91 is pretty extraordinary.
So to the archives for me.
Here's some stuff from our third day in Paris. We were walking around looking at old buildings when we just sort of walked into this. It was one of those days with just too much stuff to try to publish it all. This was a found moment with a powerful impact, an impact that I felt at the time would have been lost if just sprinkled in with all of the old stone buildings. I resolved at that time to publish this separately at some point to give it the attention that just standing in front of it I felt was deserved.
This is the Allée de Justus, the alley of the just ones. It is only one block long and as you can tell by examining the street signs on the side of the building this short street was only recently renamed. For over 600 years the street was known as Rue Grenier sur l'Eau. It was renamed in 2001 to honor those "just ones" who tried to save Jews during the Nazi occupation.
At the end of the block is Mémorial de la Shoah, the largest research, information and awareness raising center in Europe on the history of the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War. The side of that building includes the Le Mur des Justes, the wall of the just ones. According to the sign, the names carved on the wall belong to the men and women to whom the title of righteous has been bestowed in recognition of their actions to save Jews in France during the Second World War at the risk of their own lives.
On the corner at the end of the block across from the Shoah Memorial is a school. The sign on the front of the school identifies (a person who speaks and reads French might be able to help me a bit here) that more than 500 Jewish children from this arrondissement were deported to Auschwitz.
I recognize that this one is pretty somber. The feeling standing there was every bit that.Later in the month I have a couple of fairly light hearted moments that have not previously seen light on this blog and I will get to them too.
1 comment:
Somber stuff, indeed.
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