- The desecration of the Westhoffen cemetery in early December came to remind us: malicious acts persist in Alsace against the Israelite community.
- To avoid this, the presidents of the departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin launched a new system, that of "Watchers of memory": volunteer citizens who monitor these cemeteries from time to time.
You have to venture on narrow dirt roads to discover, isolated and on the edge of the forest, to find the small Israelite cemetery of Mackenheim, in the Bas-Rhin. A quiet place, far from the first house located almost two kilometers away. "I was going to say that this is the strength of this cemetery, because it is one of the only ones to have never been desecrated", smiles Anne-Sophie Stokbauer-Zemb, a historic resident of the small town of center of Alsace, located along the Rhine. "I hope it will remain so. The young woman does this by coming there to make rounds very regularly.
Like her, there are now around thirty “Memory Watchers” in Alsace. All responded to the call of the presidents of the two departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin. Brigitte Klinkert and Frédéric Bierry launched this initiative last spring, a few months after the appearance of swastikas at the Quatzenheim cemetery in February 2019.
Half of the cemeteries have their "Memory Watcher"
"Faced with the upsurge in desecration, I wanted a reassuring and dissuasive presence in Jewish cemeteries to prevent new malicious acts," said Frédéric Bierry, whose departmental assembly voted unanimously to set up the device this fall.
In the Haut-Rhin, around twenty volunteers are already patrolling. The recruitment phase in the Bas-Rhin, which began in December, continues. "Out of the forty or so cemeteries we have to cover, we have found someone for almost half," adds Philippe Ichter, who manages "hirings", in relation to the consistories. “All the places will not be covered from the start but it does not matter, we are on a long-term work. "
How does he go about finding volunteers? "We are already turning to people near the cemeteries or those who were used to going there," replies the officer in charge of relations with cults and interreligious dialogue. “We don't ask them the question of religion and we don't impose anything on them. Rural Judaism has disappeared in Alsace. We first look for humanistic people and we just make them sign a charter, for insurance questions. "
"We are not looking for superheroes"
This is how Anne-Sophie Stokbauer-Zemb, a Catholic, joined the “Watchers of memory” team and watches over a hundred steles. Mother, working in Strasbourg, the thirty-something wants to get involved, "because it's important". "I did it informally before," admits the young woman. “I was walking around and a quick tour of the cemetery was quickly done. So given the news, it seemed natural to continue. I am a native of here and I am passionate about history and heritage, which I studied at the University of Strasbourg. "
Her role, she sees it first of all as a “civic approach”. "We should not replace the presidents of the Jewish communities of the Bas-Rhin, but work in concert with them because often they no longer live there," insists the thirty-something. "We are not looking for superheroes," says Philippe Ichter. “We just want people who are careful and can then share their experience with college students. This is the other educational aspect of the project. So that the desecration stops definitively.
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