Les Derniers - Suzanne

Suzanne
Laugier

Suzanne Laugier

At 101, Suzanne is the oldest survivor I've interviewed. For her 100th birthday, her granddaughter convinced her to tell her story for the first time to the newspaper La Provence. Born in 1918, Suzanne grew up in Marseille, in a family of well-to-do shopkeepers. During the war, her parents fled to the countryside, while she stayed in town with her fiancé Roger. Hiding out with a Catholic family, they promised each other to marry as soon as the war was over. One evening, while they were with friends, the police came and arrested them. They were first taken to the Baumettes prison, then to Drancy, and from there to Auschwitz. In the camp, Suzanne worked in the quarries, then in the kitchens for 6 months, which likely contributed to her survival. She never saw Roger again. Upon her return, her mother told her that if she was still here, it was because there was a God. Suzanne replied, "If there was one for me, then why not for the others”? She would never believe in God again. A few years later, she married the man with whom she would share 65 years of her life. They had a daughter and a son. Suzanne agreed to have them baptized - her husband was Catholic - in order to protect them from a possible new threat to the Jews. [...+]

My visit to Suzanne

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Suzanne

« They say that bad seeds don't die. »

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