A few days ago, Ginette Kolinka received us in her room at the Institution des Invalides (7th century), where she will celebrate her 100th birthday next week. A survivor of Auschwitz (Poland), she told us about the fear and the unspeakable, the shame too, that of finding oneself naked in front of everyone, dispossessed of what makes the difference between human beings and animals. And then she asked us this question: why is anti-Semitism still so tenacious and threatening? We had no obvious answer other than sharing this terrible observation of failure, but we had a promise in mind. The one we could do to all the survivors.
Promise to read, reread and introduce those who do not yet know the words of Simone Veil, Primo Levi or Jorge Semprún. Ensure that we continue to teach about the Shoah, that we educate without ever giving up. Promise that we will return there, with future generations. There, we will listen to the wind in the birch woods which border the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau (Poland).
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