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Sarkozy's Jewish roots
http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=3162
France'snew president, Nicolas Sarkozy, lost 57 members of his family to theNazis and comes from a long line of Jewish and Zionist leaders andheroes, writes RAANAN ELIAZ.
INan interview Nicolas Sarkozy gave in 2004, he expressed anextraordinary understanding of the plight of the Jewish people for ahome: “Should I remind you the visceral attachment of every Jew toIsrael, as a second mother homeland? There is nothing outrageous aboutit. Every Jew carries within him a fear passed down throughgenerations, and he knows that if one day he will not feel safe in hiscountry, there will always be a place that would welcome him. And thisis Israel.”
Sarkozy’s sympathy and understanding is mostprobably a product of his upbringing it is well known that Sarkozy’smother was born to the Mallah family, one of the oldest Jewish familiesof Salonika, Greece.
Additionally, many may be surprised tolearn that his yet-to-be-revealed family history involves a true andfascinating story of leadership, heroism and survival.
It remains to be seen whether his personal history will affect his foreign policy and France’s role in the Middle East conflict.
Inthe 15th century, the Mallah family (in Hebrew: messenger or angel)escaped the Spanish Inquisition to Provence, France and moved about onehundred years later to Salonika.
In Greece, several familymembers became prominent Zionist leaders, active in the local andnational political, economic, social and cultural life.
To this day many Mallahs are still active Zionists around the world.
Sarkozy’s grandfather, Aron Mallah, nicknamed Benkio, was born in 1890.
Beniko’suncle Moshe was a well-known Rabbi and a devoted Zionist who, in 1898published and edited “El Avenir”, the leading paper of the Zionistnational movement in Greece at the time.
His cousin, Asher,was a Senator in the Greek Senate and in 1912 he helped guarantee theestablishment of the Technion – the elite technological university inHaifa, Israel.
In 1919 he was elected as the first Presidentof the Zionist Federation of Greece and he headed the Zionist Councilfor several years. In the 1930’s he helped Jews flee to Israel, towhich he himself immigrated in 1934.
Another of Beniko’scousins, Peppo Mallah, was a philanthropist for Jewish causes whoserved in the Greek Parliament, and in 1920 he was offered, butdeclined, the position of Greece’s Minister of Finance. After theestablishment of the State of Israel he became the country’s firstdiplomatic envoy to Greece.
In 1917 a great fire destroyed parts of Salonika and damaged the family estate.
ManyJewish-owned properties, including the Mallah’s, were expropriated bythe Greek government. Jewish population emigrated from Greece and muchof the Mallah family left Salonika to France, America and Israel.
Sarkozy’sgrandfather, Beniko, immigrated to France with his mother. When inFrance Beniko converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Benedictin order to marry a French Christian girl named Adèle Bouvier.
Adèleand Benedict had two daughters, Susanne and Andrée. Although Benedictintegrated fully into French society, he remained close to his Jewishfamily, origin and culture.
Knowing he was still consideredJewish by blood, during World War II he and his family hid in Marcillacla Croisille in the Corrèze region, western France.
During theHolocaust, many of the Mallahs who stayed in Salonika or moved toFrance were deported to concentration and extermination camps.
Intotal, fifty-seven family members were murdered by the Nazis.Testimonies reveal that several revolted against the Nazis and one,Buena Mallah, was the subject of Nazis medical experiments in theBirkenau concentration camp.
In 1950 Benedict’s daughter, AndréeMallah, married Pal Nagy Bosca y Sarkozy, a descendent of a Hungarianaristocratic family. The couple had three sons – Guillaume, Nicolas andFrançois.
The marriage failed and they divorced in 1960, so Andrée raised her three boys close to their grandfather, Benedict.
Nicolaswas especially close to Benedict, who was like a father to him. In hisbiography Sarkozy tells he admired his grandfather, and through hoursspent of listening to his stories of the Nazi occupation, the “Maquis”(French resistance), De Gaulle and the D-day, Benedict bequeathed toNicolas his political convictions.
Sarkozy’s family lived inParis until Benedict’s death in 1972, at which point they moved toNeuilly-sur-Seine to be closer to the boys’ father, Pal (who changedhis name to Paul) Sarkozy. Various memoirs accounted Paul as a fatherwho did not spend much time with the kids or help the familymonetarily.
Nicolas had to sell flowers and ice cream in orderto pay for his studies. However, his fascination with politics led himto become the city’s youngest mayor and to rise to the top of Frenchand world politics. The rest is history.
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