Independent Online, South Africa
Feb 15 2008
Sarkozy’s holocaust plan slated
February 15 2008 at 03:03PM
Paris – A proposal from President Nicolas Sarkozy that French
10-year-olds should sponsor the memory of Jewish children who were
murdered by the Nazis set off an outcry on Friday among
psychologists, parents and the political left.
In an address to Jewish leaders, Sarkozy said that from the start of
the next academic year pupils in their last year of primary school
should be "entrusted with the memory of one of the 11 000 French
children who fell victim to the Holocaust."
"Nothing is more moving for a child than the story of a child his own
age, who had the same games, the same joys and the same hopes as
him," Sarkozy said.
Education Minister Xavier Darcos explained that every child will be
given the name of a Jewish deportee and "carry out a little
investigation on their family, surroundings and the circumstances in
which the child disappeared."
‘They are far too young at that age. They’re not ready’
"This personal, emotional link will be the basis for their studies,"
he said.
But an alliance of critics immediately poured scorn on the idea,
accusing Sarkozy of usurping history, failing to understand the
psychological impact on children, and stirring up resentment among
other sectors of society.
"I am totally against the idea that individual children should be
made to carry this kind of burden. They are far too young at that
age. They’re not ready," said child psychiatrist Frederic Kochman.
"Linking a child so intimately with a partner who is dead, and whose
short life they can never understand, can only have harmful effects
on his or her development," said the association Children of the
World.
Some 75 000 Jews were deported from German-occupied France in World
War II, in most cases with the active cooperation of the French
authorities. Nearly all died in the extermination camps at Auschwitz
and elswhere.
Even many who support greater awareness of the Jewish genocide said
the president’s idea was ill-thought out and could even provoke an
unwanted backlash.
"Some communities already think the Republic doesn’t take sufficient
account of their suffering: for example, black Caribbeans who want
greater recognition of the tragedy of slavery, or Armenians
concerning their own genocide," said Francosi Puppi, mayor of the
Paris suburb of Sarcelles.
For Pascal Bruckner, a left-wing philosopher who backed Sarkozy in
last year’s election, his idea smacks of "the tyranny of repentance"
and "adds nothing except pathos."
"Young people have been given their fill of the Holocaust for years
and years, and it hasn’t stopped the rise of anti-Semitism in the
suburbs…This is a dangerous intitiative which is only going to add
to the idea that there’s one rule for the Jews. Compassion can be
dangerous," he said.
However the president won support from Serge Klarsfeld, the Jewish
historian who has done more than anyone to keep the names of French
Holocaust victims in the collective memory.
"It’s not a question of some morbid identification with a dead child.
It’s an act of vigilance…It’s important that today’s children know
that there were children of their own age and background who were
deported, and it’s important that these be named," he said.
Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande also backed the initiative,
but his colleague former minister Pierre Moscovici said it was "a
false good idea which brings with it much that is psychologically and
educationally dangerous."
"It is typical Sarkozy – a man with plenty of impulse and sometimes
not much reflexion," he said.