1. We are during the autumn of the year 1936; I just arrived in Geneva where I wanted to study Letters and Pedagogy, coming from Hitlerian Germany... Even though I was a young Jewish student, I was not yet `chased' by the Nazis, and was even allowed to enroll in a German university of the `third Reich', given that my father was killed at the front during the First World War...
2. Before I registered as a student in the Faculty of Letters, I was present at the inauguration of the bust of Professor Albert Thibaudet that had just died; the ceremony took place at the first floor of the central building of the University (today `Uni 1'), a few meters from the main entrance of the Aula. I found myself in the midst of a small audience, next to a man who struck me by his serious and concentrated air... Someone whispered to me: `This is the probable successor of Thibaudet at the chair of French Literature!'. A few weeks later, I recognized that man in his first course on Pierre Ronsard that he commenced with the verse: ``Levez-vous Helene, vous etes paresseuse!'', in a packed lecture hall of the `Aula'...
3. We are invited- the students of his seminar- to his place. His wife Claire welcomes us at the entrance of their house, 4 chemin BIZOT (at Cartigny, if I am not mistaken.) We find ourselves standing around him holding a small glass of wine in the beautiful salon, that is decorated with pictures and books. He tells us about Paul VALERY and the strong impression that the latter made on him, during one of his visits to Geneva. Later, one of the students shared with him his doubts about his literary future. And Marcel Raymond responded with a genuine tone of encouragement: `But you will find yourself!'. These words were engraved in my memory, and indirectly helped me, several times...
4. Another time, I was alone with him in the same salon, having requested a meeting with him to discuss a personal problem that bothered me: he listened to me with attention and sympathy, understanding me perfectly and giving a friendly and encouraging advice, better than a professional psychologist could have been given. I was also impressioned by the nice ambience that reigned in the house: rarely have I sensed such a familial harmony in a Genevian home.
5. Marcel Raymond was of a rather frail constitution, at any rate according to appearance, yet he accompanied to his last resting place, at the Jewish cemetery of VEYRIER, in a freezing winter day, his friend and colleague, Isaac BENRUBI (privat-docent of philosophy at the Faculty of Letters during thirty years, and then, shortly before his death in 1943- Honorary Professor of the University of Geneva, and one of the great interpreters of the moral thoughts of Jean-Jacques and the Bergsonian philosophy). In addition to Raymond, paying homage, were, among others, Professors Liebman HERSCH, Charles BAUDOUIN, and Andre OLTRAMARE with whose family, especially the father (Paul OLTRAME), Benrubi was bonded in friendship all his life. Marcel Raymond also visited Benrubi from time to time, in his basement apartment, 8 rue Saint-Leger, and once Benrubi almost died in his arms, as Raymond told me recently, of a heart attack, had he not called Doctor Abraham STAROBINSKI that lived at the same house...
Raymond also went to listen to Benrubi's lectures (outside the university) on BERGSON and AMIEL (that Benrubi was one of the first to recognize, in his book ``L'ideal moral chez ROUSSEAU, Madam DE STAEL, et AMIEL''). Raymond himself that, if I am not mistaken, also gave us a course on the author of ``JOURNAL INTIME'', participated in two lectures that took place in the conference organized on the centennial of Amiel's death.
6. It was while I was walking along rue de Carouge, in another chilly windy day, that I saw the black letters on the headline of the newspaper ``LA SUISSE'': ``HOMAGE TO MARCEL RAYMOND'' that chilled me even more. I could hardly believe it, having spoken to him on the phone a week earlier, after a trip to Israel, and promising to visit him soon, by his invitation.
7. I was heart-broken for not being able to meet him one last time, alive. So I wanted to see him at least one more time, on his deathbed at the Chapelle du Cimetiere de Plainpalais, where he rested before the Culte at Temple de Saint-Gervais. When I entered the chapel, I encountered, by chance, another old pupil and friend of Raymond (M.F.); we made (or rather re-made) our acquaintance, since according to him we should have met each other in the courses of Marcel Raymond and Andre Oltramare. I asked him if he remembered a student, Ariane OLTRAMARE (daughter of Andre), with whom I took the course of her father, as well as the seminar of Professor Charles WERNER on Leibnitz's Monadology, and whom I wanted to meet since my arrival at Geneva, for personal reasons. M.F. replied in the affirmative, adding that her name is now Ariane SCHMITT.
When I came back home, my eyes glanced at a brochure on my desk that the latter [A. Scmitt], has edited to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the journal ``L'ESSOR''. At he occasion of this `fete', there was also a commemorative soiree, at the Uni II, where she presided. While these facts are not directly pertinent to my recollections of Raymond, all I want to convey is that Madame Ariane Schmitt was his student, as were hundreds, if not thousands, of others, and it is superfluous to mention this; if I do this all the same, it is because at that very same soiree, there was an interesting lecture by M. Georges HALDAS. In the above mentioned phone conversation with Raymond, a week before his death, I told him that I attended this lecture by his disciple and friend Haldas, but I was unable to recall the title, which Marcel Raymond supplied right away. It was: ``Politics and Spirituality'', and he emphasized the fact that he greatly regretted not being able to attend the lecture.
7. I saw Geoges Haldas at the entrance to Temple de Saint-Gervais before the worship began. Yet I did not dare talk to him, assuming that he was too upset and did not wish to talk. A few days later, on Saturday, Dec. 5, I was surprised and delighted to see a rerun of a television broadcast of a discussion between Georges Haldas and Marcel Raymond, that was filmed in the garden of his house at Cartigny; this interview offered an excellent tour of the natural milieu and the spiritual world of our great master and friend- Marcel Raymond.