What Happens to Children in Wartime ? Une journée de réflexion korczakienne.
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Le 9 septembre 2023 s’est tenue à la Mission permanente de la République de Pologne auprès des Nations Unies à Genève une journée de réflexion organisée par le Korczak Education Center, sous la direction de nos amis Batia Gilad et Avi Tsur.
Consacrée à la problématique hélas très actuelle de l’enfant dans la guerre, la journée a permis à des acteurs du terrain éducatif et à des membres du Comité des droits de l’enfant de l’ONU (CDE) de confronter leurs regards, leurs perspectives et leurs aspirations.
Parmi les intervenants, notons Ann Skelton, professeure de droit et actuelle présidente du CDE, Mikiko Otani, avocate et ancienne présidente du CDE, Pawel Maliszewski, expert dans l’histoire de Treblinka où furent massacrés par les nazis, en 1942-43, quelque 800 000 Juifs, parmi lesquels Korczak avec les enfants et les éducateurs de son orphelinat, Karin Morrison, présidente de l’Association Korczak australienne, Jonathan Levy, vice-président de l’Association Korczak France, Philip Veerman, psychologue, fondateur de l’Association Korczak néerlandaise et ancien président de Défense des Enfants-International, Maria Prokopchuk pédagogue ukrainienne venue tout exprès de Kiev accompagnée de deux étudiantes, Véronique Aubert, membre de la Fondation Suisse Janusz Korczak et directrice à Save the Children UK, ainsi que Barbara Pospìsilovà, enseignante et chercheuse en Tchéquie.
Mais celle qui retint le plus l’attention de l’auditoire fut une enfant de 11 ans, Keilya Baer, qui, avec beaucoup de brio, relata son expérience de participante à la dernière édition du Prix Janusz Korczak Littérature Jeunesse qui porta précisément sur les enfants dans la guerre. Nous sommes heureux de publier ci-après le texte de sa belle intervention.
Readings on “Children in war”
Keilya Baer
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
My name is Keilya, I am 11 y.o., from Geneva, and I am here to talk to you about the Janusz Korczak Children’s Literature Award.
Each year this Award runs in primary schools, from 3rd to 8th grade. Over several months, the children have to read three or four books on a given topic.
This year the topic was “Children in war”.
In my age group we had 4 books to read. One was a long poem called “Immenses sont leurs ailes”, in English “Huge Are Their Wings”, by Muriel Szac. When you read this poem, you have the feeling that it was written by a child who witnessed the war. Despite the sad topic, what is written always sounds positive. For example, a boy tells us how happy he was when he discovered in his pocket a chewing gum that he thought he had lost. And later, when he and his family could embark on a boat to flee from their country, instead of being devastated by their losses, he expressed hope and joy at the idea of finding a new home.
Another book, called “Le temps des mots à voix basse”, in English “The time of whispered words”, by Anne-Lise Grobéty, tells us the story of two friends, one Jewish and one non-Jewish, who are separated by the war and the anti-Jewish actions of the nazis. This story is very sad but the 3-month-old baby girl of the Jewish family is saved by the other family who adopted her.
I also loved “Capitaine Rosalie”, in English “Captain Rosalie”, by Timothée de Fombelle, which tells us the story of a 5-year-old Rosalie who hides in a class of older children to try to quickly learn how to read. Her father is a soldier during World War I and she wants to be able to read the letters that he sends to her mother. But unfortunately, when she becomes able to read, it is to discover a letter sent by the army to announce her father’s death on the battleground.
My favorite book was the first (“Huge Are Their Wings”), but it is “Captain Rosalie” that eventually won the Award. Which was also ok for me.
At the end of the school year, hundreds of children and myself attended a ceremony where we were told who were the winners of the Award in each of three age categories. Then, a young couple, Claire and Baptiste, who had met a lot of children who escaped war, in Armenia, in Lebanon or in France, told us their stories. This was a very interesting discussion because for the first time I had the opportunity to hear about this painful subject of war in all honesty, with openness, without taboo, but also very positively, as Claire and Baptiste convinced us that we, even if we are children, can do a lot to help people who have been involved in war or in other terrible events. This is a lesson I shall certainly always remember.
Thank you for your attention.