Journeys to Justice — Life Paths and Sites of Memory

Combining a love of discovery and detective work, uncovering facts that were not easily available, Tanya Kalischer set out for France on a journey decades in the making. There, she traced the footsteps of her father, the late Clemens Kalischer, in his flight from World War II France. Specifically, she wanted to find the eight camps where he was held prisoner for three years, and she wanted to see how and if the French memorialized the sites. Spoiler alert: They weren’t.

Tanya worked in archives, interviewed historians, and was guided by local residents. Much of the field work was conducted in French, a skill dormant for many decades but essential to the research. Finding unmarked sites often meant navigating historical records and interviews she had conducted of her father. Along the way, she uncovered stories of resilience, travail, courage, despair, and the pursuit of justice.

Tanya’s father was born in Germany, in 1921, and his immediate family left for Paris in 1933, as the Nazis came to power. In 1939, at age 18, Clemens was arrested as an enemy alien in France, and he began three years of forced labor and imprisonment.

During her journey, Tanya was struck by the juxtaposition of beauty and war. “Most of the locations of the camps were beautiful,” she said. “There was no indication anything horrific had happened there.” And, she noted, she was only able to find some of the sites because of key details provided by her father in old, recorded conversations. “His voice guided me to some of these locations,” said Tanya.

Ultimately, Clemens spent two years — the longest of his imprisonments — in Albi, where he discovered, miraculously, that his father was also being held. In an equally amazing stroke of good fortune, his mother and sister had been relocated from Paris to Albi, to a farm across the Tarn River.

After two years, Clemens, his parents, and sister escaped to Marseilles and boarded a freighter to Casablanca before embarking for the United States and, ultimately, New York. There, Clemens began a photography career that would span more than seven decades, and his work would appear in publications and exhibits worldwide.

The journey, Tanya noted, also reinforced for her the importance of oral history in the pursuit of information, and she encourages students to practice the art of storytelling and interviewing people.

“I never could have found these places that were unmarked, that are a part of French history, that are now completely obscured … without the oral history,” Tanya added. “I encourage everyone to interview their families and record their stories — any story, not necessarily a journey to justice — because any story is worthy of understanding your past, as it will inform your future.”

Established by Trustee Nan Brewster Paternotte ’65 on the occasion of her 50th reunion in 2015, the Paternotte Family Faculty Travel and Study Endowment Fund supports Miss Hall’s faculty professional development in the form of summer travel.

• 2024 Donna Daigle + Ellie Kreischer

• 2022–23 Dr. Chris Himes

• 2019 Sue Lovell

• 2018 Rebecca Cook-Dubin P’24

• 2017 Vicky Biancolo P’16, P’20

• 2016 Ellie Kreischer