74The town of Montigny-lès-Metz, in Moselle, wanted to pay tribute to the deportees murdered during the Second World War. The municipality recently installed golden paving stones in front of the homes of those affected. She called this approach "Stumbling Stones". Dimitri Sokolowski, Deputy Mayor explains the objective of this initiative:
The idea is to reterritorialize, in a certain way, these people whose bodies have not necessarily been found. So, we write on a paving stone in front of their last home 'here lived', the name of the person and biographical elements .
More Dimitri did not stay there because he had the idea of writing to Jean-Jacques Goldman, who he knew was very committed to this cause.
I came up with the somewhat crazy idea of inviting him to come to Montigny to sing the song 'Comme toi', given that it conveys values of tolerance, peace and solidarity. So we wrote to him a little cheekily!
In the days that followed, the deputy mayor received a magnificent letter from Jean-Jacques Goldman, written by hand. He apologized for not being able to travel but that he was very sensitive to the approach since the mother and grandparents of the singer-songwriter had fled Munich at the time.
