Le Chambon sur Lignon

Chapter 19: Chambon-Sur-Lignon, from Donald A. Lowrie, The Hunted Children (1963):

In some sections of France a village is either wholly Protestant or wholly Catholic. This distinction prevails in most cities as well: if you are a Protestant, you trade usually with Protestant shopkeepers, or the reverse if you are Catholic. One of the best-known Protestant villages in southern France is Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the hills above Lyon. The most important institution in the town is the College Cevenol, a top-grade preparatory school. And both school and town have always accepted the leadership of the local Protestant clergy, who are also part of the college teaching staff.

Chambon was already well acquainted with refugees before the Jews began to come. When the remnants of republican armies in Spain began to pour over the border into France, (p.195) two years before the 1940 debacle, they were apportioned out to different parts of the country, and Chambon welcomed its share. The Spanish refugee families made themselves useful in the town, and left their monument there, in one of the best-built camps the French YMCA possesses, constructed by these unwilling guests from Spain.

Then, at the outset of war, thousands of families were evacuated from frontier sections of Alsace. Every southern French town had to take in its quota of these homeless people and find the necessary housing. The resultant clash between French citizens of German background and citizens in small French villages who had never been outside their own communities, produced many problems for social work agencies. Chambon accepted its portion of Alsatians, most of them Protestant, which made adjustment easier.

When the deportations began, besides several children's homes there were three centers for refugees in Chambon, managed by three of the different organizations belonging to our Coordination Committee. Among the residents in these homes, the majority of them people liberated from internment camps, there were over a hundred Jews.

Most French Protestants have never ceased protesting since Huguenot days. Chambon was outraged by the reports of Jewish arrests and deportations. Almost as if it had been planned, Vichy soon gave the townspeople a chance to register their opinions.

Late in the summer of 1942 the Vichy Minister for Youth, Lamirand, making a propaganda tour of the region, came to Chambon accompanied by the Prefet and called a meeting of youth organizations. His speech extolling Marshal Petain was received politely, but afterward a delegation of thirty senior students at the college, with their two pastors, waited on him to present their formal protest against what Vichy was doing with the Jews. "And we must tell you, Monsieur Je Prefet," they said, "that if any attempt is made to molest the Jewish guests in our village, we will resist, and our (p. 196) teachers too."

This was something new in the prefet's experience. He spluttered that the deportations were not anti-Semitic "persecution" but simply a regrouping of European Jews in Poland. Then he inadvertently admitted that he had received Vichy orders to take the Jews from Chambon. Growing more angry and red-faced with every minute, he turned on the two pastors: "Be careful! I know what you've been doing here. I can show you letters I've received. When the time comes, we'll get your Jews, and you'd better let them go peaceably." And he stalked out of the room.

That same week the pastors and their students made plans to hide their Jewish guests. If refugees were not a novelty in Chambon history, neither was their concealment. Some of the hideouts chosen had been used three hundred years before by the Huguenots. The whole countryside was alerted, and scarcely a farmer refused to take in a refugee should this become necessary.

On a Saturday afternoon a fortnight after the first visit the police came again, this time with two large khaki-colored buses which drew up in the village square. The police captain called on Pastor M. in his study: "We know you know all the Jews in this town-give us a list."

"But of course you don't really expect me to do that," the pastor replied. "Would you, in my place?"

"Well, then, you can at least sign this," and the captain held out an official poster: "Appeal to Jews." The notice urged all Jews in Chambon to tum themselves into the police, quietly. This would avoid all risk to families which had been sheltering Jews and prevent any disturbance of public order. By this time the other Chambon pastor had joined Pastor M. "But we cannot sign this," they assured the gendarme.

The police captain wasted no more words. "You'll sign it by tomorrow noon or I'll arrest both of you." "Tomorrow noon," he growled, as he slammed the door behind him. (p.197)

That night was a busy one for Chambon. Something went wrong with the town's lighting system, but darkness seemed not to hinder considerable movement. The police, waiting for their ultimatum to expire, slept in their buses. The Sunday morning church service was tense and the pastors expected to find the police waiting to arrest them as they went out into the street.

Instead, the gendarmes had begun their house-to-house search. Every house in the village, as well as most of the nearby farms, was rigorously inspected from cellar to attic. They found one Jew who had not hidden because half his ancestors had been Aryan. Villagers could scarcely keep from smiling as they passed those twenty gendarmes sitting in their two buses with their one captive. Someone brought the prisoner a homemade cake. Others quickly took the hint, and before long the meek-looking little man had a heap of presents that filled more space in the bus than he did. This was one way of showing complete solidarity with the pastors.

On Monday morning the shamefaced police had to release their sole captive, who had presented documentary proof that he was half "Aryan." However, they began a new combing over of the town and the country around it that continued, on and off, for more than a fortnight. Although twenty gendarmes hunted the woods and made countless surprise house searches in the town, not a single arrest could be made, and at last they departed in their two army buses.

