The small apartment, Kiryat Shmuel, bordered on the outside by stones of ochre of Jerusalem, is populated by pictures of children, grandchildren. Hers and those of its – third – husband-and-pillar, Nathan. There is also a guitar, a plate art deco floral, a portrait of the Rabbi of Lubavitch, a reproduction of a painting by Fernand Léger and a whole bunch of knick-knacks brocantés. Framed, throne in the right place the Declaration of independence of the State of Israel. An original document purchased at an antique dealer specialising in paris. Below his balcony, an almond tree majestic that has lost its flowers without losing its superb. And a breathtaking view of the Knesset, the Parliament of the jewish State.
Meïra Barer is a young woman with blond curls is almost 79 years old. Plateau radio last-minute conference literary and appointment of the end of the year with her drama club, she enjoys a “normal” life. Only the heat in jerusalem, and the health crisis, manage to numb the agenda of the writer. She, “the little bearer of bread” of the family-owned bakery, known to all the managers of the cabarets of Montmartre, the “great chineuse” of the Puces de Saint-Ouen, the hidden child, miracle of the raid of Vel’ of Hiv who has screamed so loudly and for so long on 16 July 1942 that a police officer exceeded requested his mother to leave and never come back.
The autobiography dense, crystal clear and poignant to a child hidden
The contours motley of this life outside the norm have been recorded in an autobiography, Like a firebrand saved from the fire (editions 3 Columns), both dense and limpid, poignant, and never larmoyante. A work of ten years was required to the author that this manuscript of 200 pages strewn declaration of love to the absent, black and white shots of the dead and of the living and the chronicles of her blog hosted by the online newspaper The Times of Israel sees the light of day. Last summer. Since then, the book is ” in containment “. “He will take me as I jump, I’ll be attending in the days to come to a reading commission for the awarding of the prize Wizo*. My book was nominated in the category francophone authors living in Israel. “
In my toolbox of life, I had this creed : “I will not.”
Meïra Barer at the age of 1 year and a half. It is then called Monique Suzanne Bursztejn. © Collection particulièreMais Meïra Barer, born Monique Suzanne Bursztejn on October 31, 1941 in Paris, of a family of Polish jews, is especially excited by his ” new battle “. Transform the anniversary date of the raid of Vel’ of Hiv in the anniversary of life. “In my toolbox of life, I had this creed : “I will not.” And they didn’t had. I am alive and well. I am in Israel. Being jewish, this is not to be a victim. Like the other hidden children, I fought for my identity. “So, she wants to push the doors of the lycées and of the colleges of France and Israel, where “the experiences of the jews during the raid of Vel’ of Hiv is little known, “transmit again and again because it is” part of the last “.
Read also Raid of Vel’ of Hiv : the place of the facts
there is No doubt that it will succeed, because the fighting, it is known. First of all, that of survival in the face of lack of love. The families of the Oise, and the Yonne, with whom she is in hiding between 1942 and 1945 are a haven of peace, but so cold that the little girl is comfort in the niche with a dog breast. And as fate is sometimes stubborn, it is the sterility of a biological mother “overwhelmed, exhausted to the depths of his soul by the misfortunes that have struck during the Shoah,” in which she is facing on his return. So the first name “Monique” disappears from the vocabulary of this fourreuse that works hard to boil the kettle. Monique, become Meïra (of the Hebrew etymology ” gold “, the light ED) the radiant console. “My mother LOVES my children […] It is all the same well a little bit because this are mine…”
Act of deportation of Avraham Mordehaï Bursztejn, the father of Meïra, which will be part of the convoy of 22 July 1942. © Private Collection” redundant in the national economy,” : grounds of detention issued by the Prefecture of police in may, 1941 against Avraham Mordehaï Bursztejn, the father of Meïra. © Collection particulièreContre oblivion, she goes in search of his father, who never returned from the death camps aboard the train of Memory, Drancy-Auschwitz 1942-1992 event organized by the Sons and Daughters of the deported, and fifty years after the Shoah ; by immersing themselves in the national Archives, working with associations and groups of word. And she soon realizes that among the former hidden children, it is one of the only ones that “having undertaken a work,” a psychoanalysis. “Of course, like all the others, I wasn’t able to reveal to my children what I had experienced. But, at least, I had spoken to. In one of these groups of words, one day, I even crossed my shrink ! He also was a hidden child, and even if I guessed, I wasn’t sure ! “
