation Memorial Book (published by the Association of FFDJF), the names of "those whose only name remains" (Simone Veil).

Speech by François Heilbronn, Vice-President of the Shoah Memorial

Inaugural Yom Hashoah ceremony of Wednesday, May 1, 2019, Shoah Memorial

Ladies and Gentlemen the former deportees
Ladies and Gentlemen the former resistance fighters
Ladies and Gentlemen the hidden children
Mr. President of the National Assembly
Mr. Minister of National Education
Madam Secretary of State for Veterans and Memory
Madam the Mayor of Paris
Madame and Monsieur the Ambassadors of Israel and Germany in France
Ladies and gentlemen senators and deputies
Ladies and gentlemen mayors
Mr. the Interministerial Delegate of the DILCRAH
Sir, the Rector of the Academy of Paris
Mr. the Prefect representing the Paris Police Prefect
Mr. the Chief Rabbi of France
Mr. Pastor, President of the Protestant Federation of France
His Lordship, the Auxiliary Bishop of Paris
Mr. Imam of Drancy
Mr. Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France
Gentlemen the Great Rabbis
Ladies and gentlemen, representatives of the Religions
Mr. President of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah
Mr. President of the Shoah Memorial
Mr. President of the Consistory
Mr. President of the MJLF
Mr. President of the CRIF
Mr. President of the Unified Jewish Social Fund
Mr. President of the IBUKA Association
Ladies and gentlemen the Presidents of associations of former deportees, former
fighters, victims of genocides and places of memory
Ladies and gentlemen, presidents of anti-racist and anti-Semitic associations
Ladies and gentlemen presidents of associations and youth movements
Mr. and Mrs. Serge Klarsfeld and the sons and daughters of the Jewish deportees from France
Dear children of the Talmud Torah of the MJLF
Dear friends

On this day of Yom Hashoah, the day chosen by the State of Israel to commemorate the memory of the Jews murdered and victims of genocide in Europe between 1939 and 1945, but also the heroes of Jewish resistance, we are all gathered at the Shoah Memorial to read one by one the names of the Jews deported from France as well as those who died in captivity or were murdered in France between 1941 and 1944.

This reading of the names of the Jewish deportees from France lasts 24 hours. And for 24 hours we read one by one the names of those who, as Simone Veil has always reminded us:
« there is only the name left ».

In 24 hours we cannot read the more than 76,000 names of the Jews deported from France.
This year we will read 31,761, including those of 5,921 children. To continue our reading interrupted last year at the end of convoy No. 20, we will resume reading the names, from convoys 21 to 57.

For the inaugural ceremony of this reading, we will all read together without protocol order, the 1,012 names of convoy No. 21, which left from Le Bourget-Dancy station, more than 76 years ago, on August 19, 1942.

Before starting our reading, I wanted to evoke for you the history of this convoy, emblematic of the genocidal objective of the Nazi occupier but also of the criminal servility of the French authorities and administration.

This convoy No 21 is mainly composed of children under twelve years old who were rounded up during the Vel d'Hiv roundup on 16 and 17 July 1942 and since then often kept alone, after their parents' deportations, by French gendarmes in the camps of Loiret de Pithiviers and Beaune La Rolande. This convoy is also composed of the Jews arrested and held in detention by the Vichy Government in the camps of the free zone and handed over to the occupation authorities. They will mainly come from the camp of Milles near Aix-en-Provence and from Vernet in Ariège near Pamiers

The choice of these deportees was made after negotiations between the French and German authorities at the beginning of July 1942.

During the meeting on 13 August 1942, between Röthke, who was replacing Dannecker as head of the Jewish affairs service, his deputy Heinrichsohn and the delegate in the occupied zone of the Secretary-General of the Police, Jean Leguay, as well as his chief of staff, Thomas Saults, it was agreed there that the convoys could under no circumstances be filled exclusively with children.

In order to avoid this, the children were to be deported with the Jews transported to the Drancy camp from the non-occupied area.

A ratio of 300 adults to 500 children was established. Leguay indicated that he would ensure the arrival of a sufficient number of Jews from the non-occupied area to meet this request.

The convoy of August 19, 1942 thus included 448 children under eighteen years old, but mainly 401 children under twelve years old, yes, under twelve years old who had been transferred to the camp of Drancy on August 15 from the camps of Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers. But also, one hundred and seventy Jews already interned in Drancy, including some parents who volunteered in the hope too often illusory to find their children. The nearly 400 other adults supplementing the convoy’s strength had been transferred by the French authorities in the previous week from the camps of Milles and Vernet from the non-occupied area.

Röthke confirms the departure of this convoy designated 901-16 from the Bourget-Drancy station on August 19 at 8:55 AM precisely with 1,000 Jews on board. They will actually be 1.012.

Some wagons will be almost exclusively composed of children under twelve years old.
Let me quote you as an example, the car n°1, extracted from the Memorial of the Deportation of the Jews of France by Serge Klarsfeld:
« Wagon 1: 49 children and 9 adults. Among the children, many brothers and sisters... Lucien
Najman 6 years, Thérèse Najman 4 years, Bernard Najman 2 years »

Then a little further on we will read "Anna Helfmann 9 years old and her sister Denise 4 years old".

Benjamin Rapoport who was interned at the Vernet camp since 1940 because German then delivered by the French to the Nazis, was one of the 5 survivors of this convoy, yes 5 out of 1,012 deported. He will testify about this trip and will mention the children:

"In one of the stations, we saw them at the platform. We heard cries and tears. Then, a guard slightly opened the sliding door of our car to see what was happening inside. I then saw an almost empty, obscure station and a few children coming out of a cattle car to be transferred into another; they walked crying between the S.S. who pressed them, but who let them drink at the station pump; one could see that they were dying of thirst.

