A sad and representative image

It's has been made by an unknown artist.
It looks like Auschwitz.
Even if we have to respect the memory of all these victims, i respect this art because music transcends all the barriers that men can ever put on.
They used to sing in the camps, sometimes in silence but with all their heart.
Music is in this fence as the smell is still in this camp.
A link to a video about music in the camps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ylBJ279GUTs

Just read this piece

about a woman who was one of the food taster of Hitler.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/hitler_food_taster_tells_of_poisoning_nkFgWiSRzTk4K4n8sFHomN
And the comments like:
"why is this war criminal being featured in the NYP as if she is something special??? i hope u choke and die..."
"Because not all Germans were Nazi's, just like, not all black people are thieves, and not all Muslims are suicide bombers."
"guilt by association- she was a food taster for hitler....which i am sure required security clearance, in-depth interview process -- all to test her integrity and LOYALTY to the regime. If she was aware of the atrocities but continued to be loyal and look the other way, then she is just as guilty as any other NAZI- also if this woman was a man, he would have been in jail by now…."
"- okay, but don't forget that not all White People are mass murdering, connecticut school shooting up, Omaha mall shooting up, Colorado movie theatre shooting up, Meth Lab cooking, trailer park living, Bigots. Not all white are these things. Just half."
It's a sensitive subject because many people forgot that German people were very miserable during the WWII. Hitler and all the Germans working for the party had always something to eat in their plates but not their people. They had great food, great wines…
The anthropologist behavior of human being during wars leads me to Primo Levi's book, 'Le Devoir de Mémoire' (The Voice of Memory, 1997).
Hitler had 14 women who tasted the food and he killed them, except this woman who lived with guilt all her life.
She accepted to work for Hitler knowing she could die three times a day. I don't try to defend or to accuse her, i am not a judge. She made choices knowing the consequences.
Primo Levi talked in his book about the behavior of some Jews with their brothers in camps. What they were able to do to them to survive, to save your family… I have no opinion, no judgment, i don't make the life with 'if…'. I am just happy not to have been in such a situation like that to make horrible choices which would haunt my life.
As half Jewish i am, there is no question of it: it would have been an one way ticket to Auschwitz.

Back to my new family

Very long trip from Paris with Le comte de Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas as companion in the airport.
And to see a Hasidic family in Amsterdam taking the same flight to NY than me projected me in brooklyn definitively.
The husband didn't have peyos but 5 kids. Her wife had a wig. So maybe there were my CH neighbors.
One of my friends who seemed Jewish since i know her from high school told me that she got converted. She has the same background than me. She practices her religion: she eats Kosher and she doesn't break her Shabbos.
Unfortunately i didn't have time to talk more with her but she will come in NY during the summer.
My other friends who were very skeptical last time i was in Paris about my meetings with H babies, have been educated by my Facebook posts and, wanted to hear crispy stories with the bearded babies. They were all Jewish except a friend and me.
I couldn't give them all the details of an entire year. I didn't want to talk in broader terms because each H baby i met has a different story and approach with their feelings and emotions.
I broke the cliché of the hole in the sheet.
I have two shegetz who will come in NY this summer too and, it could be a good idea to hang out with them and a H baby. It could be funny!
To touch peyos is like to touch the pompom of a sailor, it brings good luck.

Bye bye Paris

Tomorrow i leave my country for a long trip. I didn't pay attention that i am in transit in Amsterdam for 7 hours.
I wanted to meet a very old friend who lives there but he didn't reply to my email.

According to my intuition, i will see if i will spend 2 or 3 hours in the city that i have already visited.
Or i will stay at the airport and read a book of one thousand pages.

Last photos. Some of the same architect of the synagogue. He was famous for the entries of the subway.
One of the Seine where you can see La Grande Dame (the Eiffel Tower) and the Statue of Liberty, the very small version.

Next time i come back here, i might be with a H baby who wants to come with me. I will be pleased to show him the secret Paris, the one not for tourists. I found a Kosher store not far away from my place. No Jewish dramas with food. :-)
I didn't have time to do all the things i wanted. I was focused on the doctors appointments, the friends meetings and to have a lot of rest.
Everything is fine, i just need to change my food habits to find a good balance between better meals and all the stress i have.
French food is so tasty. And i made wishes with the first strawberries and wild mango i ate with my mother.
The city needs more H babies, it was like a Shabbos everyday. No H babies in the subway or streets except if i have been in their areas.
I really realized that H community is a huge one in NY. I need a Hasidic bath when i get back.
I watched the news a little. The 2 main topics are Boston and the same-sex marriage. I don't understand why people are so mean and obsessed by who sleeps with who. It's very violent in the streets during the demonstrations, especially with the French fascists.

Paris, Paris, Paris…

So, what's new in Paris?
Nice weather and i can see smiles on the Parisian faces. The winter was absolutely without light during long months and, all my friends were depressed.
I came with the sun and a warmer weather.
I was there for my Visa, i got it and i am trying to enjoy the city of love.
How is a real Parisian: grumpy, insulting easily, complaining but enjoying the terraces when the sun is back.

Yesterday, my only 'day off' without business or medical appointments, i decided to have a stroll in Le Marais, the old area of my Jewish friends.
I can't explain how it was so good for my soul to see a man in black.
This area is a mix of bobos (bourgeois bohemian = hipsters), Hasidic, Jewish… A sort of Willy but it's not divided in 2 zones like in Willy.
The buildings are very old and the apartments could have exposed beams which make them very charming. The prices are oh la la.
I started my walk by the oldest food store Izrael. It was closed and i could not see if Izrael is still working here or not. I always knew him with his white beard and moustache.
He has products from all over the world. You can spend the all day to have a look in his store. He has so many things.
Not far away there is the Memorial de la Shoah. You have the exhibition of the Jews in history and temporary exhibition sometimes.
I have been to the crypt where there is a flame for all the victims killed by the SS.
A wall of names is outside with all the names of the victims.
I saw the name of my family, i have to check if these people can belong to mine.

Afterwards, i walk in the direction of the oldest synagogue Agoudas Hakehilos erected by Hector Guimart in 1913.
If you don't know this architect, check him out, his works are amazing.

I was hungry and besides this synagogue, there is a famous Kosher restaurant, PItzman, where the TV is always connected to the camera of the Western Wall.

Then, i walked in the rue des Rosiers, famous for all the Jewish food stores, and a terrorist attack in the 70s or 80s. Some don't exist anymore unfortunately. The last one i loved so much was the deli of the Goldenberg family.

Here some photos…
Last one is the City Hall (Mairie de Paris).