“Elek, when you’re a bloody foreigner and a Jew, you keep your mouth shut!”

“If you want to be in the Resistance, take up arms and kill them!”

It was these two comments that sealed the fate of Thomas Elek, born in Budapest on 7 December 1924, and executed by firing squad at the Mont-Valérien, with his comrades of the Manouchian group, on 21 February 1944. The first was made to him by a fellow pupil at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand: Thomas left the school in June 1941 to join the Resistance. The second was made by Thomas’s mother – a Communist and a resistance member -  to her son: in June 1942, Thomas was recruited by the FTP-MOI (a resistance movement of immigrant workers). He took part in several attacks on the occupying forces. Living in hiding in increasingly perilous conditions, it was his mother’s love which enabled Thomas to remain steadfast in his courage and determination. Thomas was arrested on 21 November 1943. Three months later, after being tortured, and after leaving two remarkable farewell letters, he was executed.

A documentary directed by Philippe Fréling, with Ina archives

The film, a 71’ documentary, written by Alain Blottière and Philippe Fréling, directed by Philippe Fréling, and co-produced by Mérapi Productions and CNRS Images, follows the itinerary of a young man today, retracing the life of Thomas Elek.

In Paris and its suburbs, in the very places where Elek lived and carried out his acts of resistance, the young man – the same age as Tommy – meets eye-witnesses and consults contemporary documents, and archive images conserved at Ina, about the heroic and moving destiny of Thomas Elek.

The film has been granted support by the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.