PublishedMay 23, 2022, 5:11 p.m.
He is one of the last witnesses of the Holocaust. On Sunday, he testified one last time in front of young people before dying at the age of 93 on Monday morning.
He testified one last time in front of young people, then he died: Elie Buzyn, one of the last witnesses of the Shoah, “militant of the duty of memory”, died at 93, arousing many tributes. “He passed away this morning. He was surrounded by his family,” his daughter Agnès Buzyn, former French Minister of Health, told AFP. “He felt unwell yesterday (Sunday) evening just following a testimony conference, where he was with young people to “pass the baton”, a conference, which was very moving, very upsetting, which touched him a lot” , she added.
This native of Poland, survivor of the Auschwitz camp, had settled in France in 1956. After the war, he was silent for a long time, like many other survivors. But later, he never stopped working to transmit the memory of the Shoah; by telling his terrible story at conferences or by accompanying several of his grandchildren as well as school groups to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. “Since we are going to disappear shortly, I charge you to become the ‘witnesses of the witnesses’ that we are,” he said in 2018, in front of the younger generations he accompanied on a trip organized by the chief rabbi of France Haim Korsia.
In January once more, the one who was an orthopedic surgeon, was alongside Jean Castex, then Prime Minister, on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi camps. “I remind you that in 1933, Chancellor Hitler came to power following completely democratic elections,” he had launched in front of teenagers. “So you have to think carefully before going to vote”.
“He passed on the baton with incredible consistency and determination until the end,” Chief Rabbi Haïm Korsia told AFP, hailing “a man who has always been in the fight, in the ability to look ahead. and from which we “must keep this life force”. “A duty-to-remember activist whom I loved dearly like a father,” he said.
A giant”
After 1945, “others (survivors, editor’s note) committed suicide and advanced to him,” said Agnès Buzyn. It was “the choice of courage” to “choose life”.
This “tireless fighter of memory”, will have “until the end, carried the word of the victims of Nazi barbarism”, for his part declared Francis Kalifat, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (Crif), on Twitter “We We will never forget the testimony of Doctor Élie Buzyn, who until recent days continued to forcefully transmit his experience of life linked to the Shoah”, added, on the same network, Elie Korchia, president of the Central Consistory, while that Joël Mergui, president of the Consistory of Paris, praised in him “a Mensch whose absence will be irreplaceable”, using the Yiddish term serving to qualify an exemplary man. “A giant”, who will have testified “in front of thousands of pupils and students”, according to the Union of Jewish Students of France.
On the government side, Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Europe, paid tribute to “this great witness, this light of transmission”, inviting to be “at the height of his courage and his message”. The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo hailed a man who “devoted his life tirelessly to testifying and transmitting the memory of the Holocaust”. SOS Racisme praised in him the one who testified “to the consequences of anti-Semitic and racist hatred”.
“Every time the last Holocaust survivors like Elie Buzyn disappear, I ask myself the same question: are we going to be up to it to pass on this unspeakable story that we have received from the very mouth of these heroes?” asked Ariel Goldmann, president of the United Jewish Social Fund.
(AFP)
