Cold was often the adjective used to describe Élisabeth Borne who has just left the chair of French Prime Minister on January 9. Daughter of a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Madame Borne carries within her the aftereffects of the past. Like the majority of Burundians.
History is universal. Whether you are a descendant of a parent who experienced the Cambodian genocide or a cousin of a victim of Hiroshima, nephew of a witness to the 1993 massacres, the weight of the events affects you more or less directly. Let’s not even talk about those who saw the horror unfold before their eyes. Those who have seen the dark side of Man.
The father of Élisabeth Borne who resigned January 9, 2024 is Jewish. Her father, when she was 11 years old, committed suicide. A tragedy for such a little girl. An event that completely changed his life.
Élisabeth Borne spent a decade working alongside a former member of the Nazi concentration camps (more than 2 million victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 56 in which for Buchenwald). A difficult, unimaginable childhood. In which we rub shoulders with a parent who is dead from the inside. Who, with the trauma of a past that does not pass, weighing on his bruised soul, decides to reach the beyond of his own free will. Élisabeth Borne is, as described in the blog of Slate.fr, “above all, the daughter of a deportee. From an Auschwitz survivor. From a father who, like the majority of those who returned from this hell, never uttered the slightest word on this subject. Who day after day stubbornly remained silent in an effort to protect their children from the trauma of which they had been victims. Who have kept for themselves, within themselves, the memories of these past years.”
One book, in particular, came to bear witness to what these children of victims of the Shoah – victims of human cruelty – experience.
“Maus”: testimony of a child living alongside bruised souls
« Maus » (Flammarion) is a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, published between 1979 and 1981. It concerns numerous interviews that the author had with his father of Polish origin, a survivor of the concentration camps, and his difficult relationship with him. “Maus is written in two parts: the first where his father, Valdek, tells him what he experienced during the deportation, and the second where Valdek recounts the difficult daily life with his father.
The second is the one that interests us. Indeed, during Art Spiegelman’s childhood, his parents had the habit of shouting at night. No doubt, their traumatized souls could not calm down. Until he was 16, little Art still believed that all parents screamed at night.
Art’s father was away. Cold. Distant. He was “a father who, like the majority of those who returned from this hell (the Shoah), never uttered the slightest word on this subject. Who day after day stubbornly remained silent in an effort to protect their children from the trauma of which they had been victims. For many Holocaust survivors who emigrated to the United States, they found a society that could not understand what they had experienced. A documentary, «Shoah », will help bring victims out of their silence. At least, some.
Valdek, Art Spiegelman’s father, also came out of his silence (without the approval of “Shoah” since it was released in 1985). This silence that he tried, through the force of circumstances, to protect his child. Art didn’t see it. How can we see it when we have experienced hell and returned there still alive?
Elisabeth Borne, Valdek are no different from the many Burundians we meet every day: they are our parents, our older brothers, our colleagues, etc.
A wounded society
War is an abomination. His wounds don’t heal in one hit. Today, in Burundi, the victims of 1993 are still in the prime of their lives. They have families. Children. Who are in turn victims of what their parents experienced.
The ethnic question has difficulty being forgotten in Burundi. Marrying a person you love from the other ethnic group remains a taboo subject. The meeting with the family turns into an appointment with a nose inspector. We look at his nose to know if he is Hutu or Tutsi. Who are his parents ? Uri uwo kwa nde? Uva he? To know, what do I say? To guess his ethnicity. Pathetic indeed, but that’s how things are.
We live with wounded souls. In a wounded society that needs healing. Will time be the only cure? Hard to believe it.
In the meantime, let’s treat all Élisabeth Bornes with love and understanding. If the weight of the past is heavy on them, it is not their fault. And if they can’t get rid of it, therapy is considered. The real cure.
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