Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau

Next

"Silence does not exist... On stage my soul speaks, and that respect for silence is capable of touching people more deeply than any words."

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consecter adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt

Marceau was born in Strasbourg on March 22, 1923. His parents were Charles Mangel and Anne Werzberg. When he was four years old, he and his family of Jewish origin moved to Lille, although they returned to Strasbourg in the early years of his adolescence.

Next

Next

At 16 years old, Marcel and his family were forced to leave their home when German troops invaded France during World War II, fleeing to Limoges, where he died in 2007. His father, a Jewish butcher, was arrested. by the Gestapo and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Marcel and his brother, Alain, decided to adopt the surname Marceau in order to hide their Jewish origins. The surname was chosen as a reference to François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, general of the French Revoluti

Next

Both brothers enlisted in the French Resistance in Limoges, where they saved numerous Jewish children from concentration camps (350 children according to some versions). Later, the two brothers joined Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces.