The enduring memory of a Jewish family’s survival during the Occupation: A reflective analysis of a family’s memory of persecution

In this article, the author describes the memory of the Second World War as it has been transmitted within his own family of Alsatian Jews. In the summer of 1940, the Meyers left Alsace and settled in a village in the Saône-et-Loire department. The concept of “enduring memory,” as developed by the anthropologist Françoise Zonabend, is implemented, in a paradoxical way, to analyze these years of war. The memories, as they are passed down, tell of an uneventful past, contrasting with the usual accounts of the persecution suffered by French Jews. The experience of the author’s mother, who was sent away to live with a family friend at the age of two, is the only event that troubles this otherwise calm picture.