Ten Fun Facts About Marcel Marceau
You may know that Marcel Marceau was the most famous mime in the world, but you probably didn’t know that he’s an important character in PJ Our Way book Masters of Silence. Here are ten more fun facts about this incredible person.
- Marceau was born in France, and he was Jewish! His father, Charles Mangel, was a kosher butcher originally from Poland, and his mother, Anne Werzberg, was from Ukraine.
- He was a cousin of the popular Israeli singer Yardena Arazi.
- Marceau was educated by Yvonne Hagnauer (who would later be honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem). During that time he changed the ages on the identity cards of French Jews so they would appear too young to be sent away to labor camps.
- Marceau and his brother Alain were recruited into the French Resistance by their cousin Georges Loinger. Loinger died in 2018 at the age of 108 and was credited with saving around 350 children.
- During the war, Marceau helped save at least 70 Jewish children. He led them from occupied France across the border into neutral Switzerland. Marceau later said that he used his acting and pantomime skills to keep the kids calm and, perhaps more importantly, silent, during the most dangerous moments.
- Marceau once posed as a boy scout to trick the authorities; he took 24 French Jewish children dressed as scouts on a hike into the forest. The scouting adventure was actually an escape plan!
- Marceau’s father was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. This loss informed Marcel’s work, including his most famous character, Bip, who represented both the fragility of life and Marcel’s hope for the future.
- Marceau’s work - both in the resistance and arts - was honored with several awards and honorary degrees. In 2001, he was awarded the Wallenberg Medal by the University of Michigan, in recognition of his humanitarianism and acts of courage. The Medal was created in honor of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who rescued tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during the closing months of World War II. (You can read more about him in the PJ Our Way title, His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg.) Other recipients include Elie Weisel, Tenzin Gyatzo, the 14th Dalai Lama, Miep Gies, and Desmond Tutu.
- Marcel Marceau died in France on September 22, 2007 at the age of 84.
- His amazing work in the French resistance plays an important part in one of this month’s PJ Our Way title, Masters of Silence, by the award-winning author Kathy Kacer.
MrMoe
cool facts!