Special correspondent in the Bouches-du-Rhône
The past must remain conjugated in the present to avoid errors in the future.
This is, in essence, the message that the founding president of the Camp des Milles Memorial, Alain Chouraqui, has been striving to convey for a long time through his work and his research.
A mission which, according to him, falls under the "
courage of memory
", and which earned him the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor on Monday by Emmanuel Macron.
On the move to Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), the President of the Republic indeed went to the old local tile factory, built at the end of the 19th century, and requisitioned during the Second World War.
Remained perfectly intact - and now protected from the repeated attempts at destruction which have regularly targeted it -, the site was in turn used at the time to intern “
subjects known as 'enemies'
”, between September 1939 and June 1940;
then to transport the “
undesirables
”, between July 1940 and July 1942;
before two thousand Jews - including a hundred children - were deported to Drancy, Rivesaltes, or Auschwitz, from August 1942.
In 2012, at the end of this long march of consciences to save the Camp des Milles from oblivion - dare I say from the refusal to see -, the Memorial was opened and became this place of commemoration and transmission.
(…) Here, France was such as it should never be again
”, hammered home the Head of State, during a brief speech delivered on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the opening to the public.
Opening which he himself was able to enjoy silently, guided by Alain Chouraqui as well as the couple Beate and Serge Klarsfeld.
Read alsoCamp des Milles, living and understanding confinement
At the time of the presidential campaign, the latter - survivor of the Holocaust - had come out of his recent political reserve to step up and denounce the theses defended by Éric Zemmour, according to whom Marshal Pétain would have "
saved French Jews
".
A charge which was then largely supported by Emmanuel Macron, who again took it up on Monday.
“
The collaborators' hatred for the Jews did not stop at the nationality of their victims
,” he asserted, believing that “
it is up to us to resist those who falsify history (and ) pretend to adopt the Republic while betraying its values
”.
"
To resist this spiral, we must again and again recall a past that some, here and now, falsify to clear themselves of their purpose
, ”he continued, taking care, however, never to name the nationalist.
Nor did he quote the Insoumis when he drew an equal sign between the far right and the far left.
“
We must refuse the revisionism of some (and) the euphemism of others (…)
”, he urged, evoking in hollow the modesty mélenchonistes who struggle to put words on the evils when it comes to anti-Semitism.
By reconnecting with the national terrain after having traveled no less than four continents in one month - Europe (Italy), Asia (Indonesia, Thailand), Africa (Tunisia), and America (United States) -, Emmanuel Macron intends above all to reinvest the memorial field, after having already plowed it during the previous five-year term.
“
All the works that the president has opened since his first election, in May 2017, are intended to build a unifying republican imagination
”, we justify at the Élysée, where we confirm that a “
new cycle
” opens before him for the next five years.
Unidentified political object
Hence the announced commemorations of “
the disappearance of Jean Moulin, (…) the anniversary of the two Landings, that of the Liberation of Paris, (…) and the 80th anniversary of the right to vote granted to women
”.
As well as the 80th anniversary of the creation of the National Council of the Resistance, a historic Gaullist organization which gave birth to the acronym CNR… today taken up to designate the National Council for Macronist Refoundation.
A still unidentified political object, which nevertheless aims to "
restore efficiency to public action
" in order to "
give it meaning
" in society.
“
I really care about it!
“Launched the president, opening a round table devoted to education in a college in Aix-en-Provence at the end of the day.
Read alsoA French enigma: the fate of the Jews of France in question
Exercise that he should reproduce on Thursday in Poitiers (Vienne), on the theme of health this time.
"
Two huge national projects
", on which he promised "
change on a human scale
".
What arouse the enthusiasm and mistrust "at the same time" of the main concerned, who are waiting to see.
And will judge on piece.
