A recent film has sparked debate over the role of the Great Paris Mosque in saving Jews from the Holocaust.
'Free
Men (Les Hommes Libres)' tells the story of an Algerian black marketeer
caught by the Nazis and sent to infiltrate the mosque, suspected of
harboring Jews. There he sees the horror of the Nazis actions against
French Jews and forms an unlikely friendship with a Jewish gay man.
The film, screened last year in Israel, is one of a new wave examining the long buried reality of France under occupation.
It
wasn't until 1969 that a French film truly confronted the reality of
Vichy and collaboration. That was Max Orphuls' '
The Sorrow and the
Pity', but it wasn't shown on French television until 1981. President
Mitterrand refused to apologies for France's role in the deportations
of Jews.
President Chiric finally acknowledged France's guilt in 1995.
Last year Francois Hollande
told the
70th anniversary commemorations of the mass roundup by French police of
Paris' Jews that "the truth is that the crime was committed in France,
by France." All Parisian students pay a visit to the internment camp at
La Cité de la Muette ("The Silent City") in the suburb of Drancy.
In the film the head of the mosque, Si Kaddour Ben
Ghabrit, is seen protecting Jews, largely through false papers saying
they are Muslim. One who becomes friends with the protagonist is based
on the famous singer
Salim Halali,
an Algerian Jew. After the Nazis become suspicious that Ben Ghabrit is
forging papers, he has a false headstone placed in the cometary to show
that Halali's grandfather was Muslim.
Says the film's director,
Ismaël Ferroukhi:
It shows another reality, that Muslims and Jews existed in peace. We have to remember that − with pride.
His point is underlined by Halili being played in the film by the Israeli Palestinian actor and musician Mahmud Shalaby.
Shalaby
told Haaretz:
As
a Palestinian, I could identify with the suffering he endured as a
Jew. Halali is not Jewish only, but also an Arab with
characteristics of Muslims from North Africa. At that time,
religion was not of importance. Jews and Muslims lived together in
brotherhood and love, without anything to come between them. Halali
united everyone.
The ability of the mosque to aid Jews came from
the fact that North Africa Jews and Arabs shared many similarities,
including similar names. According to Jewish-American historian Robert
Satloff, it is not clear whether the mosque deliberately and knowingly
chose to help Jews. However witness testimony claims that 1,732
Resistance fighters including many Jews were hidden in the cellars, in
a part of the mosque normally out of bounds to non-Muslims. A button
would provide an alert when there was a raid.
One document has
been sourced demonstrating the concern of the occupation authorities
about the mosque. The current head of the mosque says that individual
Muslims would bring Jews they knew to the mosque to be helped but they
have no documentation confirming their role during the war, which would
be unlikely to exist anyway as it would have incriminated them.
The
Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial authority says that they have done
research on the mosque's role but have been unable to confirm any
details. If evidence were found,
they say, "we would be glad to bring up the matter of recognizing Benghabrit as a Righteous Among the Nations."
The
film's success has brought new information to light. At one screening,
a consultant on the film, Benjamin Stora, a French historian, was told
by a woman that -- contrary to assumptions -- it was not just Jews of
North African origin who were saved. She said that her Ashkenazim
Jewish mother was one.
Film trailer with subtitles after the jump:
