Upcoming Event: The Holocaust in France
On Thursday, February 20, 2020, the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in New York City is hosting an exciting and informative lecture titled The Holocaust in France. The lecture is being given by the esteemed documentarian and filmmaker Pierre Sauvage and is part of a larger series being sponsored by the Temple named The French Jewish Experience.
This event will be an informative and important reflection on a dark time that has significance in today’s politics and realities, reflects Vice President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Emmanuil Grinshpun. The discussion will highlight clips from films by Sauvage and will discuss the role ordinary French people played with the high rate of survival.
Emmanuil Grinshpun: During World War II, France was occupied by Germany. France had a significant population of foreign Jewish people who had fled persecutions in Germany. By 1939, France’s Jewish population had increased to 330,000 due, in-part, of the United States and the United Kingdom refusal to accept more Jewish refugees.
In June, 1940, France surrendered to Germany whereby the northern half of France was controlled by Germans and southern half by the Vichy regime. It is known that over seventy thousand (75,000) Jewish people were sent to Nazi concentration camps. But remarkably, seventy five percent (75%) of France’s Jewish population survived the occupation.
Pierre Sauvage is a highly regarded and respected French/American documentarian and lecturer. He was a child survivor of the Holocaust and a child of Holocaust survivors. Pierre Sauvage’s life work was shaped by his experiences of his youth, says Emmanuil Grinshpun. He has been described as a filmmaker of rare moral perception, and this can be clearly be seen by work.
Sauvage is best known for his highly perceptive and remarkable documentary Weapons of the Spirit, which shares the story of the “conspiracy of goodness” of a rural community in France that opposed the Nazis and sheltered and protected 5000 Jewish people. Of those saved, were Sauvage and his parents. He has been an avid lecturer on the Holocaust and its continuing challenges for many decades.
The lecture series shall discuss the adversity of the times, and the resolve of the people to face that adversity. It is an important discussion on community, humanity, hope, and values. This program is sponsored by the Streicker family and Dr. Masha Mimran Further details on the upcoming lecture series are accessible on the Temple’s website.
Originally Posted: http://www.emmanuilgrinshpunmoldova.com/holocaust-in-france/
