Marcel Marceau and the French Resistance, February 5, 2023

The great French mime Marcel Marceau was the son of a kosher butcher who was murdered at Auschwitz. Following his father’s deportation, Marcel joined the French Resistance, assisting his cousin Georges Loinger in escorting Jewish children from Nazi-occupied France to neutral Switzerland. He used his artistry and charisma to engage with the children and keep them quiet during their long and perilous trek to freedom. Later he gave his first major performance to 3000 US troops after the liberation of Paris in August 1944.

MEET THE PANEL

Filmmaker MAURIZIUS STAERKLE DRUX was born in Cologne, Germany and grew up in Zurich, Switzerland. Influenced by musical instruments and sign language, he moves between the worlds of language and images, which come together in film. Since graduating he has worked as a documentary filmmaker and sound designer. His works have won several international prizes including the Jury Award of the International Film Festival of Art in Montreal, the Swiss “Upcoming Talent Award” and the prestigious Goethe Prize in Germany. He shares his passion for film and sound as a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts and is a member of the European Film Academy.

JOANNE D. GILBERT writes about rescue and resistance during the Holocaust. A sought-after presenter, she is the author of Women of Valor: Polish Jewish Resisters to the Third Reich((2018) and A Victory for Miriam! The Little Jewish Girl Who Defied the Nazis (2019) and is currently at work on her forthcoming book, Women of Valor: German, French & Dutch Resisters to the Third Reich. She is a consultant with the Paris walking tour company, Sight-Seekers Delight, for their popular French Resistance Walking Tours of Paris and Le Chambon sur Lignon.

DANIEL LOINGER is a retired engineer who lives in Paris and he is featured in the film The Art of Silence about Marcel Marceau. He is a younger cousin of Marceau, and was one of the children who were smuggled into Switzerland to escape Nazi-occupied France. His late father Georges Loinger, the central figure in the smuggling operation, died in 2018 at age 108.