I apologize for not updating my blog in so long! School picked up and then graduate applications were due and everything became quite a lot to handle. But I am happy to update that I have written probably somewhere between 2/3-3/4s of my thesis. It definitely has taken a new tone since I’ve last written. I have taken on a rather neutral tone that neither condemns SNCF nor accepts their conciliatory actions as fair and sufficient. This is the area I both love and hate to live in. The grey. I find it fascinating and it is the reason that I was attracted to this story in the first place. It complex, and gets even more complicated as the days pass. Recently SNCF has issued another statement and needless to say I was a bit frustrated as I had to make a correction to a section of my thesis which discusses their recent statement in America. Of course, this is also why I loved this topic, it is always moving and changing. The story is alive and is the clearest representation of how understanding history is paramount for being able to function in the modern world, as a business, a country, and a human being.
A Poignant Interview
A few days ago I had the opportunity to speak with a Holocaust survivor and president of the Alumni of OSE (Oeuvres Secours Enfants), Norbert Bikales. Norbert Bikales is a German-Jewish survivor who as a child lived in France during Occupation. His story is quite different from other survivors living in Vichy France. He was protected by righteous gentiles in Chabannes, France where 400 children were utilmately saved by the efforts of the mayor and the townspeople. The OSE is a Jewish organization that through various Jewish and secular channels saved over 1000 Jewish children during World War II. Today OSE continues its humanitarian tradition aiding Jewish families around the world.
The Search for Objectivity
As I said in the previous post, bias is a tricky thing. It is such a disgusting word in the academic world that people forget that it is often unavoidable and quite natural. I thought that I should share in this post perhaps why I have been so cautious throughout my research. As you might know from reading my earlier posts, I am first generation an Armenian-American. Let me point out that it has always been in that order as well: Armenian…then American.
Memory, Messy Messy Memory
The first month and a half of research has been quite an eye opening experience. The first road block that I encountered was my own bias. To some extent I grew up with an American bias I never knew I had. It became clear to me when having lunch with a friend as she said to me, “so basically your thesis is to nail the bad guys?” This struck me because she was right; at that point I really had not given SNCF or France a fair chance. I assumed guilt before actually putting them on trial. I feel as though this is a natural inclination of Americans. When one delves into World War II one is often struck by the lack of participation in “la resistance” in France and the extent of how the French diluted them for so long until finally in 1995 Jacques Chirac gave an official apology to the victims of deportation and of cruelty at the hands of the French during the war. This is a theme that is discussed often in my French language classes at the College. Usually the conclusion of the class is that France did not deal with the reality of their collaborationist actions after the end of World War II but have moved toward acceptance in the last 20 years. It is usually at that point that the classes have concluded that Algeria is now the hot button issue and that Vichy has been put behind them. However, one still leaves the class with the impression that France was often reluctant to recognize the horrors of its past.
Giving life to a name
Recently, I visited the Memorial de la Shoah Museum in the Marais district of Paris. It was an incredible experience. The Memorial de la Shoah museum was inaugurated in 1956 and then renovated once in 1992 and finally in 2005 under the direction of Jacques Chirac, former president of France. When you walk into the museum you are first struck by the circular sculpture in front of you or as it has been named “le cylindre.” The sculpture is intended to evoke the form of chimneys in extermination camps. The names of the Warsaw ghetto and the main extermination and concentration camps are engraved around the sides of the cylinder. Before entering the museum you must walk through “le Mur des Noms” or Wall of Names. These walls have the names of 76,000 Jews deported from France, 11,000 of which are children. The names are listed chronologically by the year of deportation. Most were murdered between 1942-1944 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor and Lublin/Maidanek camps. Others died in the French internment camps such as Pithiviers, Drancy, Gurs. While I was taking notes near the Wall of Names I noticed an older French couple slowly examining the names. They came upon the year 1943 and took their hands to the wall running their fingers slowly down the sides of the names. The older gentlemen spoke with a calm and soft tone while the woman intently listened. As I took pictures of the Wall I overheard the gentlemen mention his father whom had been separated from during the war. The man told the woman “Mon père était à Beaune-la-Rolande.” I later discovered that Beaune-la-Rolande was the site of a transit camp for 1,8000 Jews that were eventually transported to Auschwitz.
A New Voice: An introduction to SNCF’s role in the Holocaust
My Honors Thesis will be on SNCF, France’s national railway company’s, role in the Holocaust in Vichy France and their recent apology. Here is the testimony of Mathilde Freund, a holocaust survivor who witnessed trains leaving from Lyon in Vichy France: