[etni] Fwd: HOLOCAUST: Mademoiselle - a must read/watch!

From: ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 10:50:22 +0200
From: phyllis oded <phylliso@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: HOLOCAUST:  Mademoiselle - a must read/watch!

Please, please watch/listen to this site. I believe you should have a
copy made and shown to every student going to Poland and even every
student who is studying the Holocaust now.
Yours, Phyllis

A SONG IS BORN

In the summer of 1942, as persecution of Belgium's Jews began, an
underground Jewish group took form in cooperation with the Belgian
underground and set out to rescue Jewish children by hiding them in
various places around the country. The most active team consisted of
twelve-women, mostly non-Jewish, who managed to hide some 3000
children. This admirable clandestine campaign was unique by the
complexity of its structure and the degree of its success.

The only remaining survivor from the team is Andree Geulen, and on
September 4, a great number of the children who had been hidden,
celebrated her ninetieth birthday. The celebration included a
screening of a DVD in which singer Keren Hadar performed a song in her
honor. The song stirred a great deal of emotion.

This song, composed very shortly before the event, arose from an
impulse on the part of one of the hidden children,  Shaul Harel, who
today is a professor of pediatric neurology.

And this is how it happened.....

One warm summer day at the Isrotel Dead Sea Hotel, the Harel family
was visiting for a performance of the opera Aida at Massada. Shaul
Harel was lolling alone in the whirlpool bath. As the warm water and
the complete solitude began to take effect, he wondered intensely what
gift he could bring to Andree for her birthday. "After all, she
already has everything. After the war, she married a Jewish attorney,
they were blessed with two daughters and with grandchildren and
great-grandchildren, and to this day she is surrounded by the love of
the children she rescued."

Suddenly, as to Archimedes in his warm bath, the Muse descended to
him. Although he did not emerge with a mathematical equation - since
mathematics was never his subject - he just as suddenly decided to
write her a poem. And this is not to be taken lightly, since for many
years he had written nothing but medical documentation and articles.

The warmth of the water and the atmosphere brought lines tumbling into
his mind, and as if possessed, he burst into the hotel room and told
his wife, Dahlia, to sit down and transcribe because otherwise the
lines would "get away" from him. His wife raised her eyebrows,
thinking that the desert heat had overpowered him.  But she consented
and soon a poem was on paper telling Andree's story. Shaul's
imagination took him further and he said that the poem should be set
to music and his favorite singer, Keren Hadar, should perform it.

Since the poem was written in free verse, Dahlia worked rhymes into
it. The poem was read to Keren and she was moved to tears. She said
that it was suitable for setting to music and that she would like to
sing it. She recommended Rafi Kadishzon, a prolific and well-known
composer. Rafi heard the poem, liked it, and immediately recommended
Dan Almagor, a master of the Hebrew word, to adjust the text for the
music. In the end, Dan Almagor contributed greatly to the rhythm, to
the refrain, and to the perfect fit of the lyrics.

All this occurred in the course of two weeks. A week later, the song
was recorded, the DVD visuals were prepared, and copies were printed
with graphics and with a French and English translation. Everyone who
saw it was moved, and now, here it is for you......

'Mademoiselle'  sung by Keren Hadar, with English translation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR6PC74--1s
[etni] Fwd: HOLOCAUST: Mademoiselle - a must read/watch!

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