Teen drove car 60mph into a lorry
hem laugh, include a walknd routine that would later ature. nvaded France in 1940, Marcel Boy Scouts fled with the childing with families in the city. Barbie was made head of the n. Known as the Butcher of ed in torturing and murdering nd members of the Resistance.
nd his brother forged docuto change the ages of French to make them too young to be labour camps or, in the case h children, to work in German o changed his own surname Mangel to the French Marceau. city started to be rounded up, istance decided to get the en to safety in Switzerland. e children across the Alps on sed his mime and clowning to n their papers were checked by s. Jonathan says: “Growing up e knew German, so he taught the children German songs. It helped that he could talk to the soldiers in their own language.
“He was incredibly courageous. Switzerland had this law that said they weren’t accepting refugees, but if you were a child refugee and you made it to Switzerland they wouldn’t report you because it was a neutral country.
“Once they were there, Save the Children would claim them. It was a safe haven so the whole effort was to get them there without the Nazis stopping them.”
Jonathan says: “Marcel was involved in three operations at the beginning but the rest of the
Film scene & Marcel at 2001 awards operation of the Jewish Boy Scouts together with Save the Children saved 10,000 children.” Marcel’s father Charles was caught by the Gestapo and killed in Auschwitz in 1944. Jonathan says: “The most moving story I heard is that Marcel tracked down where his father was sent, but nobody knew what Auschwitz was. He would sit and wait for the train that came back from Poland to see if his father would come back from this place.” After the war, Marcel became the most famous mime in the world, creating Bip, a melancholy clown with a white face, striped jumper and battered hat with limp flower. After success on the US stage and television in the mid-1950s, he performed Bip internationally for decades. His work inspired numerous stars, from actor Gary Cooper to magician David Copperfield. Michael
Jesse Eisenberg as Marcel uses his mime skills to entertain the orphaned Jewish children
Jackson famously asked him to create “the choreography of my lost childhood” and Marcel’s sketch Walking Against the Wind inspired Jackson’s moonwalk.
Marcel never spoke of his war-time experiences, except when he was presented with the Wallenberg Medal for his humanitarian work in 2001.
He told the audience at the University of Michigan: “I don’t like to speak about myself because what I did, humbly, during the war was only a small part of what happened to heroes who died through their deeds.
“I will not speak about my deeds. It is true I saved children, bringing them to Switzerland. I forged identity cards with my brother when it was very dangerous if you were arrested especially if you were in the underground.”
Resistance charts those wartime heroics and, in times of turmoil, Jonathan says: “It is important for moviegoers to see how much worse the world was not so long ago but also how much better it can get.”
■ Resistance is available on Video on Demand.
TRAGIC Jasper de Pelet
A TEENAGER drove his car at 60mph into an oncoming lorry moments after texting his mum, “I’m sorry”, an inquest heard.
Jasper de Pelet, 18, had been a “gifted” student at Sherborne School, Dorset, but was “despondent” after missing out on a place at the University of Bristol.
He had a place to study history in Cardiff, but was on a gap year when he died in November.
In his journals, he had written about his depression and anxiety, saying “even when I am at my happiest sadness can crush me at any time”.
His father Louis, a counsellor, and mother Rebecca, who teaches at the school where Jasper was a pupil, wiped away tears at the inquest in Salisbury. Verdict: Suicide.