A Story of Courage, Gratitude and Perseverance

During a heavy spring snowstorm, Irv and I drove down to Denver to attend a private showing of the new documentary, “Coming Full Circle: The 80-Year Search for Holocaust Rescuers.” It’s about my dear friend Eric Cahn and his sister, Zilla, and beautifully demonstrates the Mussar middot (soul traits) of courage, gratitude and perseverance. Produced by Zilla’s son David Wagner, it tells the story of the siblings’ search for the courageous French families who hid them as young children, saving their lives, during World War II.

Eric spent much of his adult life unsuccessfully seeking the family who sheltered him as a toddler after the French Resistance smuggled him out of Gurs, an internment camp for Jews in southwest France. In 1983, he thought he had found his selfless rescuers. It turned out to be both joyful and disappointing news. He had not found the family who rescued him, but had discovered Jacqueline Prandi Apard, the woman who had hidden his sister. Zilla and Jacqueline reunited later that year in France. Zilla’s family was able to honor Jacqueline at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations.

“One of the biggest holes in my life has been my inability to find the French Christian family who rescued me…Hundreds of times I have tasted the sweetness of an imagined reunion with my rescuers. On countless occasions I have struggled to mentally script my speech of gratitude,” Eric says in “Maybe Tomorrow, A Hidden Child of the Holocaust,” the memoir he and I co-authored in 1995.

Because I worked so closely with Eric for several years to record his memories, his gratitude for the rescuers became mine. Without these brave French families, my friend would never have survived the Holocaust.

As we wrote the book, I often reflected on the courage it took for these rural families to take foreign Jewish children into their homes. Being discovered by the Nazis would have meant instant death for the hidden children and the families who sheltered them. They embodied Mussar traits that I aspire to – courage, compassion, loving-kindness, generosity. Could I have been so strong and selfless?

Following publication of the memoir, Eric persevered in his search for his French family. In 2005, he and his wife, Jane, traveled to Europe to retrace the steps of his World War II journey from Germany to France. They even met with French officials in an attempt to identify his rescuers. No luck.

Then a few years ago, a French author and researcher, Sylvain Masson, became interested in the Cahn family’s story and conducted extensive research. He took out an ad in the local French newspaper where he believed Eric had lived. Voila! A man in the town recognized Eric and responded to Sylvain.

It was a bittersweet moment. Just a couple of weeks after Eric died in September 2022, his family received notification that Sylvain had finally located Eric’s savior, a widow named Gabrielle Guai of Buzancais.

The news broke my heart, and then I found solace in the words the Cahn family wrote for the preface to Sylvain’s book. They say, “Our initial response was regret that we were unable to share this news with Eric. However, we began to realize this was the sign he was sending to us through Sylvain that he was OK.”

The documentary includes an interview with Madame Guai’s grandson, who had been curious about the unknown little boy in family photos. It also features clips of old interviews with Eric and recent interviews with Eric’s and Zilla’s family members. I especially enjoyed segments with LeAndre Boizeau, a Guai neighbor and Eric’s playmate when he was in hiding. LeAndre tells the story of the two young boys giving the family cat a haircut, much to the chagrin of the adults. “I always wondered what happened to little Henri.”  (Eric’s full name was Erich Heinz Cahn, and in France he was called Henri.)

The remarkable documentary filled me with laughter, tears and hope. And I marveled at the amazing story where so many Mussar soul traits are exemplified – Eric’s and Zilla’s perseverance and gratitude; Jacqueline’s and Gabrielle’s courage and kindness; and David Wagner’s honoring of his family by undertaking this ambitious project.

(Note: The documentary is not available publicly yet but hopefully will be featured in film festivals soon.)