March 22 – Happy Birthday, Marcel Marceau

nPostednon March 22, 2016

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nWhennI think of Marcel Marceau, I think of “Bip the Clown.” I think of mime, the art ofnsilence.

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nIndidn’t realize that he was a World War II hero, too!

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nMarceaunwasn’t the kind of wartime hero who flies planes and shoots downnNazis. Instead, he lived in hiding, worked with the FrenchnResistance, worked as a liaison officer with General George Patton’snU.S. forces, and saved a lot of kids from the Holocaust!

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nActually,nhe used mime to save those children.

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nMarcelnwas born who was born Marcel Mangel on this date in 1923. His family was Jewish, and his father was a kosher butcher. WhennFrance entered World War II, Marcel was 15 or 16, and he and his familynfled from the Nazis. Unfortunately, his father was captured and deported to thenAuschwitz concentration camp, where he was killed.

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nFrancenfell to Germany, and Nazis occupied Marcel’s nation. That’s when henand his younger brother changed their last name to Marceau. They wentnto work to resist the Nazis and to save fellow French citizens from Hitler — and especially fellow Jews from thenconcentration camps.

nThe reason that Marceau was used as a liaisonnofficer was because he could speak two other languages, English andnGerman, in addition to French – a very useful skill during a worldnwar!

nInhope you are wondering how Marceau used mime to save Jewish children.nWhen he was a child, Marceau had been inspired by a Charlie Chaplinnfilm, and he had acted and performed for other children many times.nNow an older teen and young adult, Marceau was able to communicate withnyoungsters silently as they were in hiding andnon the run from the Nazis. He was also able to keep them quiet and calm by performing for them, as theynescaped.

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nDocumentariannPhilippe Mora said of Marceau, “He was miming for his life.”

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nMarceaunpretended to be a Boy Scout director leading campers on hikes in thenAlps. But what he was really doing was smuggling Jewish kids intonSwitzerland. He did this journey from France to Switzerland three times.

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nMarceau also developed skills in forgery. He used red crayons and black ink to alter the ages ofnJewish French youths on their identity cards. That way he “proved”nthat the kids were too young to go to labor camps. He forged papers, helped kids look younger for ID photographs, and when he had to, he even bribed officials to accept the cards and papers.

nI’mnnot sure how many people Marceau was able to save, but severalnsources said “hundreds.” Which is amazing!

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nMarceau’snfirst big performance as an adult was to Americans in an army tent,njust after the liberation of Paris. There he did his mime acts innfront of 3,000 U.S. soldiers.

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nAnothernmime act in front of soldiers, earlier than that, may have saved hisnlife. Marceau accidentally ran into a unit of German soldiers, and henused his acting skills to make those soldiers think he was thenadvance guard of a large force of French soldiers. Instead of killing the lone Marceau, the German soldiers panicked and retreated!

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nTalknabout acting for your life! n

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nAlsonon this date: