Some French customs ... Noël and New Year

Already half of January is gone. I have to hurry up and send my good year wishes to my French family and friends before the end of the month. In France it is the custom to send cards of Bonne Année (New Year) meilleurs voeux (best wishes) during the month of January (not in December because that is considered bad luck.) The wishes have to be sent or given between the start of the New Year and January 31st. Along the years I have received many cards. I'll show some of them below. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Very few Christmas cards are sent in France, it is not the tradition. They are very hard to find anyhow. Also I have never received cards from France with photographs of the senders like it is done here, more and more. Here I even received some from US businesses, such as from the man trimming my front yard grass (see below.)

My Muslim friends have sent me New Year greeting cards, too.

Usually most holiday stamps in France are just for a happy New Year and best wishes. Those stamps are not religious.

The French post office also issues Chinese lunar New Year stamps.

Another custom from the US which is not followed in France is the outdoor lightning and decorations on people's houses; however, most cities in France are decorarted during the holidays. (Photos below of Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg, Nimes and a town in Brittany.) Also in France you don't usually hear Christmas carols in the shops as you do here.

As you can see in the photos above there are many Christmas trees. Actually in France there are Christmas trees everywhere - from the largest cities to the smalles villages, and in city halls, church steps, public spaces, train stations, and of course shops. Below are some large Paris department stores during the holidays. Top left is Le Printemps, next to La Samaritaine, below left is the Galeries Lafayette next to the Bon Marché. (France is one of the least religious countries in Europe, with only 6% attending church, at least once a month.)

The reason is that Christmas trees are not considered religious in France. They are not called Christmas trees in French but arbres or sapins de Noël (trees or pine trees of Noël.) Noël is not a Christian word, but its origin is from the Gaulish language, even though the Catholic church tried hard to say it is from the Latin (!) You may not know too much about the Gaul Empire. In France, in my first grade elementary class, I learned that it was the origins of France.

We were always taught about "nos ancêtres les Gaulois" (our ancestors, the Gauls.) That saying is quite popular in France. Below is a map of the ancient Gaul Empire and a Paris restaurant named after it.

There are many books on that subject as well.

The Gauls became so popular in France that a brand of cigarettes is called "Gauloises." They came in different flavor, dark, blonde, light and menthol. I knew them well because my father was a chain smoker of the strong dark ones (he died of lung cancer at 65 years old.) Now it is written on the pack: "Nuit gravement à la santé" /seriously damages health. They were manufactured in France but young people don't smoke as much now or prefer American tasting, sweeter cigarettes. Since 2017 they have been made in Poland; however, the "menthol" flavor has been banned since 2020. Cigarettes are only sold in tobacco stores in France. Malboro are the most popular and cost 10 Euros a pack of 20 cigarettes ($11.)

The Gaulish warriors were fierce, tall and muscled. They excelled on the battlefield, terrifying their enemies with their famous "sacred fury." The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (between 30 and 60 BC) described the Gaul warriors thus: "The Gauls are tall of body, with skin moist and white. Their hair is blond not only by nature but also because they practice to increase artificially the peculiar nature of their coloring. Some of them shave off their beards, but others let them grow moderately. The nobles shave their cheeks, but let their mustaches grow freely so as to cover their mouths. They dress in astonishing clothes, tunics dyed in all colors ..." (Interesting to note that the Gauls/French already bleached their hair 600 years BC!.)

Vercingetorix was the Gaulish chieftain that we knew so well when were were children. He is considered the first national hero of France for his defense of our land. It is said even his enemies greatly admired him and feared him. He was tall, handsome, a charismatic leader and an inspiring public speaker. Below are two paintings about Vercingetorix and two French stamps commemorating him.

