B'nai B'rith International President Moishe Smith traveled to Nice, France, to grant Nice's Mayor and State Minister Christian Estrosi an award in recognition of the outstanding work he has done to promote Holocaust education.

In 2003, when Mr. Estrosi was president of the region, he launched a programme that annually sends hundreds of high school students, aged 13 to 14, to take a journey to Auschwitz. The children are prepared by a psychologist, and accompanied by former prisoners of the camps, government representatives and, of course, their teachers. This program was initiated with the strong support of Martine Ouaknine, now deputy mayor and previously president of the local Crif. To date, more than three thousand students had taken this journey.

On his visit to Nice, Smith also met the members of the ten lodges of the French Riviera.