They grip the arm firmly. One supports the other. At the site of the former Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, an outbuilding of the Buchenwald camp, located in central Germany, there is not much to see, but the ghosts are present . Tears are running down the cheeks of Colette Marin-Catherine, 92, and Lucie Fouble, 19. One has known war, the other studies it. The first lost her brother during the conflict, one of the 9,000 deported from France to Dora, the second did research on him. The two of them decided to take this trip together.

This moving story is the backdrop for the short documentary "Colette" selected for the 93rd Academy Awards, which will take place on Sunday 25 April.

"Nobody thought that this film was going to take on such a scale!", Underlines Colette Marin-Catherine, from her apartment in Caen, a few days before the ceremony.

Since the announcement of the appointments, his daily life has been turned upside down.

His phone keeps ringing.

This nonagenarian connects interviews and savoring the enthusiasm around this 25-minute documentary.

"He had a will of steel"

This incredible adventure begins in 2018. An American director, Anthony Giacchino, and a French producer, Alice Doyard, are then in search of heroic figures of the Second World War. By chance, in Normandy, they meet Colette. A high school student during the conflict, she joined the resistance. His family is deeply patriotic. His grandfather and two of his uncles lost their lives in 14-18: "I have a great-grandfather who was also killed in 1870. In our family, all the males died in the war". The teenager follows in their footsteps. During the Occupation, she monitors the comings and goings around Caen by noting the license plates of German soldiers, while her brother Jean-Pierre distributes leaflets, hides weapons, helps opponents to hide.

Colette Marin-Catherine when she was a teenager.

© ColetteDocShort

But in 1943, the young man was arrested a few months after having decorated monuments to the dead on the occasion of November 11.

Sentenced to forced labor, sent to the Struthoff camp in Alsace, then to Gross-Rosen and Mittelbau-Dora in Germany, he died of exhaustion on March 22, 1945, ten days after his 19th birthday.

"He was a very handsome guy, a seasoned athlete. He had a will of steel and two years ahead of his studies," recalls his sister.

"It's terrible to see such a jewel disappear. You can imagine the future it would have had!"

After her death, Colette had vowed never to set foot in Germany.

The "morbid tourism" revolt: "I was certainly not going to go to Dora among a crowd of people chatting among themselves in a coach".

But his meeting with Lucie Fouble upsets his convictions.

Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard put her in touch with this young history student who then produced Jean-Pierre's biography for the Dora deportees dictionary.

“There was a spontaneous empathy between this kid and me. I literally adopted her,” says Colette.

Jean-Pierre Catherine, born in 1926, was a student at the Merchant Navy aspirants school in Caen.

© ColetteDocShort

"A true pilgrimage of meditation"

Very quickly, the directors offered them to follow in Jean-Pierre's footsteps. Colette changes her mind. She agrees to make the trip with the young girl. "It was no longer a question of going on a tourist walk, but a real pilgrimage of meditation. Without this magnificent opportunity, I would never have done it. Lucie was of extraordinary intellectual help to me. Thanks to her, I knew exactly where my brother died ". Under the gaze of the camera, the former resistance member discovers the place where Jean-Pierre experienced so much suffering. Little by little the armor of this strong personality is cracking. The emotion overwhelmed her: "I knew very well that after crossing the border I would not be the same. To hear German speak again was too much for me.It revived a lot of things and in particular the memory of what we had lived during the Occupation ", she sums up.

At his side, the young student shares her pain and is transported 80 years back.

This experience marked her deeply.

"I had a hard time getting over it. I remember when we were in the crematorium. Colette told me that this was where it all ended for Jean-Pierre. Her voice fell. broken ", describes Lucie Fouble.

"But it especially made me grow. We are still in contact. Beyond having had the chance to meet a former resistance member, I also won a grandmother", she specifies.

Colette and Lucie near the crematorium of the Dora concentration camp.

© ColetteDocShort

A transmission between generations

An unwavering bond has been created between the former resistance fighter and the aspiring historian. The film is above all a story of transmission. "At my age, I will not talk about it for a very long time yet. It is Lucie who takes up the torch and who will take care of all this", summarizes Colette. "I have only one thing to say to young people: do not stir up hatred! This film is a message of peace and appeasement".

In the night from Sunday to Monday, from Normandy, she will be in front of her television to attend the Oscars ceremony live which will take place in Los Angeles. “Like all older people, I'm a bit of an insomniac,” she jokes. "I'm not particularly worried. At 92, having an Oscar won't change my life, but if it is won, I'll double my dose of milk chocolate. Every night, I take a little bar and there. I will take two. It will be an orgy! ", she explains maliciously, while specifying that the presentation of this prestigious award will take place on the same day as the National Day in memory of the victims and heroes of the deportation. and that his birthday: "Another beautiful coincidence!" .

The poster for the documentary short "Colette".

© ColetteDocShort

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