Napoleon III (1808-1873) a nephew of Napoleon I, greatly admired Vercingetorix. He paid with his own funds to have a statue of the warrior erected in central France, in Alesia, Burgundy (a site of a Gaulish battle.) The monument sculpted by Aimé Millet, erected in 1865, is in bronze and 22 feet tall. At its base is written: "La Gaulle unie, formant une seule nation, animée d’un même esprit, peut défier l’univers." (Gaul united, forming a single nation, animated by a common spirit, can defy the universe.") There are other statues of Vercingetorix, one of him riding a horse and made by Frédéric Bartholdi (1834-1904) the French sculptor who designed the Statue of Liberty, now in the USA.

Napoleon III insisted that all schools curriculum should start with the history of Gaul. He was the first President of France from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870, also the last monarch to rule over France. The Gauls spoke the Gaulish language which became extinct by 1000 AD. Quite a large number of French words came from Gaulish, such as brave/bragos, brosse (brush)/bruskia, cheval (horse)/caballos, manteau (coat)/mantion, sapin (pine tree)/sappos. And we are back to our fir tree with Noël coming from the Gaulish "noio" (nouveau-new) and "hel" (soleil-sun.) More than a thousand years before the Christian era the Gauls had a pagan festival around our December 24, at the time of the winter solstice. It lasted for a week or so. The spruce, tree of birth and symbol of life, was linked to this festival to celebrate the rebirth of the Sun. It was then decorated with fruits, fllowers and wheat. This evergreen tree was a picea abies, or European spruce, shown below around a lake in France and on a botanical plate of 1885.

In 336, under Emperor Constantine, the Church in Rome chose December 25 to celebrate the birth of Christ. It may have been a PR gesture for dethroning the centuries old solstice pagan festival which took place on Dec. 24/25 and replacing it with a Christian referent. It was also to take advantage of this well established pagan festival; people were given a Christian alternative to the pagan festivities. Eventually many of the pagan symbols and actions were re-interpreted in ways acceptable to Christian faith and practice, including the date and name of the festival. All countries switched to these Christian names but not Gaul/France. France kept the name of Noël from the ancient pagan festival and the name of its tree, the only country to do so. Till now they refer to it as Noël and le sapin de Noël (the pine tree of Noël.)

Some old French tree of Noël traditions: in 1521, in Sélestat in Alsace (the town where my grandfather was born and raised and under the German Empire at that time,) a fir tree in the city square was decorated with paper flowers and sweets. Later they added candles (walnut shells filled with oil) chocolate and garlands. The city of Sélestat is celebrated as the capital of the arbre de Noël in France, tradition born there is 1521. In 1738, Marie Leszczynska (daughter of the King of Poland,) wife of Louis XV, King of France, had a Christmas tree installed in the Palace of Versailles, helping to spread the fashion for the decorated tree throughout France. (Photos below: Sélestat cradle of Noël, a stamp, Marie Queen of France, and Sélestat in summer.)

But another country has a secular holiday fir tree - they call it Yolka. After the Russian Revolution, Christmas celebrations were banished in the Soviet Union. In 1935 they replaced it with a secular New Year holiday with a New Year fir tree called "yolka." There were celebrations and gift giving. The Kremlin gave a special New Year party for children with clowns, gifts, dances, songs and more (and I think they still do.)

New Year with decorated yolka tree, gift exchanging, celebrations and singing have survived till now in Russia and former Soviet Union states. Large yolka fir trees can be found in many cities, such as Grozny the capital of Chechnya (mostly Muslim,) Kazan, Ulan-Ude in East Siberia and many more.

So it is now that everyone in Russia and former USSR states celebrate New Year with a decorated fir tree, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, Sikhs, Hindus, etc. It is not considered a Christmas tree, just like in France, it is a universal tree of light, fun, goodwill and hope. During the Soviet years the Jews were not allowed to celebrate Passover, Hanukkah or any other religous holidays, but they could celebrate Novy God (New Year) with a decorated yulka tree - and they all did. After millions of Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union they continued their yolka tradition and passed it to their children. However, many Jews in Israel cannot accept the concept of a secular decorated fir tree and have been trying to stop that tradition. I even read in international newspapers that some towns in Israel a couple of weeks ago vandalized and or burnt yolka trees. It is quite sad to me that some people leaving their country to escape persecution are not fully accepted in their new country either. At least they can come to France and have a yolka tree (but as in the US, there is anti-Semitism in France, too, alas.)