I said not one person had been arrested in Chambon, but there was one exception which proved very interesting. Madame Durand ( that is not her name), "grande dame" of the village, had taken one of the Jewish refugees, a girl student, into her home. When first she heard of impending police action, Madame Durand went to the commissaire of police at once. "I give notice," she said, "that I have a girl named Greta at my house and I assume complete responsibility for her." That was that, and Madame Durand and the entire family went peacefully to bed. At three in the morning the (p. 198) police took the girl, despite Madame Durand's outraged protests. At six o'clock Madame Durand was in the train for Vichy. Before the day was over she had interviewed the Minister of Foreign Affairs and . the Chief of Police, a man almost as hard to see as the Pope. In the meantime the girl had been put into a train and was on her way to Germany. Fortunately she was taken out of the car before it crossed the demarcation line, and so was saved, at least for this time. From then on Madame Durand addressed reams of letters to all her friends telling of the terrible thing that had happened to her. As propaganda for further resistance the incident was most fortunate.

"La Maison des Roches," the European Student Relief home for refugees in Chambon, experienced particularly dramatic episodes. Its residents were all university students who had been released from various internment camps through the efforts of the Nimes Committee. The students were of nine different nationalities: ten of them were Aryan, twenty-one were Jewish. Here in the College Cevenol these young men could continue their studies. To help them with the French language, four French students from the College came to live with them in La Maison des Roches.

After German occupation of southern France, the residents of La Maison des Roches, like the rest of the people of Chambon, lived in a state of constant alert. Time and again there would be a rumor that the Gestapo were about to search the house, and there would be a general exodus to the woods. Since most of the police raids seemed to take place at night, students would sleep in the woods and come back to the house by day. A red-checkered towel hung in a certain window informed them that the coast was clear.

This uncertainty so disrupted any orderly study that the young French director of the house made a special trip to Vichy to explore the atmosphere there. To his discreet inquiries the authorities gave assurance that no arrests in his house were contemplated. This assurance turned out to be as (p.199) good as most of Laval's promises, and within a fortnight, possibly because the director's Vichy inquiry had called attention to Les Roches, the house was suddenly visited one summer morning by the dreaded Gestapo, demanding entrance. The courageous young director stalled with them at the front entrance, while all the Jewish students escaped by a rear door.

Of course the whole village was concerned about what might be happening in the student home, but how could anyone manage to pass the police cordon? A retired clergyman finally hit upon a scheme. He told the Gestapo men he was afraid something might happen to a valuable book he had lent one of the students, and so was permitted to enter the house. He returned to tell the townsfolk that Les Roches was in terror. The police were using their customary method of questioning plus physical coercion. It looked as though the whole group of students, all refugees but none of them Jews, would be carried away, and apparently nothing could be done to save them.

Here a pastor's wife intervened. She knew that one of the Austrian students at Les Roches had saved the life of a German soldier who had been stricken with cramps while swimming in the little river and who would have drowned without the young Austrian's timely help. As the pastor's wife she could and did call at the local German army headquarters, demanding to see the officer in charge. "Would you let that student who risked his life to save one of your men be arrested by the Gestapo?" she asked him. When he said no, the pastor's wife insisted that he accompany her to Les Roches and tell the story. Now, no minor officer would ever of his own accord cross swords with the all-powerful Gestapo, but such was the lady's persistence that this one reluctantly went with her. She managed to pass the police line by saying she was the cleaning woman, come as usual for her work. Inside, she put on a blue apron and took over in the kitchen, serving coffee to the Gestapo inquisitors. Once in their presence, she (p. 200) was able to insist that the German officer tell the story of the Austrian student and the rescue. As a result, he was the only man of the residents to escape deportation. The Gestapo, realizing how they had been tricked by the director at the entrance, took him away with the other students and for good measure the four French students also. The young director never returned.

Neither did most of the other Aryans. The case of one of the four French students was particularly distressing. Of Jewish origin, he was himself a Christian. Foreseeing possible interrogation, he had once asked his pastor what he should say about himself under questioning. The pastor had said that he need not mention his Jewish parents: he should simply insist that he was a Christian, his French nationality and his membership in the Christian church should assure his safety .... The Gestapo in Chambon did not discover the young man's racial ancestry, but once he was in a concentration camp in Germany- with full knowledge of what was happening to Jews all around him-his conscience so plagued him that he went to the commandant and revealed his Jewish parentage. He was immediately shipped out of that camp and was never heard from again.

The day Les Roches was raided the two pastors also were arrested and interned in Gurs. However, powerful intervention secured their release within two months, and they could continue as the center of activity in Chambon.

