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The Round Up (La Rafle)
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When, on July 16, 1942, 450 French policemen, commanded by their officers, responded to Nazi demands to round up the 1 3,000 Jews living in Paris, "France, the cradle of the Enlightenment and human rights, a safe haven for the oppressed, committed an unforgiveable sin." Thus spoke Jacques Chirac, on July 16, 1995.
After spending five stinking hot days incarcerated in the VeI' d'Hiv (winter velodrome) with no food or water and no working toilets, the Jews were transported to transit camps at Drancy, Beaune-la-Rolande and Pithiviers, then eventually to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Of the 1 3,000 Jews seized in the round up, only 25 survived. One was teenager Anna Traube, and another 1 1 -year-old Joseph Weismann. Joumalist-turnedfilmmaker Rose Bosch has included both stories in her screenplay. Weismann and his son both appear in cameo roles. Like the recent film, Sarahs Key, Bosch's film presents this infamous chapter of French history in all its horror and inhumanity.
As Joseph Weismann said, "It's important to...