Letter of Nomination for Colin Powell for the 2009 Civil Courage Prize

This document is a formal invitation to a dinner hosted by François Delattre, Ambassador of France to the United States of America, and Leonard L. Silverstein, President of the French-American Cultural Foundation. The dinner is held in honor of Mrs. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. The invitation specifically requests the presence of Prof. and Mrs. Elie Wiesel. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, June 13, 2012, with cocktails at 7:00 p.m. and seated dinner at 7:30 p.m. It will take place at La Maison Française at the Embassy of France, located at 4101 Reservoir Road, N.W., Washington, D.C. The dinner is prepared by Chef Pascal Tingaud of Dom Pérignon. The invitation also provides RSVP details, including a phone number and email address, and notes that identification is necessary upon arrival, with a dress code of cocktail attire and valet parking available.

Sonja Samson was born in Aurich, Germany in 1931, into an assimilated but observant Jewish family. In 1936 she lived with her grandparents in Luxembourg until she joined her parents who had moved to France earlier. She talks about her family history and her childhood, and speculates about her parents’ reasons for staying in France instead of emigrating to the United States. Her father volunteered for the French army but was interned in 1939. Sonja and her parents were in Gurs briefly, then lived in Garlin, a village near Gurs until August 26, 1942 when they were rounded up by French police, sent to Gurs and then transported to Rivesaltes in September, 1942. Her parents were deported and her mother managed to keep Sonja from going on this transport with the help of Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). She never saw her parents again and still profoundly resents this separation. She briefly describes conditions in the two camps and her life and schooling in the villages of Garlin and Gurs, including pressure on a teacher to rescind an honor Sonja had earned. Sonja stayed in a convent and then an orphanage at Palavas-les-Flots with other Jewish children, under the auspices of the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF) and OSE, then with distant relatives who were in hiding, later in a boarding school in Chambéry, constantly on guard. She mentions a failed attempt to cross the border into Switzerland. Later Sonja worked as a maid at an inn that was a substation of the ArmeéSecréte (the French underground). She invented a new identity for herself as a non-Jewish war orphan, and participated in Catholic rites to avoid discovery. After she earned their trust, Sonja became a messenger. She relates how her presence of mind foiled a plot by the so-called “Butcher of Grenoble” to blow up the Underground headquarters just after liberation in August 1944. Sonja describes post-war life at the Chambéry boarding school, with her cousins, as well as her search for her parents, and was an active member of Hashomer Hatzair in Paris. She describes how she learned what she needed to do to survive, how the loss of her parents affects her to this day, and how her outlook about religion, Jewishness, and Zionism changed as she matured. Sonja went to the United States from Sweden on the Gripsholm as a war-orphan in 1947, instead of making aliyah with her friends. She talks about the difficult adjustment to life in the United States, how she managed to get the higher education she wanted, and post-war trips to Israel in great detail. Interviewee: SAMSON, Sonja Date: June 3, 1985

Herbert Finder was born in Vienna on April 22, 1929 of a Polish father who was an Austrian citizen and a German mother. He mentions antisemitic acts experienced in school. He describes the Anschluss and his family’s flight to Breda, Belgium and Antwerp, where Herbert attended a Jewish school. They received American visas in April, 1940 but lack of funds and the German invasion trapped them. His father was sent to a camp near Toulouse, France. Herbert, his mother and his uncle fled to Southern France. Herbert lived with a Jewish farmer, who took in many refugees, for two years. His father joined them after his release, and they lived on a farm in Duvernay. His mother returned to Antwerp to salvage their visas, but was deported in September 1942. After the war, they learned she had been killed. Herbert and his father remained on the farm until arrested as foreigners in August 1942 by French police. They were sent to a camp in Viviers, then to Drancy. On September 4, 1942 they were shipped east on the 28th convoy to work at Oberschlesienosten, near Katowice. Though underage, Herbert remained with his father at the labor camp of Tarnoviche (TarnoskyGura), which he describes. Internal affairs of the camp were run by Polish Jews who reported to the Germans. In the spring of 1943, Herbert and other inmates were sent to Sosnowiec to work in Katowicz. In November 1943 they were shipped to Birkenau where they were tattooed, suffered brutal conditions and saw crematoria. They moved to Auschwitz for one night and then to the Warsaw Ghetto to clear rubble, until July 1944. He describes the ghetto, where non-Jewish German prisoners were in charge. Prisoners traded for food with Poles and a typhus epidemic killed many. He worked in a burial detail that burned corpses of victims shot in Paviak. In July 1944, as Russians approached, prisoners began a three-day forced march to Lodz, then went to Dachau in sealed cattle cars without food or water. While his father was recuperating from an injury, Herbert was sent to Allach, a camp where Jews and non-Jews built an underground factory. His father joined him after three weeks. In April 1945 prisoners were put on flat cars. After two days, German guards disappeared and prisoners were liberated by Americans on April 30th. In May 1945, Herbert and his father went to Antwerp via Stuttgart and France. He describes their survival strategies and faith in God. They came to the United States in December 1946, lived in New York City until 1950, and then settled in Vineland, NJ.

Elie Wiesel writes to Romanian President Ion Iliescu, expressing gratitude for the extraordinary hospitality extended to him and his family during their visit to Romania. He highlights the special quality of events in Sighet, including visits to the synagogue and his former home, which they will never forget. Wiesel commends President Iliescu's public statements against antisemitism and the "senseless cult of Antonescu," expressing hope that the last statue of Antonescu will eventually be demolished. He believes that under Iliescu's leadership, the Romanian people will continue to confront their past and connect their destiny with other nations. The letter concludes with greetings from Wiesel's wife and a hope to meet again, possibly in New York.

This recording captures a 1961 lecture by historian and editor Solomon Grayzel at Adath Israel Congregation in Trenton, New Jersey. In the surviving portion of the talk, Grayzel uses contemporary Jewish literature—especially works by Philip Roth and Leon Uris—to reflect on the condition of modern Jewish life, the challenges of Jewish identity, and the tensions surrounding Zionism, power, and tradition. Grayzel argues that uncomfortable literary portrayals of Jewish life should not simply be dismissed, but read as revealing deeper communal concerns, particularly the growing distance of younger Jews from Jewish values and practice. He suggests that the future of Jewish life depends on renewed engagement with foundational Jewish texts and stronger transmission of tradition to the next generation