We are descendants of “Righteous Among the Nations” (Editor’s note: the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” is awarded in the name of the State of Israel by the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem). Our grandparents came from Gers, Loir-et-Cher, the Pyrenees, Normandy, Sarthe, Burgundy and Vendée. They were traders, railway workers, craftsmen, farmers, civil servants, officers, retirees. During the Second World War, they protected, hid, exfiltrated Jews, made false papers, very often at the risk of their lives. Beyond the diversity of our origins, we share a common treasure: the values of courage, commitment and humility that they transmitted to us. Refusing to look away and remain silent, out of cowardice, indifference or selfishness. Never tolerate the slightest excuse for barbarism.
In recent days, despite the unequivocal condemnations of many States and public figures, we have heard certain political leaders and many anonymous people express a form of complacency by comparing what cannot be, or who, in the name of dogmatic postures , attempt to justify the unacceptable: an attack with the sole aim of the despicable massacre of innocent civilians, of children, staged to sow terror, by executioners who serve the cause of those they claim to defend.
In the midst of darkness we listen the voice of Delphine Horvilleur who denounces “those who find the slightest excuse” and “those who keep score”, thus trampling on “the sacredness of life”. “No cause, however just, can justify these means,” adds Madame Horvilleur. “You can have a very strong sensitivity to the Palestinian cause, be critical of the Israeli government, and still be revulsed by what happened.”
The tragedy unfolding before our eyes concerns us all
This is why today, as we witness the violence of this new war, and the terrible outbreak of anti-Semitic acts committed in France in recent days, we stand alongside the civilian victims, the families attacked, bruised in their flesh, of our Jewish brothers and sisters in France, in Israel, and throughout the world. The tragedy unfolding before our eyes concerns us all, deep within our beings. Faced with fear, the temptations of withdrawal and obscurantism, we are convinced that it is our duty to remain united and vigilant.
We know, through the stories of our grandparents and current geopolitical crises, how fragile life is, how everything can change in an instant. We remember more than ever the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller after the Second World War: “When they came for the communists, I said nothing, I was not a communist. When they locked up the trade unionists, I did not “I didn’t say anything, I wasn’t a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I didn’t say anything, I wasn’t Jewish. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak for me name.”
Part of our individual and collective identity, part of the history of France and that of all of Humanity is forever linked to Jerusalem and Yad Vashem, where the names of our ancestors are inscribed. “Am Israel Haï”: the people of Israel and their land live in each of us. Let us never forget it.
Daphné BEMBARON (great-great-granddaughter of Charles and Berthe DE LESPINASSE),
Capucine BONCENNE (granddaughter of Denise RIEU-HACHON),
Victoire BROWN (great-granddaughter of Silvine GIRAULT),
Pierre COLLARDEY (great-grandson of Germaine COLLARDEY),
Pierre COLOMBÉ, (grandson of Georges Pauthe),
Séverine DARCQUE (great-granddaughter of Pierrette PAUCHARD)
Émilie DURET, (great-granddaughter of Dominique LAPIERRE),
Julien PELLACOEUR (great-grandson of Henri and Alice PELLACOEUR),
Raphaële PETIT (great-granddaughter of Elisabeth ROUBINET),
Emilie SEPTIER (granddaughter of Louise and Edouard CARTIER).