Michael Rosen’s Missing & the French Election
I’ve written about Michael Rosen’s The Missing before. It’s a book of poetry and short pieces which looks at the history of some of his family members during World War Two. He tracks down the story of his father’s uncle Martin Rozen (1890-1944)through painstaking research. Rozen lived in Vichy France and in 1944 he was with other Jews not born in France but living there, put on a train to Auschwitz and murdered by the Nazis.
The book which tells a wider story of war and refugees is aimed at a young audience but has a powerful message for all ages.
It is also relevant to Sunday’s Presidential Election in France where a far right to fascist candidate Marine Le Pen is the challenger to the incumbent Emmanuel Macron. The Guardian wrote (Editorial 22nd April) of Le Pen’s candidacy: Her proposal for a referendum on ‘citizenship, immigration and identity’, aimed at instituting a suite of nativist ‘French first’ policies would generate a constitutional crisis’.
This sounds a like an attempt to re-create Vichy France and a challenger for the Presidency Zemmour who went out in the first round two weeks ago spoke openly and positively about Vichy. Zemmour can fourth with 2.5 million votes and is supporting Le Pen in the second round.
There have been anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstrations against Le Pen but not anywhere near as big as when she ran in 2017. Macron’s policies have not helped but there is also a sense that there is now a generation who simply don’t have an understanding of what fascism meant and could mean again.
Which is one reason why books like The Missing are important. As Michael Rosen writes, he cannot bring back Martin Rozen but he can make sure he is remembered, and what happened to him and why is also remembered.
I’m not entirely sure that the new generation doesn’t have an understanding of what fascism means. I think the new generations, generally speaking, are much ore politically involved than the teenagers or young people of twenty years ago. When I was in high school, I was almost the only one in my class bothering to read newspaper and staying up to date with the main political events, it is not quite the same for younger people.