As I have mentioned in my PAW29 and in other contexts, from July 13th to the
17th we had one of those rare family reunions in Le Mans. In more normal
families reunions are not that special, but in our case they are. The last one
was in 1999 in Israel, so it was time to have another one while there are still
members of the wartime generation among us. The main purpose of this reunion
was to spend time together, and, more than anything else, to bring together the
youngest generations and to transmit the family history to them, with all its
tragedy but eventual rebirth and triumph.
We had three members of the “old” generation: my uncle Joseph from Le Mans
(whose 85th birthday was the occasion for the reunion), my uncle Zev from
Florida, and my aunt Rachel from Israel. Another uncle from Israel could not
make it, and of course my father, who was the “senior” figure in 1999, is no
longer with us.
My generation was represented by me, two of my three US cousins, one of my
three Israeli cousins, and my two French cousins. Sadly, the Belgian branch of
the family could not make it. One of my US cousins was absent as well.
Finally, and most importantly, there were eight members of my children’s
generation, including my own Moses and Monica and their cousins from France,
Israel, the US and Italy.
Including five spouses present, we were 22 altogether.
There are 162 images in the gallery. The target audience is of course mainly
the family itself, but since I have made the effort to select and edit them, I
decided to share them with the list(s) as well:
http://www.greatpix.eu/All/Wajsman-family-2016/
Some explanations: after a few images from our 1400 km drive to France, the
first 100 or so images are from a place called Manoir du Gravier, an old
stately country home about 40 km south of Le Mans, converted into a
self-catering hotel where we stayed from July 14th to 16th. As you can see, we
spent the time eating, drinking, talking, cycling in the countryside, playing
pétanque, and just enjoying the place. We left the place in the morning of the
16th and moved on to Le Mans, where the following day there was a ceremony on
the Place de la République to commemorate the roundup of French Jews by the
Vichy regime in the summer of 1942 (which, among other things, resulted in
Joseph’s parants and both sisters being sent to Auschwitz where they perished).
The main speaker was Joseph, and afterwards there was a brunch in his house.
Some of the young people in the images are a group of 20 students from Florida
International University in Miami who had made the trip to France for the
occasion. Joseph has a long-standing connection with FIU. In the very last
image Josph, visibly tired from the morning’s efforts, is chatting with one of
those students.
Cheers,
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
<http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
<http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator
<http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
YNWA
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|