As I said above the concept of sending Christmas cards is not followed in France. Since living in the US I have changed my customs/traditions and I do send Christmas cards. I also send New Year cards to France (I feel one should not be rigid but flexible with traditions.) In France you should not say "Happy New Year" before the 1st of January - it is considered back luck. But after the first you may wish it to everyone you meet, write it on every email or text! Another French tradition started by General de Gaulle in 1960 is the New Year's Eve presidential message (like the Christmas message of the late UK Queen and new King.) On television, at 8 pm the President of the French Republic speaks to the nation from the official Elysée Palace and gives his "Presidential Greetings." This year President Macron in a 20-minute statement addressed the French people with "wishes for unity, boldness and collective ambition." My wish for you is to have a great year. May the next 12 months be synonymous with joy, laughter and good health.

Fading roses in the Roselawn garden ... and the Nashville Connection

In my last post I recounted how I drove from Nashville to my house in Georgia in late April 2022 so I could vote in the French presidential elections on April 23, 2022. I explained how the vote was done at the French Consulate in Atlanta. Then on May 19, 2022, I drove again from Nashville to Georgia so I could vote this time in the US General Primary Elections. On Friday May 20th I voted at the Cobb County main office in Marietta, GA - this was the last day for "early voting." The general election day was Tuesday May 24th.

This is the way voting was done in Cobb County: after your name and a form of identification is checked you go to a booth and click on the candidates' name you select on a screen. When you are finished, your selections appear again and you have to certify them. Then a printed document comes out of the machine. You have to read it and certify it again, and sign it. Then you take this paper to an official who asks you if this document shows your vote accurately. You affirm it. He places the document in a huge electronic reading machine and all your selections are recorded. He indicates that your vote has been entered and gives you the sticker "I'm a Georgia voter." I don't know if voting is done the same way in all the US states.

Both the French elections and the Georgia elections garnered much interest in the country and made the first pages of the main newspapers. Former president Trump who had actively tried to overturn the results of the 2020 Georgia elections came to Atlanta to campaign against the current Republican Governor Brian Kemp, but Kemp won the Republican 2022 primary anyway. Stacey Abrams is the Democratic primary winner for 2022; she ran in 2018 and narrowly lost to Kemp. Below are pictures of Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams (Courtesy Atlanta Magazine.)

On Tuesday May 24 since I had voted already I decided to go visit a garden. The weather was pleasant and mild, in the low 80s F (27 C.) I had never been to the Rose Lawn House Museum in Cartersville, GA. It is 19 miles away fom my house (30 km) and took less than 30 minutes to reach. I just knew this was an historical Victorian mansion with a rose garden. I was not aware that it had been the residence of a famous evangelist in the long ago. I arrived at 10 am and entered the house for a tour. Two other visitors joined me presently.

In the 1860s the house had one story with an attic. The owner, a local merchant, Nelson Gilreath, converted the attic into bedrooms. Samuel Porter Jones, the nationally renowned evangelist, purchased the house in the 1880s and added two stories in the back of the house. In 1895 he enlarged the original structure by raising the house with hand jacks and mules so a new larger ground floor could be inserted, with a basement underneath. He lived there with his wife and children until his death in 1906. His widow, Laura McElwain Jones, continued to reside in the 18 room mansion until the 1920s. The house was purchased by another owner in the 1930s but became vacant in the 1960s. In 1978 Bartow County acquired the property and converted it into a museum to house the memorabilia and writings of Sam Jones and Rebecca Latimer Felton, another resident of Cartersville. The museum is open 3 days a week and hosts weddings and special events on weekends as well as arts and crafts fairs during the year. It contains furnishings of the period and of the Jones family, with many photographs, including of their six grown children. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

The docent gave excellent historical information on the house and many anecdotes on the Jones family. The newer ground floor was formal with large rooms.

