Who's the hero when the choice is impossible?
6/9/202654 min
Rachel Jedinak will never forget the day that changed her life in July 16, 1942. She was eight years old, living in Nazi-occupied France at a time known as les années noires — The Dark Years. Police rounded up Jewish men, women, and children for deportation. Rachel, her older sister and mother were among them. That morning two police offers did something that Rachel considers an act of resistance. The girls were saved. But their mother was not. IDEAS contributor Neil Sandell, based in Nice, France, explores the complicated moral territory of resistance, what it actually meant during the occupation, and maybe means now.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:08
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Speaker 30:08
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Speaker 40:09
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Speaker 10:09
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Speaker 50:14
[Instrumental music] This is a CBC podcast.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:18
[background chatter] Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nahlah Ayed.
Neil Sandel0:26
Into the elevator.
Charlotte Deguy· Guest0:28
Should we go directly to the exhibition so that we don't lose any time?
Neil Sandel0:32
[elevator beeping] Great.
Nahlah Ayed· Host0:33
The Resistance and Deportation History Center in the French city of Lyon.
Charlotte Deguy· Guest0:39
This is good because the museum only opens at 10:00 AM, so we are alone here.
Neil Sandel0:45
Say, say that again?
Charlotte Deguy· Guest0:46
This actually is, uh ... The museum only begins at, uh, starts, open its door at 10:00.
Neil Sandel0:51
So we're here- So we're here alone.
Charlotte Deguy· Guest0:54
[laughs] So it's good. We can talk. So this actually is the beginning of the exhibition. Uh, all this first part is about the history of the building we are now in. Um- It's a beautiful old building with stone walls and- Yeah, but, uh- But restored ... do you know what happened here during the war?
Neil Sandel1:14
No.
Charlotte Deguy· Guest1:14
Uh, so here was the headquarter of the Gestapo of Lyon.
Neil Sandel1:18
In this building?
Charlotte Deguy· Guest1:20
Yes. Exactly. That's why it's, it's a museum, but it's also a place of remembrance, if we can say it like that.
Unknown speaker1:26
[sighs] [instrumental music]