The persecutions suffered by the rural Jewish community of the Pays de Hanau attest to the need to preserve their memory. They are part of a collective memory confronted with the Alsatian Judenrein and the Shoah. Research in the archives of the Bouxwiller high school as well as precious testimonies have enabled Laurence Jost-Lienhard and her students to trace the life course of a teacher, Maurice Bloch, deported to Auschwitz by convoy 62 on November 20, 1943 , and students with tragic destinies: the brothers Roger and Jacques Joseph, deported by convoy 48 on February 13, 1943, Samuel (Samy) Rothkopf, shot at the Swiss border on December 23, 1942 and Benno (Benoît) Malz, killed in a tank in November 1944 in front of Belfort.

Driven by the need to pass on the memory and to involve the youngest, the author brings life back to beings of whom we did not know what had become. Born in Alsace, these stories affect many other regions, such as Cher with the tragedy of the wells of Guerry, Jura, Doubs, Isère, Haute-Vienne and Dordogne, lands of welcome for Jewish refugees from Alsace. . With several classes of pupils, Laurence Jost-Lienhard undertook a work of memory which led to the realization of a documentary film, “Kaddish for a teacher”, rewarded by the Price Annie and Charles Corrin. He obtained the Prize for Citizen Education from the National Order of Merit (Bas-Rhin), in 2020.