Eddy Palacci

Edmond Vita Palacci (; 9 February 1931 – 29 October 2016), generally known as Eddy Palacci, was a French-Israeli chemical engineer and author, whose memoirs recount his survival in Occupied France during World War II and help for the French Resistance.

Background

Edmond Vita Palacci was born on 9 February 1931 in Paris. In the mid-1930s, he traveled with his family to Cairo, where they hoped his Egyptian-born father would recover from illness. In the summer of 1939, weeks before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Palacci's mother sent him home to her parents in Paris.

French Resistance

When the Gestapo started a hunt for Jews in Paris, his grandparents decided to hide Palacci on a farm in Les Essarts-le-Roi, near Rambouillet, outside Paris. He spent the rest of the war there (January–September 1944), where he wound up supporting the French Resistance, as detailed in his memoir. The next day, June 6, 1944, was D-Day, the first day of the Normandy landings.

Career

After the war, Palacci learned that during the war his father had died in Egypt and his maternal grandfather in Paris. His mother and then sister returned from Egypt and lived with his grandmother and him in Paris. He finished his schooling and university with a degree in chemical engineering (rubber and polymers). He started military service in 1954 and served in Algeria (1955–1956) as an officer. In 1957, he returned to Paris and worked as an engineer chemist in several plants. In 2006, Professor Simon Epstein of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Palacci for Aloumim met with a delegation from the Commission pour l'indemnisation des victimes de spoliations (CIVS) (Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation). He also supported the Judeopedia.

Personal and death

Palacci's parents met in Paris at a wedding. His father, who was ill for much of his life, returned with his family to Garden City, Cairo, Egypt for warmer weather. He came from both Sephardic and Ashkenazi families: Sephardic line: The Sephardic Palacci side of his family left Spain after the Alhambra Decree, wound up in İzmir and eventually Cairo. His grandfather Vita Palacci was a well-known department store owner. His father Isaac ("Izka" in his memoir) worked in exports and imports in support of his father's department store. Ashkenazi line: The Ashkenazi branch came from Eastern Europe. His maternal grandfather, "James Bémant," was born "Shlomo Beiman" in what is now Belarus. His maternal grandmother, "Rose Bémant," was born "Esther Rosenberg" in what is now Poland. James' father was a part-time colporteur and pêcheur with nine children. Rose's father was an épicier who became "rich" and had seven children. James and Rose Bémant had two children, Marceline and Charles. Marceline studied at finishing school in Brighton, UK.

In 1957 in Paris, he married Laora Hurwitz, whom he described as a " jeune fille egyptienne née de parents israéliens, familles Biluim (Gedera) et issus de famille fondatrice de Rishon Le Zion et de la Bank Leumi, elle-meme traductrice diplomée de la Sorbonne (français, anglais, hébreu, italien)" (a girl born in Egypt to Israeli parents... and herself a translator of English, French, Hebrew, and Italian, who graduated from the Sorbonne). They moved to Tel Aviv in 1960.

Edmond Vita Palacci died aged 85 on 29 October 2016 in Tel Aviv and was survived by his wife, sister, nieces, and nephew.

Works In 1992, he published his memoir in Hebrew. It features his experiences in France during World War II. He translated and published it into French in 2013. He also wrote poems and articles for newspapers.

Books