Marseille is a port on the south coast of France. It has had a rather dark reputation for gang violence and drug criminality. However, it is a vibrant and fascinating Mediterranean city steeped in history, from Greek times to present day. It was particularly affected in WW2 when the gestapo, with the help of the French police, rounded up over 40000 Jews in 2 days. Many of these were deported to prison and concentration camps where they succumbed to the cruelty of the Nazi regime. There is a museum near the port of Saint Jean at the entrance to the old port, the Memorial to the Deportations. It was set up in 1995 in an old bunker, used by the Nazis during the war, to commemorate 50 years since the liberation of the concentration camps. There are individual testimonies to those who were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps, many of whom never returned, but some did only to find hardship readjusting to life without loved ones in post war France.
On the top floor of the exhibition is a sculpture by Jean Marc Bourry depicting “The Threat of Barbarism” with a central angular pointed, rather menacing piece. On each side are twelve 2m vertical columns representing the twelve tribes of Israel. The furthest ones are thicker and smoother with more vivid colouration. As the columns get nearer to the central menacing feature they become thinned, with a darker and rougher surface. Bourry writes, “the extreme violence of the cruel threat of barbarism reduces a person’s body to decay, passing through all stages of suffering.”
The whole exhibition was a stark reminder of how cruel one person, or one regime, can be to another, and sadly this continues to this day in one form or another, (not on the scale of the holocaust).
Prayer: Loving God, we are reminded of the cruelty of one regime against your chosen people, all descendants from the twelve tribes of Israel. We are reminded of the suffering of those people in Marseille who were treated so cruelly simply because of their Jewish heritage. We are also reminded of areas of the world today where one regime is at war with another, where the cruelty of war, the devastation caused by bombs dropped and the damage to lives through hatred and violence. We long for peace, for an end to suffering brought about by our actions or inactions. In your mercy we pray. Amen