If the local Chambon police had ever sympathized with Vichy's plan to eliminate the Jews, German occupation certainly changed their minds. The long-drawn-out au[n]guish of hiding hundreds of Jews for months on end could never have been as successful as it was without the secret collaboration of friends in the local police office. Before almost every raid word would be passed around indicating what houses were to be searched. Somehow this system failed in the case of Les Roches.

Chambon was an outstanding example of the feeling that had (p.201) developed across the whole of France. Everywhere Christian people were helping Jews to escape the Nazi clutches. One man I knew lived for weeks with four other refugees in a cellar whose entrance was concealed under a trash pile. Another walked for six days along the railroad track posing as a workman, tapping the switches with his hammer, often passing police checkpoints undetected. A fascinating story could be written about disguises and subterfuges that helped Jewish refugees to elude their pursuers. Near Marseilles the children held in a detention camp learned that the age limit for exemption from deportation had been lowered from eighteen to sixteen, whereupon the fourteen boys between those two ages left for the woods before the police should come to get them. They were adopted by a troop of French Boy Scouts, and for weeks lived in the woods like Indians, fed secretly by their Scout protectors. In Chambon one day a large group of children from the Swiss Aid home got through the police cordon thrown around the village by donning Scout uniforms and marching out, singing French Scouting songs they had been practicing for weeks for just such an emergency. Scores of Jews, particularly children, found escape from the Chambon area impossible and never left it until the end of the war.

To their indiscretions in hiding Jews, the people of Chambon added the crime of helping the Resistance. Chambon became a minor headquarters for the "Maquis," the secret Resistance army, and the symbiosis of these two groups, the one led by the pastors refusing, as a matter of principle, the use of violence and the other existing principally to employ force against the Germans, was one of the exciting experiences of those years. Each group respected the other, each trusted the other's devotion to the same cause. Finally, as one of the pastors later told me, they could scarcely decide which group did more to protect the other. It was a double spy of the Maquis-a man the Nazis employed for espionage who was secretly reporting to the French-who warned the Chambon (p. 202) pastors so that they were able to go into hiding just before the Gestapo came a second time to seize them.

When, a little later, the American OSS began dropping parachutists into southern France the Chambon churchyard was a favorite target. One American who broke a leg in the operation was cared for in the local hospital until he was able to travel, although the Germans, now in full control, made frequent visits in the town looking for suspicious characters.

By the time the Germans occupied all of France the fame of Chambon had spread far and wide. The whole countryside became one vast clandestine organization, with practically every farm sheltering a Jewish family. After the war, Jewish relief agencies estimated that more than a thousand different Jews had spent some time in this brave and hospitable community. To the Jews the word Chambon meant helpfulness; to the police, and particularly to the Gestapo who came in with the Nazi army, the name was odious. Time and again they struck at this hated symbol of resistance.

One day the pastor was being questioned by the Gestapo about his activities in caring for Jews. He told them that it was his duty as a Christian, adding that he would do the same for Germans should the occasion arise. It did: at the end of the war a large war-prisoner camp was established just outside Chambon, and in the face of somewhat violent criticism by local citizenry the pastor began at once to minister to the Germans there.

[Lowrie, 1963, pp. 194-202]

Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon – French Citizens and Officials Who Helped Jews

Town of Haute Loire Province, Southern France, see also CIMADE (Comité Intermouvements Auprès des Évacues), AFSC, USC, YMCA, Czech Aid, etc. (Gutman, 2003; Halle, 1979; Ryan, 1996, pp. 11, 160, 220)

Abel, Lucie, and Abel, Lydie

File 3832 Lucie Abel and her daughter, Lydie, were Protestants who ran a small pension in Faye-sur-Lignon, near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. The Rheimses, a couple and their daughter, fled the roundups of Jews in Lyons and came to the Abels’ pension with the assistance of a rescue network of Protestant clergy - including members Pastor Daniel Curtet (q.v.) and Pastor Charles Delizy (q.v.). This rescue network, with which Lucie Abel was in contact, arranged lodgings for those in need and worked together with the Jewish underground organization, Service André. Abel’s pension also provided a haven for other Jewish refugees; Miryam Rosowsky, her son Oskar, and Else Spiero. The refugees were able to circulate freely in the area, using the forged identity cards that they received from members of the network. Although the Abels knew that the refugees in their pension were Jewish, they risked their lives to assist them and were warm and supportive. Some of these lodgers, who were actually asylum-seekers, remained on friendly terms with them after the war. On September 10, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Lucie and Lydie Abel as Righteous Among the Nations.

Joseph Argaud see Pastor Andre Bettex

After providing Serge Vollweiler, a refugee from Germany with forged papers and ration cards in the name of Pierre Bernardon, the pastor sent him to Joseph Argaud (q.v.), a member of his congregation. Vollweiler became a farmer and shepherd on Argaud’s farm and remained there for the rest of the occupation.

