UTW 63

Pére Jacques of France, Catholic priest, school head, Righteous Person

Art: 2015
Mosaic-drawing combo.
Size: 62 inches H x 42 W. [157.5 cm H x 106.6 W]

Pére Jacques was born in 1900 as Lucien Bunuel. In 1925 he was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. During WWII Père Jacques was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis for hiding several Jewish children in a school, thus trying to save the children from capital punishment as Jews were targeted for death throughout Europe. (Romany and Sinti peoples, aka "Gypsies," were also targeted for death and mass murder throughout Nazi occupied and allied Europe).

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Weighing only 85 pounds at liberation, Père Jacques died of the effects of starvation and tuberculosis at the Mauthausen concentration - death camp in Austria after liberation on June 2, 1945.

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His role in trying to save the Jewish school children was portrayed in the 1987 movie 'Au revoir les enfants.' The film was directed by the late French film director Louis Malle. The movie is an excellent movie for teaching children about tolerance vs. bigotry; there is no violence in the film.

Malle was a pupil at the school during the war years. One of the Jewish boys was his best friend, until the latter and other Jewish boys hiding in the school were arrested and deported to the Auschwitz death camp.

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A 96 sec. overview of the artwork.

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Pére Jacques art, start-to-finish Dec. 28, 2014 to Sep 2015 (1 hour, 34 minutes).

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Pére Jacques Holocaust education art: Design progression, Arrrgh! monster-fish tiles
(5 min., 47 sec)