On Monday, Eric Ciotti presented the 10th anniversary of the Memory Journeys to Auschwitz in the presence of Mrs. Martine Ouakine, Deputy Mayor of Nice and former President of the CRIF South, and Mr. Charles Gottlieb, a survivor of the concentration camp. The President of the General Council of Alpes-Maritimes gave an overview of the past 10 years.
Initiative launched by Christian Estrosi during the 2003-2004 school year, the purpose of these trips is to promote the work of memory and citizenship among young people from the French Riviera. Middle school students are faced for a day with the horror of the camps and are encouraged to become ambassadors of peace.
After their speeches, Eric Ciotti, Martine Ouakine, and Charles Gottlieb gave the floor to young middle school students who came to share the emotions they felt during these journeys. They all testify to the overwhelming and formative nature of this experience, which helps them to develop as responsible individuals.
Young Edgar explains that thanks to this trip he “understood a lot of things” and that his memory “is marked forever.” The students unanimously believe that this journey is the best way to understand the atrocities of the Nazi extermination camps and to pass on what they saw and experienced there.
In the coming weeks, three trips involving 30 schools, or 600 students from the region, are planned. This year, the chosen theme focuses on the 70th anniversary of the battles of the Resistance, the landings, the liberation of France, and the victory over Nazi barbarism.
Families of Righteous Among the Nations and representatives of resistance associations, including Jean-Baptiste Canonici, president for Corsica and Alpes-Maritimes of the former Rawa-Ruska prisoners, will be associated with the trips.
The 10 years of journeys in a few figures:
64 memory journeys have been organized in 10 years.
The 90 public and private middle schools of Alpes-Maritimes have participated.
11,000 middle school students have thus faced the darkest hours of history.
