Professional Documents
Culture Documents
S4E8
S4E8
Ngofeen: Growing up, Damien Bouché always felt that there was
something strange about his father’s side of the family. On his
mother’s side, there were big gatherings and endless stories. But all
Damien knew about his paternal grandfather, Pierre-Jean Bouché, was
that he’d grown up on the French island of Corsica, la Corse, and that
he had no stories to tell.
Ngofeen: In 2001, when he was 22, Damien lost both of his paternal
grandparents. He’d never been close to them, but he went to help his
dad with the difficult task of emptying their apartment in Paris. It was
a mess.
Ngofeen: Damien’s father told him that he had just found the
certificate. They were both stunned by the discovery. Damien’s
grandfather had never talked about Austria. Then, Damien’s father led
Damien to a utility closet. Inside, there was an old leather suitcase.
Damien: Dans la valise en cuir, il y avait des papiers, des lettres, des
cartes d’identité, un agenda et des photos. J’ai trouvé des photos de
mon grand-père enfant, avec sa mère, Hilda Goldblatt.
Ngofeen: Damien wanted to recover the stories and the roots, les
racines, that had been taken from him. He wanted to look at every
picture, every letter, and retrace his grandfather’s steps, from his birth
in Vienna in 1925 to his death in Paris.
Ngofeen: Damien was overwhelmed to find out Hilda had sent away
her 13-year-old son, Damien’s grandfather, to protect him so early on
in the war. She must have sensed something ugly was coming.
Ngofeen: But the city hall clerk told Damien that French law only
allowed three instances where you could change your name. First, if
you were taking your spouse’s name. Second, if your name was
considered pejorative. And third, if you had a non-French name, and
wanted to adopt a name that “sounded French,” un nom à consonance
française.
Damien: Je n’ai jamais compris qui avait fait installer cette tombe.
Ma mère m’a dit que mon grand-père allait tous les ans en Autriche,
mais elle ne savait pas pourquoi. Peut-être que c’est mon grand père
qui a fait installer cette tombe. Peut-être qu’après la guerre, comme
moi, il est retourné à Vienne, sa ville natale, à la recherche de sa mère.
Ngofeen: Damien decided to see the tomb for himself. On his last day
in Vienna, he bought a red rose and took the tramway to the cemetery.
It was already late in the afternoon when he arrived. Everything was
dark, and snow was slowly falling on the graves. Damien set out to find
Hilda’s tomb.
Damien: Quand je suis arrivé au cimetière, j’ai réalisé que c’était très
grand. Je suis allé dans la section des tombes juives, et j’ai cherché
dans toutes les allées. Mais je n’arrivais pas à trouver la tombe.
Ngofeen: The guard warned him that the cemetery was about to
close, but Damien couldn’t give up. Suddenly, he noticed an odd
headstone, une pierre tombale. It was in the cemetery’s Jewish area,
but it had a Christian cross on it. Damien read the name: “Hilda
Goldblatt.” The date of birth matched. It had to be her. Damien fell to
his knees.
Ngofeen: Damien laid the rose down on the tomb, then he made his
way towards the exit. He felt incredibly calm, like something had
quieted down inside him.
Ngofeen: Several years went by, and Damien kept thinking about
changing his name. He contacted a lawyer, who told him it was a
longshot. But then in 2008, Damien created an account on a brand
new social network: Facebook. Online, Damien Bouché became
Damien Landesmann.
Ngofeen: Damien was the only person in his twenties in the room.
Everyone looked at him, intrigued. Someone asked who he was.
Ngofeen: Peter, they told him, cut all ties with them after the war. He
never wrote or answered any letters. No one knew what had happened
to him. But they all remembered him.
Damien: Ils m’ont parlé de mon grand-père. J’ai vite réalisé qu’à
cette époque, personne n’aimait beaucoup mon grand-père.
Apparemment, il n’était pas très gentil. Mais les gens étaient tous
heureux de savoir que mon grand-père avait refait sa vie, qu’il avait un
fils, mon père, et un petit-fils, moi. C’était important pour eux.
Ngofeen: Damien took in the moment. These people had lived
through the same traumas as his grandfather. But in that moment,
they seemed to have found a way to heal their scars, cicatriser. They
were open about what had happened to them during the war.
Ngofeen: After his trip to the south of France, Damien found out
about a collective called La Force du nom, “The strength of the name”.
The collective sought to change French law so that the descendents of
Jewish people could reclaim their family names. Damien decided to
join.
Damien: Je savais que ça n’allait pas être facile. Je devais avoir une
autorisation spéciale pour prendre le nom que mon grand-père avait
abandonné. Mais je faisais confiance à mon avocate.
Damien: Pour moi, le nom, c’est une chaîne, avec des maillons. Je
suis seulement un maillon de cette chaîne. En reprenant ce nom, j’ai
reconnecté tous les maillons, ceux d’aujourd’hui et ceux d’avant la
guerre. Le jour de la naissance de notre fils, nous avons décidé de
l’appeler Adam. Adam Landesmann. Le premier homme.
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