Samuel Pisar, my first cousin, my mother's nephew, was a major influence in my life.
I was nearing completion on a documentary tribute to this extraordinary man when I was compelled to abandon it—even though his message of hope and reconciliation seemed and still seems especially pressing today. It was hoped that the documentary would be able to draw extensively on Leonard Bernstein's powerful Kaddish Symphony, as well as on the new text for it written by his friend Samuel Pisar.
Sam was also Antony Blinken's stepfather, and the former Secretary of State has referred frequently to all that he owes to Sam, a Holocaust survivor, prominent international lawyer, and author (Of Blood and Hope).
Hopefully, the videos paying tribute to Mula (as the family knew him) will include the following:—Kaddish: Samuel Pisar—A Legacy of Hope, ten minutes from the onetime work-in-progress.
—My Cousin—An Interview with Holocaust Survivor Samuel Pisar, a filmed interview I did with Sam in 1981
—Sam’s testimony on the importance to him of Le Chambon and on my parents’ role in his “redemption.”
—A remarkable interview with him conducted in French (subtitled) in 2004 by the Holocaust museum in Paris. (I am proud that in this interview Sam evokes my parents, and their role in his “redemption.”)
Pierre Sauvage
sauvage@sauvage.com
Holocaust survivor Samuel Pisar interviewed in 2004, in French (subtitled), by the Paris Mémorial de la Shoah.