Several windows had lovely stained glass inserts.

There were large portraits of Sam Jones and his wife Laura as well as notable paintings on the walls.

On the second floor, which had been the original ground floor, we saw the original entry door (on left in collage below.) A small room and a bathroom had been made into a bride's boudoir.

A couple of rooms were more dedicated to Rev. Sam Jones and his family. Samuel Porter Jones (1847-1906) became an attorney in 1868 and married Laura McElwain. After the loss of a child he became an alcoholic and left his law practice. As his father lay dying he promised him he would stop drinking and start preaching. At first he began preaching locally but because of his compelling delivery, style and wit he attracted a national congregation. He was on the road preaching more than at Rose Lawn in Cartersville. He preached to crowds of up to 50,000 in cities like Boston, MA; Cincinnati, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Toronto, Canada and more. In five weeks in Chicago, IL, he preached to a quarter of a million people. He also had his sermons and several books published.

For twenty years in the summer months Rev. Jones preached from a wooden pulpit in an open air pavilion that could hold 5000 attendees. People would come from long distance to hear him. They came in specially chartered trains from Atlanta and Chattanooga and more came on horseback and buggy. In 1886 he had the Sam Jones Union Tabernacle built in Cartersville (photo below) where he preached, together with several other well-known ministers, to a crowd of 6000+. The revival would last 10 days. The tour guide said he was the "Billy Graham" of the 19th century - the evangelist rock star of the age.

An area in a room was reserved for "the Nashville connection" as our tour guide called it. Rev. Jones went to preach often in Nashville and drew large crowds in tent meetings. In 1885 he drew the attention of Captain Tom Ryman who operated 35 steam boats on the Cumberland River for passengers, freight, bars and gambling. After he listened to Rev. Jones Captain Ryman "got religion." Upon leaving the crowded tent and seeing people outside who could not get inside he promised to build a large tabernacle in Nashville where Jones could preach to all. By 1890 Ryman had the Union Gospel Tabernacle built. Ryman had asked Rev. Jones to move to Nashville but Jones refused. The exhibit in the room showed the original Bible that Jones used in Nashville.

Rev. Jones went often to Nashville to hold revivals where he would preach in the center of the tabernacle (that only had one floor at the time.) He often complained of being crowded. In 1897 the Confederate Veterans wished to hold their biggest convention there. They contributed to have a second floor gallery built. After Captain Ryman died on December 23, 1904, Rev. Jones held a funeral service for him on Christmas day and asked the packed tabernacle if they agreed to have it renamed The Ryman Tabernacle. The audience of 4,000 rose and said "yes." In later years the building became the Ryman Auditorium home of the original "Grand Ole Opry" where country music was born and gave Nashville its "Music City" nickname.

A room was dedicated to Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton (1835-1930) who was also from Cartersville, GA in Bartow County. Her husband William Felton (1823-1909) was a member of the United States House of Representative and she ran his campaigns. She was a prominent woman in Georgia: a writer, lecturer, feminist, an advocate for prison reform, for women's suffrage and educational modernization, but unfortunately had also been a slave owner and a white supremacist. When a Georgia senator suddenly died before the general election in 1922 the GA Governor who was a candidate for that election chose Felton to serve as senator. Only 27 months after the 19th Amendment (giving women the right to vote) on November 21, 1922 Senator R. Felton was sworn in as the first female US Senator then served for one day. She was the first female senator for GA. (The second woman senator to represent Georgia in the US Senate came in January 2020 when Governor Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to fill the seat left vacant when the current senator became ill. However when Republican Loeffler ran for the Senate in November 2020 she was defeated by democrate Raphael Warnock.) The room contained Mrs. Felton furnishings, memorabilia, books and her guitar.

