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Mayor Of 11th Arrondissement: Marcel Rajman's Sacrifice Is Particula

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  • Mayor Of 11th Arrondissement: Marcel Rajman's Sacrifice Is Particula

    MAYOR OF 11TH ARRONDISSEMENT: MARCEL RAJMAN'S SACRIFICE IS PARTICULARLY SIGNIFICANT IN TODAY'S CONTEXT; COMPATRIOT: MANY OF US JEWS PARTICIPATED IN RESISTANCE, BUT "PEOPLE TEND TO FORGET."

    By RINA BASSIST \
    02/16/2015 21:17

    NAZI HUNTER Serge Klarsfeld (right), resistance veteran Roger
    Fichtenberg (center) and sculptor Denis Chetboun stand next to the
    newly inaugurated statue of Marcel Rajman in Paris on Sunday.. (photo
    credit:RINA BASSIST)

    PARIS - Politicians, resistance veterans, Communist Party activists,
    Jewish leaders and residents of Paris's 11th Arrondissement gathered
    on Sunday morning at a little city garden, not far from the Leon
    Blum square. The veterans were wearing their medals and berets,
    holding up flags.

    They came to honor their friend, Marcel Rajman, executed by the
    Germans in February 1944, together with 22 other resistance members.

    The little garden was named after Rajman several years ago, but
    on this gray winter morning his comrades came to unveil a statue;
    inspired by his image on the last day of his life.

    "When we came here last year, at the annual commemoration ceremony,
    I felt that this place needed not only a name, but also a face, an
    image. I vowed, in the name of all of us, sons and daughters of the
    deportees, to bring the face of our friend, Marcel, back to his home
    neighborhood, to bring back his soul.

    One of us, who wished to stay anonymous, made a donation, and here we
    are today, honoring not only Marcel Rajman, but all those who fought
    with him," Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld told The Jerusalem Post.

    Rajman was one of the foreigners who tied their fate with their new
    homeland; Armenians, Polish, Italians and Spanish who immigrated to
    France in the early 30s and joined the French resistance, when Paris
    was occupied by the German army.

    There, foreigners formed up a group of their own which was named
    after its leader, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian. Most of them were
    young communists.

    Marcel Rajman and his Polish Jewish friends initiated several audacious
    and spectacular attacks against the Germans.

    They attempted to assassinate the German governor of Paris, but the
    attack failed. An attempt to kill another high ranking German officer,
    however, succeeded.

    In mid-November 1943 the French police arrested 23 members of the
    communist labor movement network (FTP-MOI). The resistance members
    were tortured, then put on trial by a German military court. The Nazis
    turned the trial into a media circus, inviting French celebrities and
    others to watch it. At the end, a firing squad executed 22 members
    at Fort Mont Valerien.

    The 23rd member, Olga Bancic, was later beheaded in Stuttgart.

    Leon Felman, 90, one of the flag bearers, knew Marcel Rajman
    personally. "His family lived at the Rue des Immeubles Industriels,
    near Place de la Nation. They were poor Polish immigrants who made
    their living by knitting.

    When Marcel's father was arrested, Marcel, together with his younger
    brother, Simon, joined the resistance, but only Simon survived the
    war. I myself also joined the resistance. I was 17 and managed to flee
    the French gendarmerie when they rounded up our family. My mother told
    me to run, so I ran. There were many of us Jews who participated in
    the resistance, but people tend to forget that."

    Felman was decorated for his bravery with the highest French
    decoration; officer of the Legion d'Honneur.

    Catherine Vieu-Charier, who represented Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo at
    the ceremony, told the Post that there was much symbolism to the
    inauguration of the status this year in particular, a month after
    the terrorist attacks in Paris.

    "We are honoring Polish Jews, foreigners, who sacrificed themselves
    for France, against barbarism... The world expressed solidarity
    with us when human dignity and freedom were threatened here, when
    anti-Semitism came back to the forefront. This anti-Semitism, has
    never left French soil. The victims were not chosen haphazardly;
    journalists, police officers, Jews. All of them representing the
    diversity of France and its values."

    The mayor of the 11th Paris Arrondissement, Francois Vauglin, also
    linked Rajman's story to recent events.

    "The sacrifice of Marcel Rajman and his friends is particularly
    significant and strong in today's context, with the massacres at
    Hyper Cacher and Charlie Hebdo and the terrible attack yesterday in
    Copenhagen. And also when we recall the words of hate pronounced
    at a theater in this very neighborhood not long ago [a reference
    to the show of French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, recently
    condemned for incitement]. We must remember that words and actions
    are interrelated. Words of hate will be followed by actions, and this
    is the lesson we must learn and the reality we must confront."

    Denis Chetboun, the sculptor who created the statue of Rajman, said
    that he considered the commission a sacred one.

    "I started working on the statue last year at my new Tel Aviv studio.

    I made aliya at that very same time. I feel that my statue of Marcel
    Rajman in effect closes the circle. For his image to be eternalized
    in Israel specifically, might be Marcel Rajman's greatest victory."

    http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Statue-unveiled-in-Paris-commemorates-Jewish-resistance-fighter-captured-executed-by-Nazis-391237

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