The father and the mother of Meïra Barer, Avraham Mordehaï Bursztejn and Brana Szwarcbart, both of Polish nationality, emigrated in France. The father of Meïra as well as his parents-maternal and part of his family perished in the death camps. © Collection particulièreMais the trajectory of Meïra Barer is also that of a ” rebel mind “, a feminist without the flag. “You, you’re a girl, this is not the same thing, you don’t need to do studies, you’re going to work with us. “She was coming in fourth. Forced to stop his studies to give his hand to his mother in the family bakery, she takes her revenge by drowning himself in books. “When I have nothing to do, I don’t snack not. I swallowed… books […] Everything going on there. Zola, Stendhal, Flaubert, Troyat and Dostoevsky, Colette… “She snatches the right to take a course of shorthand-typist, and it is in a copy of Marie Claire that she sees the end of the tunnel, the end of the” hell’s bakery “.
1960. She leaves Paris for London and became an au pair. The beginning of freedom. Then will come the conquest of the maternity ward, to grant the right of divorce for the first time, to make a name among the antique shops of Paris.
also Read Alyah : “each time a jew leaves the ship, it is France that is crushed,”
And, in 1995, ” at an age where the majority of people think about their retirement “, it restarts. She organizes her alya, his ” ascent to Israel “. Alone, without her children who, as adults, make their life in France, with no savings and with the prospect that Joe, the man with whom she had her second child and with whom she shared her life for more than twenty years, ” is going to leave very soon “. But it darkens.
I am aware that the reversal of my fate was unheard of.
At almost 55 years old, she found work, an apartment with other students : “What are things possible in Israel. “Most importantly, it reconnects with its origins. Shabat, holidays, study. She learns to live a judaism happy : “Me, the daughter of remote, child, hidden not having known that christian holidays and completely ignorant of the practices of judaism, I am aware that the reversal of my fate was unheard of. “And she adds a little further on :” It is the study of the Torah, which allows me to really understand the why of my presence here : I am not come here, I’m back. “It stores the course of the Kabbalah, of Hassidout Habad :” Concretely, it is about growing up, getting stronger and learning how not to repeat perpetually the same mistakes : we can change at any age. “
Each trimbalant his package, packages stories, package of History, abandonment, persecution, wandering, destruction…
In a poem, she says : “people Here […], I am réaccordée […] each trimbalant his package, packages stories, package of History, abandonment, persecution, wandering, destruction […] My people with his weakness and doubts […], if its furious desire to live. “
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In the study, Meïra combines the action. The volunteers in the aid to new immigrants, for the support of victims of terrorism.
today, she continues to comment on a lot of news on social networks, is loose politically. She always looks ahead. Before the epidemic, she crisscrossed the streets of Jerusalem for a walk with Nathan, his “pillar” for the past seventeen years, visiting the historical sites. “I don’t have live evil the confinement while the confinement. With Nathan, it was the keys that are on the roof of our building, we go and do a bit of exercise. The hard part, it is now finally. There are crises of anguish, of death. For the first time, I think to occupy me of a place in the cemetery. “But as long as its the almond tree shall blossom…” It is the symbol of life. One winter, the roads were icy, I broke my ankle, and on the same day, the almond tree also. “
© editions 3 Columns/SP Like a firebrand saved from the fire, Meïra Barer (editions 3 Columns, 202 p., 17 euros).
* Wizo : movement apolitical international engaged in social action in the service of women and children in Israel.
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The denouncement, a passion (sadly) French ? The testament of Saul Friedländer : “The Holocaust is my only home” Simone Veil : surviving the camps, Boris Cyrulnik : “A happy child is a child with a secure “
