February 11, 2000 • Page Image 83
…the tortured star. Like Bitton, Piaf, it turned out, had Moroccan roots; her maternal grandmother was a Kabil, a member of a Moroccan mountain tribe. Piaf also had a Jewish connection. Two of her favorite and most prolific composers, Raymond Asso and Michel Emer, were Jewish. She helped finance Emer's escape from occupied France during World War II, and worked with the Resistance to free prisoners from a German camp. The singer periodically en...…

















































