FIRST PASSOVER IN FREE FRANCE
While in the Army I tried to be one of the guys. As the only Jewish flying officer in the whole Squadron I wanted to conform and assimilate so that when the war was over and my fellow airmen went back to their homes they could say, “I met a Jew in the Army and he was one of us – not different – not be discriminated against.”
One day we were having dinner in our Officers’ Mess. It was an outstanding one as we had liberated a French chef, who spoiled us lavishly. Captain O’Brian, the group Chaplain sat down at my table. He asked me if I knew what Jewish Holiday it was the next day. Realizing it was Spring I said “Passover”. He then told me he had arranged a truck to take all the Jewish airmen to Paris for a Seder. And he quickly added that no overnight passes were allowed, just in case I was going to ask. Obviously, when a Catholic Chaplain asked me, I agreed.
About an hour later, one of my friends told me that I had been posted for R & R leave to Cannes on the French Riviera, for ten days. Now I was faced a moral quandary – Passover Services or the French Riviera for my first rest leave – and the decision very quickly resolved itself – as I packed for Cannes.
When I checked into the Martinez Hotel my burden of guilt overwhelmed me. I went down to the lobby and called information. “Connaisez-vous le location de le Service Juif” and she said “No” she didn’t know the location of the Jewish Services.” In fact she did not understand me. I tried again in my high school French – but to no avail.
Suddenly there was a pounding at the door of my telephone kiosk by a lovely young lady, and when I said the phone was “occupee” she forcefully opened the door and said if I really wanted to go to a Seder a USO bus would be leaving from the beach area in half an hour, and that I should rush.
The Services were held in a stately old hotel in a dining room. The hotel was located on a bluff overlooking the glistening bay of Cannes. The charming floral decorations were supplied by the local French Community, and the food by the U.S. Army Chaplain Corp.
A Sergeant from the Chaplain Corp and an Irish Colonel ran the Service in English, French and Hebrew. Colonel McGuire, anArmy Chaplain, also read parts of the Service in Hebrew. At each table were soldiers and French residents. Some of the local people had been sheltered by French families during the occupation and the Rabbi was kept in hiding in a Jesuit Monastery. Everyone in the room was on an emotional high as this was the first Seder in France since the German occupation. The German armies were only one hundred miles north of us.
The excitement and impact of being part of a moment in history which continued our heritage past the time of the Holocaust, will never be forgotten by me, and all those present – but it was Colonel McGuire who brought the Services to an inspiring finish totally unexpectedly. With charm and warmth,after the formal Services were completed, he took over in Yiddish and Hebrew and told humorous stories, which brought tears to the older members there. This magnificent man, born on New York’s Jewish Lower East Side made brotherhood, religion and democracy come alive in one inspiring moment as he said the final blessings.
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"LIFE IN THE MARGIN" by Morton Gladstone