Upon their arrival at Auschwitz, 138 men and 45 women were selected for forced labor. The 829 other deportees are gassed upon their arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, including all 401 children, yes all those under twelve years old.

These are the names of these 1,012 Jewish deportees from France that we will read at this Yom Hashoah inauguration ceremony. During the reading by each and everyone of you of these names, we will project a photo of the deported person, if available.

To date, we have 20,300 photographs that were collected by the Shoah Memorial and Serge Klarsfeld, including 4. 700 photos of children, all visible in the Memorial of children which is dedicated to them at the end of the permanent exhibition of the Memorial. I invite you during these next 24 hours to come and drop us off if you have the photos of the deported members of your families, as part of our operation "One face, one name".

After the reading of this particularly tragic convoy, I will invite readers to go to the Children’s Memorial to meditate in front of the faces of the children whose names they have read. Then go before the Wall of Names in 1942, and meditate in front of the names that you may have read.

I also invite all our readers and all families to go during these 24 hours to the Wall of Names, because it will be, at the end of Yom Hashoah closed for work until early 2020.

Indeed, since its inauguration by President Chirac and Simone Veil on January 25, 2005, the teams of the Memorial have collected from families corrections of names, first names, age, spelling or even deportation. Inaccuracies thus found in the original lists of convoys drawn up by the Germans. We were thus able to make more than 1,823 corrections on the more than 76,000 names of the Jews deported from France and add 175 missing names. The Wall will therefore be closed for a complete renovation over several months.

During our ceremony, after 6 survivors of the death camps accompanied by 6 young children from the Talmud-Torah of the MJLF, light the 6 candles of remembrance in memory of the 6 million Jews murdered in Europe, we will listen to the testimony of one of our friends who survived. Mrs. Esther Senot, one of our tireless memory activists who tirelessly testifies with young people and whom we thank.

Esther was deported in September 1943 at the age of 15 by convoy 59. I will let her mention it for us.

Then we will begin the reading of the names of convoy 21, where 100 political, diplomatic, religious, associative personalities without protocol order will read the 1,012 names of convoi n°21.

Esther Senot will begin this reading, followed as every year by Serge Klarsfeld in tribute to her work and that of the Sons and Daughters of the Jewish Deportees of France, tireless work that has allowed to restore a name, a memory, sometimes a face to each of these deportees. The reading of convoy 21, will be closed by Mrs. Beate Klarsfeld.

This official ceremony should end around 8:30 PM. We will then mark a very short break to allow our guests who wish to leave us. We will then resume the uninterrupted reading continuing with convoy no. 22, then for 24 hours until convoy 57, we will read continuously the names of the Jewish deportees from France until tomorrow at 7:00 PM. This reading will be broadcast entirely on the site of the Shoah Memorial.

Children from middle schools and high schools will participate in these readings like nearly 400 families who insisted on reading the names of their deported relatives.

In parallel with this uninterrupted reading, there will be several important ceremonies and meetings at the Memorial.
This evening at 9:00 PM, the Éclaireuses et Éclaireurs israélites de France will screen a documentary "Opa" by Simon Maller in the auditorium

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 2:

• At 7:45: A service will be celebrated by the rabbis of the Israelite Seminary of France followed by the reading of the Kaddish organized by the Consistory in the Crypt;
• At 11 AM, we will pay tribute to our survivor friend Maxi Librati who died a month ago with the screening of "Maxi, 145922, a round trip"
• At 2:30 PM, a meeting on the occasion of the publication of "A Jewish hero of our time. Yiddish manuscript from 1945" by Maurice Wolman,
• At 4:30 PM the reading of the Sefer HaShoah;
• At 7 PM, the reading of the final Kaddish.

Then there will be a solemn Office of the Consistory of Paris at 7:30 PM at the Synagogue des Tournelles (21 bis, rue des Tournelles), in the presence of religious, civil and military authorities.

I would like to thank the initiator and designer of this ceremony, Rabbi Daniel Farhi from the MJLF as well as Serge Klarsfeld. Thank the MJLF and all those activists who organize so well and in such a dedicated way, every year for 28 years this uninterrupted reading of names.

Thank the Shoah Memorial, its President, its Director and its teams who welcome us. Also thank the Consistory, its President, the Chief Rabbi of France for their active participation in this time of union of the French Jews. Finally, thank the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, its President, its Director and its teams for the unfailing support to this ceremony every year.

Finally, thank especially all the teams of Yom Hashoah mainly the members of the MJLF like the teams of the Memorial who have prepared this uninterrupted reading and who will watch without stopping for 24 hours to its smooth running.

Finally, I would like to conclude by paying a final tribute to our friends who survived the Shoah, tireless witnesses with the young generations to continue fighting against racist and anti-Semitic hatreds, and who have left us since our last commemoration.

I would like to recall the memory of Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Ida Grinspan, Maxi Librati, Noah Klieger, Charles Testyler, André Berkover, Ady Fuchs, Maurice and Joseph Jablonski, Charlotte Wardi,

I would like to recall the memory of one of the leaders of the Jewish Resistance and the OSE, who saved more than 350 Jewish children, Georges Loinger, who also left us this year at 108 years old.

Also honor the memory activists of the Sons and Daughters who left us this year: Maurice Lippe, Georges Wojakowski and Gabrielle Balseiro.

Finally pay tribute to the one who left us a name, SHOAH, and a masterful work, Claude Lanzmann.

Thank you

François Heilbronn
President of the Yom Hashoah Commission

Yom Hashoah 2019 in pictures

© Shoah Memorial / Michel Isaac