Liège: a docile city?

Liège, the 1930s. Joseph and Chaia Wygocki, who did not return from Auschwitz. © Coll. Sophie Kornowski, Dannes-Camiers Fund. Approximately ten years ago, sons and grandsons of former Jewish deportees from the Liège region in the camps of northern France committed themselves to keeping the memory of this tragic episode alive. In order to tell the story of the fate of families under the occupation, the "Mémoire de Dannes-Camiers" not-for-profit organisation gathered a considerable amount of documentation and supported the publication of Thierry Rozenblum's book. This book, “An ardent city? The Jews of Liège under the Occupation, 1940–1944" unflinchingly reveals the process through which our parents and grandparents were discriminated against, robbed and persecuted, before a third of them were arrested and deported to the East to concentration camps and killing centres. The book also reserves space for those who have helped them to find their rightful place. It also evokes their courage, by recounting how they very quickly organised themselves to escape deportation, with pugnacity, initiative and a great will to live.