Some of her dresses were also exhibited. One of them, a black dress, is protected in a glass case. A sign above it states that around 1900 "Mrs. Felton was asked to make one of her numerous speeches in Atlanta. In desperation of what to wear and not having time for a trip to Atlanta, she took her curtains from the window and dyed them black. She then made the dress, added lace ribbons and fringed tassels ... and wore it with a taffeta petticoat." It also says that when Margaret Mitchell wrote "Gone with the Wind" she remembered her friend Rebecca Felton's dress and used it as an inspiration for Scarlet O'Hara's curtain dress in the book.

The rest of the rooms were bedrooms with some more bedrooms on the third floor.

The tour was now over. The two visitors returned to their camping on Lake Allatoona and the docent went to lunch. She invited me to stay and visit the grounds as long as I wished. The 3 1/2 acre property also includes a carriage house (that is used for weddings and parties,) a one-room school and a smokehouse. I left the house and walked around to the school house and carriage house. Please click on the collage so you can read the information panels.

There was no one around now and it was lovely walking under the huge magnolia trees with fragrant blooms. Some of those trees had grown so high over the decades that they would not fit into my photos.

Finally I was able to check all the roses in the garden - the reason really why I had driven to this house. Rev. Jones' wife Laura had planted a beautiful garden with 225 rose bushes (thus the name Rose Lawn.) Over the years and with neglect the roses were gone when Bartow County purchased the house and grounds. The GA Master Gardener Extension Volunteers (MGEV) helped to restore the garden with the return of 200 rose bushes. Because of the MGEVs work the Rose Lawn garden is considered a historical demonstration garden. The rose bushes are planted around the lawn with information panels. Most of the roses are "heirloom" roses, also known as "old garden" or "old-fashioned" or "heritage" or "historic" or "antique" roses - they belong to a class of old roses that existed before the introduction of the first Modern Rose "La France." (French rosarian Jean-Baptiste Guillot (1827-1893) introduced the pink rose cultivar "La France" in 1867. It is considered the first hybrid tea rose.) The heirloom roses bloom in early May. Most of the blooms were fading or already faded by the time I visited the garden in late May. I still took over 65 photos while trying to find some roses in bloom. This is the way the roses were indicated on small panels, for example the rose Safrano below (introduced in 1839.)

The old roses have such memorable names. Some in the garden are: Reine des Violettes (1860) on top in the photo below, and Melle. Franziska Kruger (1880.)

Others in the garden were: Monsieur Tillier (1881,) Mademoiselle de Sombreuil (1850,) Baronne Prevost (1842,) Bourbon (1800,) Perle d'Or (1884,) Etoile de Lyon (1876,) Reve d'Or (1869,) Maman Cochet (1893,) Mlle. la Comtesse de Leusse (1878,) General Schablikine (1878,) Duchesse de Brabant (1857) which was President Teddy Roosevelt's favorite rose - he wore it on his lapel.

When I drove back to Nashville last Sunday May 29, 2022, a nice surprise was awaiting - the lonely rose bush that had been planted by the side of my house had a bloom, and it was fragrant!

Recollection: My mother during WW2, part 1

My younger daughter asked me to return to writing blog posts about my early recollections of Paris and my family. My mother's birthday was in May, French Mother's Day is the last Sunday in May or May 30,2021, so I'll write a very old memory about my mother during the war years. In 2009 I wrote a post about my mother's childhood "Mother's Birthday" you can read it here. It was followed in 2010 with a post about her youth and work in Paris and on the French Riviera "Mother's Youth and the House of Worth" you can read it here. For many years I gave my mother a hydrangea plant for Mother's Day; this is why I show some here.

As time passes, our memories fade and the visual information on them becomes vague. But some memories seem etched in the mind for ever. There are different types of memory: short term memory, sensory memory, long term memory that includes explicit memory, semantic memory and episodic memory. Episodic memories are generally about specific moments in one's life, with sensations and emotions associated with the event. Subsets of these are autobiographical memories including "flashbulb" memories which are highy detailed vivid "snapshot" of an exceptional and often emotional circumstance. The story I'm going to relate belongs to this type of memory as I was just past 4 years old but I still remember it. I don't have many photos of that period, of course, but I have photos showing me at the time.

