|
|
 |
| |
The father was away from Badaroux on the day of the
tragedy, which is described by Julienne Bonicel, the classroom teacher of the
smallest children at Badaroux (cited by Jean-Pierre Nogaret in his Memoir of
a Rebel):
On February 8, 1944, half an hour after the children
returned for the afternoon, a man in civilian clothes appeared at the gate of
the school and showed us his ID: German Police.
"Is there a child here by
the name of Jean-Claude Rajchnudel?"
I pointed to the child.
"Come with
me. The car is waiting at the bottom of the hill."
Jean-Claude turns white;
he is afraid.
"Can I take him down myself?"
"Yes."
I take the
little boy in my arms. The car is waiting. Madame Rajchnudel is up front, with
her beautiful baby on her knees. The two big girls and Claudine are in back.
Claudine is standing and greets me joyfully through the window She laughs and
waves her arms.
Jacqueline and Marcelle are wearing the new plaid dresses
their mother and father have just had made for them, which have dazzled
everyone. They and their mother are dressed and done up as if on their way to
the nearby city: necklaces, bracelets, rings and watches. The young girls look
all the more excited to be making this trip today by car.
Madame Rajchnudel
looks concerned without being alarmed. She no doubt believes herself to be the
object of some minor formality of the sort to which she has grown so unhappily
accustomed.
I set Jean-Claude down near her. I kiss him. I want to kiss the
baby. My compassionate attitude and gestures earn me a brusk, <<Are you
Jewish? If you are, climb in. There's room!>>
I recall lurching
backward with the whole upper portion of my body.
I recall that instinctive
motion with regret, as a gesture of abandonment that can only have added to the
distress of that poor mother.
I waited all that evening and the days that
followed, along with the whole village, for the return of those unfortunates.
Even long after the war was over we continued to wait …
|
|
| |
| |
| |
FRENCH
CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST A memorial
Serge Klarsfeld
 |
Back |
Page 1549 |
Forward |
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Last modified: March 9, 2008
Technical/administrative contact: webmaster@holocaust-history.org
|
|
