Events

On November 10, 2017 at 7pm the Sam Braun Centre for Awareness and Culture was opened at the Condorcet Junior High School in Bresles (Oise). Present were several dignitaries as well as members of the Braun family.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day (dedicated to commemorating genocide and the prevention of crimes against humanity) is coming on 27 January. To mark this occasion Ester Bejarano is giving a concert on Wednesday 24 January (7.30pm) at the Tulla Realschule High School in Kehl (26 Vogesenalle), near Strasbourg. 

Ester Bejarano is one of the last survivors of the Auschwitz Orchestra. She travels around Germany to ensure we never forget, and also to fight for Human Rights around the world.
 

The website « Mémoires des déportations » (Remembering the Deportations) has been up since March 2017. This remarkable endeavour was put together by the UDA - Union des Déportés d’Auschwitz (The Association of Former Inmates of Auschwitz), carried by the enormous energy of Raphaël Esrail, President of the UDA. It gives an account of the genocidal measures employed by German Nazis all over Europe. The website project was supported by the Foundation for the Shoah Memorial. 

Robert Laffond Publishers has just published a book by Raphaël Esrail. It tells his personal story, from joining the Resistance to his return to France after having been imprisoned in Auschwitz. His is the testimony of an exceptional man who is the current president of the L’Union des Déportés d’Auschwitz (Auschwitz inmates association), and also the vice president of la Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (The Shoah Memorial Foundation). His is also the romantic story of his love for Liliane, who he met at Drancy, and later married on their liberation from Auschwitz. The title of the book, ‘Dreaming of an embrace’, tells us about the hope that gave him the will to live, and the strength of their love which overcame the horror and suffering of the camp.
 

The website ‘Les Enfants de Sam’ (The Children of Sam) was inaugurated on 14 March 2017 in a classroom at Lavoisier High School (in the 5th arrondissement in Paris). This place was chosen for its symbolism because it is where Sam gave one of his last talks, in April 2011. 

After Sam’s death the inauguration was attended by students, teachers and his daughter, Malka, who came to this same place to present the philosophical legacy of Auschwitz survivors and to also consider the question of maintaining Sam’s legacy at the centre of this, his family. 

At the inauguration there were around fifty people (students, teachers, members of the Braun family, people from the office of the Cercle Mémoire et Vigilance, and partner organisations). The principal of the school welcomed the assembled guests and talked a little about Sam Braun. Jean-Pierre Lauby, the President of the ‘Children of Sam’ Association followed to detail the objectives of the website and its structure. This included several examples of the first content to be put online, especially the video interviews that have been done so far. Then the actor, Alexandre Brasseur, gave a moving speech, “Testament philosophique des déportés d’Auschwitz”. The evening culminated in a much-appreciated presentation by the writer, Marek Halter, on the question of remembrance and what can hinder its transmission.