One thing I remember about that time is the sound of the sirens urging us to go down to underground shelters as bombers were in the area. Some afternoons we would also go to public garden squares where my mom would sew and I would play. Once in a great while we would take a bus around Paris - I liked to stand in the very back of the bus in the open air.

From the bus I could see the rare cars (as gasoline was unavailable to private people,) bicycles, bike-taxis or tandem taxis as well as horse carriages. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Mother must have left me with a neighbor when she went food shopping as I don't remember going with her then. Queues were long.

The Germans occupied Paris from June 1940 through August 1944 and seized about 80 percent of the French food production. There were acute food shortage and malnutrition amongst children, the elderly and in large cities where people could not maintain a vegetable garden. (Only 3/4 pound of meat with bones a week per family, if you could find it.) French food rationing was more stringent than that of any other occupied country in Western Europe. Ration books were issued for everything: food, clothes, coal, etc. until 1949. I don't remember eating much as food access was not normalized until the early 1950s.

Farmers raised rabbits to sell to city folks as they reproduced quickly. Some city people even raised rabbits on their balconies or cellars. My mother had been a "première d’atelier" or head seamstress in high fashion houses in Paris. She presided over the "atelier" (workshop) overseeing up to 30 seamstress and apprentices. She was the right-hand of the designer and had to be able to translate the designs into the right fabric, cut, etc. She could work with furs as well. She had a friend, Sarah, who worked in a fur shop, not far from our apartment. We would stop there often and my mother would make rabbit vests or other small garments that she would barter with farmers for one egg a week for me. I remember the little shop well; it was about 1/2 mile down the street Rue de Rochechouard. Several years ago while in Paris I tried to find where the fur shop used to be, but it was no longer there. I think it was located in Rue Lamartine. Below are maps of Paris arrondissements or quarters. We lived at the top of the 9th, below the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, that is located at the top of Butte Montmartre, the highest point in Paris. Below, on the top right is shown in blue the 1/2 mile walking trip from our apartment to where my mother's friend worked, a 10 minute walk.

My mother's friend wore a yellow star on her coat. At the time, I did not know why. Later, of course, I read about it. In May 1942, on the advice of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler ordered all Jews in occupied Paris to wear this yellow ID badge on the left side of their coats. Two months later, on July 16-17 1942, the Nazis had the French Police make mass arrest of 13,000 foreign Jewish families in Paris and suburbs. This was called "La Rafle du Vel d'Hiv" an abbreviation of the Rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver. The victims were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. (In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron apologized and admitted the responsibility of the French State in this raid.) (Photos courtesy French Wikipedia.)

I don't have photos of the various capes, hats, jackets, vests and manchons (hand warmer) my mother made with the rabbit fur, but years later she made a white rabbit cape for my eldest daughter, shown below. I also found examples of rabbit vests as she used to sew (she made one for my late husband to wear outdoors.)

My memories of that time are rather vague, but I was 4 years old at the time. However, the following event I remember well. We had walked to Sarah's shop and my mother was upset. I remember she was arguing with Sarah - I don't remember the words, but Sarah kept saying no and my mother yes. Then Sarah took her coat (with the yellow star) and my mother threw it away. Then I remember trying to keep up with them as they walked up the street toward our apartment. My legs were not very long as seen in the photo below, in a dress my mother had made for me.

We proceeded to walk up to our apartment, which was on the 6th floor (without an elevator.) Then I played while Sarah and my mother went up the 7th floor where my father had his jewelry workshop (he was an artisan jeweler, diamond dealer.) I am not sure how long Sarah stayed there - days? weeks? Later I remember going up when Sarah had left. There was a small bed on the side and heavy navy blue blankets on the window to keep the lights out. In old Paris buildings the seventh floor used to have single rooms for the maids, with one or two toilets in the hall. Mother would be careful to make sure no one was around when she took food up to Sarah. In the collage below you see the entrance to the Cité on top left, next to our building, below on the left with window ajar is where my father's workshop was, then the main courtyard. We kept this apartment until the mid 1970s.

