In 2002, I received a petition about something that was missing from the memorial at Auschwitz. It came from a friend whom I had long lost track of: Haïm Vidal Sephiha. Haïm was born in Brussels to parents who were natives of Istanbul, like my own parents. I first met him as I was touring the Greek islands on a small fishing boat. He was our guide, and our common origins immediately created a bond between us. At that time, both Haïm and I lived in Paris, but I soon left with my family for the central African country of Cameroon, and I lost track of him.
We reconnected 37 years later in 2002, when I received his petition seeking to add a plaque, to be written in Judeo-Spanish, to the Auschwitz memorial. As a Holocaust survivor, Haïm had been invited to Auschwitz for a French television program. As part of the program, he toured the memorial, which featured 19 plaques with the same text, each one written in one of the languages of the victims. The plaques read, “Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to Humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940–1945”
A plaque honoring victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau, written in Judeo-Spanish. Courtesy of Albert Garih
He noticed there was no plaque in Judeo-Spanish, which was the language of his parents, and also the language he taught in Paris, and he was deeply hurt by this shortcoming. He sent this petition around, which happened to reach me. Of course, I quickly replied to the petition and added a word, telling him that I had been on his boat cruising the Greek islands back in 1965. He was very excited and immediately put me in charge of spreading the word here in the United States about the petition to add the Judeo-Spanish plaque to the Auschwitz memorial.
Haïm and I met again in Paris and attended a forum together on Judeo-Spanish at UNESCO in 2002. It was as though we had never lost contact. We worked together to publicize the petition and addressed the Polish authorities, who finally agreed to have a new plaque added to the memorial. Then, we all went to Poland for the new plaque’s dedication in March 2003. The ceremony was presided over by Simone Veil, who was herself deported to Auschwitz and later became a government minister in Paris. After her death, her body, together with her husband’s, was transferred to the Paris Pantheon in 2018. My dear friend Flory Jagoda was also invited and was asked to sing a song in Judeo-Spanish at the ceremony. We traveled together. The ceremony was also attended by survivors and children of survivors from France, Turkey, and Greece, and it was an opportunity for me to have a guided tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The plaque is a simple message, written in the languages of every one of the victims, with 20 languages altogether now, and the ceremony was very moving.
Since then, Flory has passed away and so has Haïm. Their work and that ceremony will remain with me forever.
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