An older brother

Georges Kiejman

in Hommage à Léo Matarasso, Séminaire sur le droit des peuples, Cahier réalisé par CEDETIM-LIDLP-CEDIDELP, Février 1999

Georges Kiejman, who shared his law firm in the rue de Tournon with Léo for more than thirty years, was unable to attend our day of tribute on 26 February 1999. His testimony comes to us through the letter he wrote to Vera Feyder, in response to her text, which she asked him to complete with a personal contribution, taking into account the almost half-century they have spent together, since that day in October 1960 when, as a young lawyer, Georges Kiejman came to ask for professional “asylum” from the man whose high level of competence and political commitment he already admired.

Dear Vera,
You’ve said so much about Léo’s generosity that I don’t know what else I can say.
You know that I have always considered him as a kind of great big brother, to whom it was necessary to avoid some material worries unworthy of him and which he did not care about. But I can’t add anything to what you said.
Léo was a familiar and reassuring daily presence for me, who knew how to reduce all the troubles he encountered to the measure of his personal wisdom.
But I am just as incapable as you describe of writing on a blank page. At the very least, I could have, in the sadness of the moment, reacted in front of a microphone.
I was with Léo as I was with Mendes France, after they had been active participants in history.
I was not involved in the functioning of the Peoples’ Rights League and was therefore only a familiar shadow without being able to give a decisive testimony. Linda Bimbi is perfect in this respect.
I don’t think it’s very important that I just say, which goes without saying, that like you I really liked it.
If we were in the context of an intimate conversation (and not an official tribute) I would not resist the urge to correct slightly the hagiographic portrait you paint of him by recalling that Léo, ready to sacrifice his time and even his life for the people, did not often condescend to mingle with the difficulties of the mere mortals who could be his relatives.
It was his greatness to think high without ever lowering his gaze.
But all this cannot be said without seeming to express a criticism of someone who, as you have magnificently pointed out, demanded nothing from anyone and was, when it came to great causes, ready to give everything.
All the best to you and of course in Léo’s memory.

Kiejman, Georges, Avocat

in:

<strong>Hommage à Léo Matarasso, Séminaire sur le droit des peuples
Cahier réalisé par CEDETIM-LIDLP-CEDIDELP, Février 1999
L’Harmattan, Paris, 2004</strong>