Les Derniers - Robert

Robert
Wajcman

Robert Wajcman

Robert was born in France on 8 May 1930 to a father who was an antique dealer at a flea market. In 1944, he was shot, and he and his mother were taken to Drancy, then deported to Auschwitz on the penultimate convoy. He was 14, but pretended to be 16, which enabled him to avoid being sent directly to the gas chamber, like around half of his convoy, i.e. around 500 people. Separated from his mother, he knew nothing of his fate. In the winter of 1945, he made the "death marches" to Buchenwald. On his 15th birthday, he learned that he had been liberated and began to cry his eyes out, having held them back for months. He weighed only 16 kilos and remained prostrate, unable to move. Repatriated to Paris by plane, he was hospitalised at the Hôpital Bichat in a very worrying condition. His mother, who also survived, visited him every day, but he didn't even have the strength to talk to her. After several months, she was finally able to take him home. Robert regained his human form and began studying art, but soon stopped to help his mother at the flea market, where she had taken over her husband's stall. They were badly received by some antique dealers, who regretted the flourishing business they had done during the war and resented having to return to their rightful owners the shops they had appropriated while in hiding or in the camps. For a long time, Robert kept silent. He decided to testify when he heard the first Holocaust deniers claim that the gas chambers were designed to kill lice. Testifying remains an ordeal for him, but his concern for the future drives him to do so. [...+]

My visit to Robert

Clips

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Robert

« When I came back I weighed 35 pounds. »
Robert - Les Derniers
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Robert

« We would plant flowers, especially when Red Cross representatives came to visit »

Livres

Sophie Nahum
Les derniers
Rencontre avec les survivants des camps de concentration

There are not many left who can bear witness to the concentration camps. Barely a hundred men and women, who were silent for a long time in the face of a post-war France that was reluctant to listen to them. Survivors thanks above all to a succession of chance events, they were able to rebuild their lives with remarkable courage. Sophie Nahum went to meet the “Last Ones”, these extraordinary resilient people, including Ginette Kolinka and Élie Buzyn, for a series of short documentaries, from which results this choral book. Their testimonies echo each other, while revealing the singularity of each destiny. In this way, the last survivors of the Shoah – 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz – offer us a poignant look at their experiences.

“Touching. These men and women speak from the heart”. Paris Match

“My heart beat for [this] book.” Leila Kaddour.

Sophie Nahum has been making documentaries for over 20 years. After working for the major channels, most notably Arte, she decided to produce her films independently. Young et moi (2015, awarded at FIGRA) was the first, followed by the multi-media project “Les Derniers”, to which she has devoted herself entirely for the past four years.

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Other witnesses