After WWI, Baptiste Esther (1893-1973) and his wife Méli Falck (1896-1955) run with their children a small circus. About the daughters Rita and Zélie Esther we know that they worked with horses. Baptiste Esther trained also his Spanish godson Marius Swils who lived with the family and later became an agile horse rider. The Esthers Read More…
Originally from Belgium the Sénécas worked as a Circus family throughout France in the interwar period. As a travelling company and without a fixed residence, the nine children of Albert Sénéca (born 1907, Belgium) and Joséphine Sénéca, (born 1907, France), were born in different places in France. In the wake of WWII, the Sénéca family Read More…
The project ‘Forgotten Cosmopolitans’ is based on a two-year pilot project (2017-2018) entitled ‘Diverging Fates: Travelling Circus People in Europe during National Socialism’. From this first scientific encounter the utilization of a biographical approach has resulted in a collection of short life stories, visible on the project’s website: www.divergingfates.eu. The follow-up project ‘Forgotten Cosmopolitans’ will Read More…
