Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell, directors of the multi-award winning documentary Les Enfants de Chabannes, returned to the filming location, in Fursac (Creuse), more than 25 years later.
A moving day of memories took place on June 13, between Fursac and La Souterraine (Creuse). The Sostranian Committee of the National Association of Veterans and Friends of the Resistance (ANACR), chaired by Raoul Vaugelade, welcomed Lisa Gossels and her mother, Nancy, as well as director Dean Wetherell.
From the United States, they returned to Fursac more than 25 years after filming, in 1998, the documentary Les Enfants de Chabannes. This film focuses on the story of Jewish children hidden during the Second World War at the “castle”, among whom were the father and uncle of director Lisa Gossels.
The CM2s of today, the students of the time
After a reception at the town hall of Fursac (1), a screening was planned at the Ehpad Les Jardins d’Adrienne de Fursac, with André Lelong and other school friends from Chabannes in the presence of CM2 students from the Félix-Chevrier school.
A second screening, at the Micro-folie de La Souterraine, was followed by a debate with Christophe Moreigne, a Creuse historian specializing in this period and author, and Marie-Françoise Greminger who published a work on the roundup of July 21, 1944 (2).
They were at school with the Jewish children taken into this Creuse castle from 1939 to 1943 (June 2024)
Awarded several times, Les Enfants de Chabannes tells the daily life of these 300 children, through their testimonies including that of Lisa’s father, Peter Gossels, until their secret evacuation. Some of them were nevertheless deported, four never returned. The children of Chabannes were surrounded by Ruth Keller, from the Children’s Relief Work (OSE), Félix Chevrier, Irène and Renée Paillassoux, and many residents of this village, resisting for four years.
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The American Lisa Gossels returns to Creuse, 25 years after the release of the film Les Enfants de Chabannes (June 2024)
(1) In the presence of Mayor Olivier Mouveroux, and for the ANACR Yves Guiet, Bernard Lacroix, Colette Vilard, Patrice Pasty, Robert Jean, Pierre Michaud, of the Association of Friends of the Museum of Resistance and Deportation in Creuse .
(2) Everyone was welcomed by Sébastien Vitte, deputy mayor of La Souterraine.
