Page 24 - Jewish News_March-2020

24A March 2020 JEWISH INTEREST

The sacrifice of Mila Racine

By Paul R. Bartrop, PhD By Arlene Stolnitz

eventy-five years ago this Zionist background and had been an base in the French Alps, and often to the women’s camp at Ravensbrück. f we want to change, then we can
month, on March 22, 1945, a active member of the Women’s Inter- working close to German patrols, Mila While there, it was observed, her con- learn to join our hands and stand
SJewish resister in France, Mila national Zionist Organization (WIZO). and the others in her network took in duct was exemplary, as she sought to Ias one;
Racine, was killed at Mauthausen con- In the summer of 1943, she was given children from French cities often many maintain morale among the other pris- The simple truth we know is there,
centration camp in command of a unit of the Mouvement miles distant. To protect them, they or- oners and helped them when they were and as we sing, music changes the
Austria. Prior to this, de jeunesse sioniste (Zionist Youth ganized the children into small groups too exhausted to go on. world.”
Mila had saved the Movement or MJS) in Saint-Gervais- and then accompanied them to the bor- Her stay at Ravensbrück was Do you believe that music can
lives of dozens of Le Fayet (Haute-Savoie) in the Italian der, where they would be helped by not to be permanent. In 1945, a large change the world? I have written sev-
Jewish children and zone of occupation – but her field of Christian rescuers. group of women, including Mila and eral articles that

others by smuggling operations ranged much wider than On October 21, 1943, she was her friends, was transferred from Ra- focus on musi-
them across the bor- this, covering a region that included conducting a convoy that included 30 vensbrück to Mauthausen, in Austria, cians who make
der from France into Toulouse, Gurs, Saint-Gervais, Nice children from Nice, accompanied by where they were put to work repair- a real impact on
Dr. Paul Bartrop Switzerland. and Annemasse, under the overall another resister, Roland Epstein. This ing railway tracks destroyed by Allied our world: Dan-

Born on September 14, 1921, command of Netanel “Tony” Gryn. was a difficult group. It comprised chil- bombing. On March 22, 1945, on the iel Barenboim’s

in Moscow, she was the daughter of Gryn was another young Jewish dren, an older couple, a young mother eve of liberation, a British air raid tar- We st - E a st e rn
Georges (Hirsch) Racine and his wife resister who was entrusted by Simon with a baby, and another couple with geted the camp and Mila, then on aus- Divan Orchestra
Berthe (Bassia). One of three children, Lévitte with the task of organizing a a small child. Without warning, they senarbeit (work outside the camp), was (composed of Is-
she had a brother, Emmanuel, and a means to enable the smuggling of Jews were intercepted by Germans with killed by shrapnel. raeli, Palestinian
sister, Sacha. Fleeing the Soviet Union from France into Switzerland. The police dogs. Gunshots rang out; one The work of Mila Racine did not Arlene Stolnitz and Arab mu-
and a climate of pogroms in the after- network he created brought together a woman was killed, and another wound- end with her arrest, however. After her sicians), the Israeli Meteor Festival
math of the Russian Revolution, the team of about a dozen young people, ed. Mila, Roland and the children were capture, her brother Emmanuel (code-(which featured 50 international acts
family relocated to France, settling in who collectively managed to rescue taken to Annemasse and incarcerated named Mola) sent another resister, in the Upper Galilee) and the World
Paris. about a hundred children. in the Pax Hotel, the prison at Gestapo Marianne Cohn, to replace her in the Doctor’s Orchestra (musicians who
With the German invasion and oc- After the Italian armistice on headquarters. smuggling of Jewish children across are also physicians from around the

cupation of France in 1940, the Racine September 3, 1943, and the German Suffering continued under Nazi the border. When Marianne, in turn, world). I have shared the eff orts of di-
family moved out of northern France takeover of southern France, Mila un- torture, Mila divulged nothing as the was captured on the evening of May verse individuals who share a common
and into the so-called free zone at Vi- dertook to drive convoys of children Gestapo sought information regard- 31, 1944, she was herself replaced. goal of achieving peace through music.
chy. Mila joined the Resistance on Jan- and adults to Annemasse, right on the ing the smuggling operations. Through Such importance did the Jewish resis-Is it an unlikely goal?
uary 5, 1942. While her parents were in Swiss frontier, and arranged to have the underground movement, the mayor tance place on the work of these young Usually I write about music, com-

a safe house in Nice, Mila, Emmanuel them smuggled across. Her activi- of Annemasse, Jean Deffaugt (later women that it determined nothing posers and all that pertains to Judaism
and Sacha worked for Éducation Phy- ties, particularly around Annecy, saw recognized as one of the Righteous should stand in the way of their rescue and music. This month is diff erent,

sique (Physical Education), a code the creation of links with local people Among the Nations for his own efforts activities, even at the risk of their very however, because I have chosen a song
name for a scheme producing false smugglers (passeurs), who functioned in saving Jewish children), managed to lives. written by a non-Jewish composer
documents and rescuing Jews under as an “underground railroad” run- provide Mila with an escape plan. This After the war, Mila Racine was which really is about a Jewish concept:
the overall direction of Simon Lévitte ning Jews across the border. Through- was not something she could accept, posthumously awarded the Medaille de tikkun olam.
in Grenoble. out September 1943 and beyond, she however, as she had an instinctive feel- la Resistance and the Croix de Guerre Jim Papoulis is a composer whose
Mila, operating under the alias of helped hundreds of families and chil- ing that the children would be punished by the French government. And it is distinctive musical style combines con-

Marie Anne Richemond, came from a dren who fled into her area. From her – or worse – if she were to escape. perhaps fitting as a final testament that temporary sounds with musical tradi-

Mila and Roland were transferred the recognition she received in Israel, tions the world over. His multicultural
to the prison at Fort Montluc in Lyon. many years later, was for a kindergar-sound is the cornerstone of his works
From there, Roland was sent to the
ten and nursery in Tel Aviv to be named for choirs, orchestras and ensembles.
PEOPLE BOOK he was deported to Buchenwald as a Dr. Paul Bartrop is Professor of His-sic Changes the World” speak to me of
OF THE
transit camp at Drancy, from where
in her memory.
The words of his powerful song “Mu-
member of the Resistance. He lived
tory and the Director of the Center for the profound concept of tikkun olam,
to see the end of the war, and ultimate
Holocaust and Genocide Research at which means to make the world a bet-
survival. Mila was deported, via the
Florida Gulf Coast University. He can ter place.
be reached at pbartrop@fgcu.edu.
Royallieu transit camp at Compiègne,
Voices of the
HOLOCAUST

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