Under the snow, two brass “pavers of memory” were installed on Wednesday on a sidewalk in Bordeaux, in front of the last home of Boris Cyrulnik’s deported parents. The neuropsychiatrist thanked the city for offering them “a burial”. Around a hundred people gathered at 60 rue de la Rousselle to attend the inauguration of these “Stolpersteine” (“stumbling blocks”, in German), in tribute to Aaron and Nadia Cyrulnik.
The ceremony took place on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the raid on the Bordeaux synagogue on January 10, 1944, of which the 86-year-old neuropsychiatrist, a native of the city, was a miraculous survivor. His parents had already been deported but at least 295 families, including 85 children, were then taken to Drancy, then to the Auschwitz extermination camp.
“I am reaching the last chapter of my existence and I lived the first ones right here. This is the very first time my parents have had a burial. There is not a single civilization in the world that does not have a culture of mourning, so this is an important moment in my life,” Boris Cyrulnik emphasized.
“Immense gratitude”
“I was forced to ignore the death of my parents, it was a source of shame and guilt, but thanks to you, who participate in the mourning ritual, these paving stones are recognition that they were alive. It is a feeling of immense gratitude for you and for the city of Bordeaux,” he added.
“Through these paving stones, we bring back the missing to our streets, to our daily lives,” added Pierre Hurmic, mayor of Bordeaux. College students present at the ceremony left flowers and words of tribute, before speaking with the neuropsychiatrist.
These “Stolpersteine” are small blocks of 10 centimeters on a side sealed in the ground in front of the last home of victims of Nazism, Jewish or non-Jewish. Each bears a brass plaque bearing the name of a person, their date of birth, that of their deportation or exile and, if known, the date of their death.
Initiated in 1997 by German sculptor Gunter Demnig, this project has already enabled the installation of more than 100,000 “Stolpersteine” in Europe, including 17 in Bordeaux.
2024-01-10 23:10:54
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