Memory or marketing

It’s hard to know whether the latest brainwave to slip from the inner recesses of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy’s, grey matter is based on a fierce moral platform, or a ploy to appeal to the nation in the face of plummeting popularity ratings. But one thing’s for sure. It has sparked the ever-delightful polemic of which the French are so fond.

Sarkozy has proposed that every 10-year-old child in this country should “adopt” one of the 11,000 French Jewish children killed during the Second World War.

In a speech last week he maintained that nothing could be more moving for today’s generation than the stories of children their own age, and that they should be “entrusted with the memory of a French child-victim of the Holocaust.”

His proposal, which he wants to see come into effect from autumn this year, brought a swift reaction. And not all of it was in favour.

Most notable among those who have condemned the idea is the grande dame of French politics and a concentration camp survivor, Simone Veil.

She criticised the plan as “unimaginable, dramatic and above all unjust.” Veil, who is the honorary president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, said her blood had run cold as she listened to Sarkozy’s speech and she maintained that asking today’s 10-year-olds to identify with a dead child was far too heavy a burden for them to carry.

Veil was joined in her opposition by a number of medical and education experts who argued that requiring children to identify with victims of the Holocaust could lumber them with the guilt of past generations.

But leaders of the Jewish community have not been unanimous in their condemnation – quite the contrary.

Serge Klarsfeld is a prominent Jewish historian and president of the Association of Sons and Daughters Deported from France. He has also spent years documenting the names and biographies of the country’s Holocaust victims. So his support for Sarkozy’s suggestions as, “courageous and profoundly moving,” added weight and confusion to the debate.

Other historians would beg to differ however. Some for example have suggested that it could be interpreted as a rewriting of the country’s past by distorting the extent to which France collaborated with the Nazi occupying forces.

Similarly while there has been some political opposition, with accusations that Sarkozy is trying to court public opinion ahead of next month’s local elections, opinions were once again divided. And that was especially true, yet again, within the Socialist party.

It was unable to form a coherent and collective opinion with the chairman, François Hollande giving his seal of approval, but the party’s defeated candidate in last year’s presidential election, Segolene Royal, saying the proposal showed a complete lack of respect.

Most striking then perhaps in the whole polemic is how once again Sarkozy has managed to divide opinion.

It’s also not the first time since coming to office that the president has sought to, at the very least, air his views on religious affairs.

Not only is that an especially sensitive issue in France where there is a strict separation of state and church, but for many it is also questionable how a three-times married, twice-divorced head of state – no matter how spiritual he may be – can lecture on morality and religion to the rest of the country.

Unfortunately, and again not for the first time in his nine month’s as president, Sarkozy seems have underestimated the strength of the opposition to an idea.

He failed to inform or consult before making the announcement and his office is reportedly considering a degree of back-pedalling by having a whole class, rather than each individual child, “adopt” a holocaust victim.