the lucky jew

This book is the result of research aimed at tracing the accuracy of the facts in the context of the family history of Odette Monnier, born Bonnefoy, maternal grandmother of Sylvie Cantet who, following the last roundup of February 25, 1944 in Besançon, developed an energy, a fierce determination to get an Israelite friend out of the deadly claws that had grabbed him.

From this story of an exceptional rescue that succeeded against the imposed and dominant anti-Semitic ideological current of the time, I intend to revisit the family saga in its entirety in order to restore a climate of temperance hemmed with values, emotions simple, by which ordinary individuals have only sought to honor and safeguard what seemed essential to them, namely unconditional love and respect. Either, the most honest consideration of the other accepted as an equal in humanism.

The highlighting of heroic acts, notions of courage and abnegation of those whose exemplarity embraces us is an eternal subject of the human race taken up in many sagas and heroic stories of the past. In fact, loved ones, the heroes and heroines of our families, can only inspire us and guide us to breathe convincing meaning into our existence and that of our children. Ultimately, the past and the present remain intimately linked.