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 Elysées 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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