Several days later, or a couple of weeks, I am not sure, there was a loud knock on our front door. My mother opened the door and was pushed forcefully out of the way by two or three scary looking tall men. I remember they were loud with mean voices. Then my father arrived and they pushed him against the wall. They were looking for gold they said (I was told later) because my father was a jeweler. My father, an Armenian, had his business name changed at the time - he had the 3 last letters taken off, ian, that showed his Armenian name; he was stateless then. The Nazis sent many "stateless" people to concentration camps, too - they wore blue ID badges. Anyway, I remember that I wanted those men to stay away from my mum and dad and kept telling the men "I know something... Where someone is hiding..." Later my mother told me she had been petrified that they would listen to me and find Sarah upstairs. But I was annoying them and one of them walked on my feet with his heavy boots and I howled and kept howling. The men shouted at my mum to keep me quiet then they took my father away. It turns out that they were the Gestapo. My father returned a couple days later and went to bed for a while to recoup.

For those who may not know, the Gestapo, abbreviation for Geheime Staatspolizei (German: "Secret State Police",) in partnership with the Sicherheitsdienst(SD "Security Service") were responsible for rounding up the Jews throughout Europe for deportation to the extermination camps. I don't remember what they looked like but I do remember the boots that were so loud on our hardwood floor, and so painful on my feet. I think that for several days afterwards my mother had to carry me down the six flights of stairs and then down to the cellar during air raids. This is my "snapshot" memory - I'll never forget these loathsome men. Then I don't know what happened to Sarah. I think my mother's cousin worked with or had a friend in the French Resistance who had told him about the roundup of Jews in our Paris quarter. He also was able to get Sarah out of Paris and to a safe location or overseas. Both my parents never talked about it. But my father had our front door secured after that. The outside view looked the same but the inside was in metal. It was an armored door with a bar (in case the Gestapo would come back.) I found a couple of pictures that give example of the outside and inside door - our door was a double door.

All this happened a long time ago. The Nazis are gone (well, maybe not everywhere, as seen in the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, by supporters of Donald Trump.) Germany has given reparation to the Jews and the Jews have moved to Israel. Although, there again, the citizens of Israel of nowadays are not the old citizens of after the war. I have been reading articles by the late Maurice Rajsfus (1928-2020.) He was a writer, journalist and militant. He wrote numerous essays on the Jewish genocide in France, the police and politics. His parents were Jews from Poland who had moved to Paris in the 1920s. His parents were rounded up in the Vel d'Hiv rafle of 1942 and sent to Auschwitz. His elder sister and he survived as they were born in France. 75% of French Jews survived to the end of the war (many were hidden like Sarah) in contrast with countries like Poland and the Netherlands where a lot more perished. It is said that the French Police collaborated with the enemy and denounced foreign Jews to save French Jews, but I don't absolve the French Police anyway - they were not innocent. (Below, Paris under German occupation - 1939-1944.)

Maurice Rajsfus wrote several books and I'll look for them when I go to Paris, in particular the book he wrote when he returned from a trip to Israel. I'd like to read what his feelings, as a Holocaust survivor, are about current Israel. I did read a remark he made, in French, and I'll translate: "...Israel is not my problem. It was a country like any other, to visit perhaps, if the opportunity arose. Once there, I modified this assessment ... I have always distanced myself from this state - since 1948... The world looks at Israel, judges its actions, admires or condemns them. As far as I am concerned, I refuse to bear part of the burden of this Jewish country which subjects the Palestinians to conditions of oppression that some of its citizens experienced in the past, elsewhere. I don't want anyone to think I am an accomplice - to any degree - of those who consider it normal to make the Palestinians pay for the crimes commited by the Nazis."

After my mother died in 2002 I found out that she had saved more Jewish people, when I was a baby. This will be for the part 2 of this post... more to come...

"Peace has no borders." - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel (1922-1995)