Father Cyrille Argenti● (Gutman, 2003, pp. 40-41)

Argenti, Father Cyrille File 4592 In late 1942, even before the Germans occupied southern France, the Jewish organization OSE functioned not only as a health assistance agency and an administrator of children’s homes, but also as an underground rescue network. The OSE clinics were legally sanctioned and operated with a police permit, but they also supplied some of the “visitors” with forged papers and referrals to hiding places. In early November 1943, seventeen-year-old Claude Spiero and his mother went to the OSE clinic in Marseilles. The Spieros were Jews without French citizenship who had been interned at the Les Milles detention camp together with hundreds of other Jews who had fled to southern France. After their escape from the camp, Spiero and her son were in urgent need of papers and shelter. The OSE provided forged citizenship papers and referred them to Cyrille Argenti, an eighteen-year-old who, as an OSE volunteer, transported Jews from Marseilles to villages with institutions and individuals willing to “adopt” them. Argenti was a fervent Christian and helped place Jews in hiding places because of his personal conviction that, as a believing Christian and a human being, it was his duty to help the persecuted. Argenti’s assignment was to deliver Claude and his mother to the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and direct them to the Protestant minister, André Trocmé (q.v.), the spiritual leader of the congregations in the area and the initiator of rescue work in his community.

Argenti’s mission was extremely dangerous because the railway station at Marseilles and the trains themselves were under close surveillance. The Gestapo patrolled around the clock in search of Jews, and anyone who was caught helping Jews risked sharing the Jews’ fate of deportation. Nevertheless, Argenti escorted Spiero and her son by train from Marseilles to Voult-sur-Rhône, a small town on the Rhône River about 180 kilometers north of Marseilles. They spent the night in thewaiting room until another train took them to Le Chambon, about fifty kilometers to the northwest. After passing through document control, they reached their destination safely. From Le Chambon, Argenti delivered his wards to a nearby village recommended by Trocmé . Only then did he return to Marseilles. Argenti subsequently became a priest and professor of theology in the Greek Orthodox Church. On March 1, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Father Cyrille Argenti as Righteous

Fanny-Marie and Jean-Jacques Astier● were poor peasants who lived in Chaumargeais, a village not far from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

Astier, Fanny-Marie Astier, Jean-Jacques File 4352 Fanny-Marie and Jean-Jacques Astier were poor peasants who lived in Chaumargeais, a village not far from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon near Tence. The Astiers’ home was about 2,000 meters from the St. Agrève-Chaumargeais road. One day in January 1944, a member of the underground came to the Astiers, carrying a Jewish child, Carl Landau, on his back. The boy’s leg was wounded. The underground member belonged to CIMADE, a Protestant organization which arranged hiding places for Jewish children. Landau, born in Germany, had been deported in 1940 to the camp in Gurs. Several months later, the Quakers liberated Landau from the camp and took care of him. Despite the Astiers’ poverty, they welcomed Landau warmly and cared for him devotedly until he recovered. The Astiers had two children: Paul, who was taken prisoner by the Germans, and Maurice, an adopted son. Their house was very small and had no electricity or running water; hay was stored in the barn’s attic. The Astiers hid Landau in a kitchen cupboard. He remained with them until June 1944. When the Germans came to the vicinity of Chaumargeais, Astier asked Landau to move to the forest with his belongings. There, Spanish partisans protected him. The Astier family continued to take care of the boy, without any financial recompense, and they endangered their lives solely for humanitarian considerations. On November 15, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Fanny-Marie and Jean-Jacques Astier as Righteous Among the Nations.

Madelein Barot●, co-founder, general secretary, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE),  awarded Righteous Among the Nations title March 28, 1988 (Yad Vashem Archives; Fabre, 1970; Gutman, 2003, pp. 57, 402; Hallie, 1979; Zuccotti, 1993, pp. 68-69, 71-72, 228, 230, 231, 246)

Barot, Madeleine File 3830 Madeleine Barot was active in Protestant youth movements, and secretary general of CIMADE which was established as an umbrella organization for these movements. CIMADE provided welfare for evacuees from localities along the French-German border. Since most of these evacuees returned home in the summer of 1940, the organization decided to assist victims of the Vichy regime and the occupation, most of whom were foreign Jews. In the autumn of 1940, destitute Jewish women were giving birth in the concentration camp at Gurs, in southern France. Barot presented herself at the camp gate carrying a package of bedding for the newborn infants and told the guard that she had to distribute its contents to the new mothers. Thus Barot managed to enter the camp and, together with another CIMADE activist, Jeanne Merle d’Aubigné, she visited every day, each time on a different pretext. After receiving permission from the commander of Gurs to open a CIMADE branch in a barrack, Barot took up residence in the camp. The YMCA, through diplomatic channels, unsuccessfully petitioned the Vichy authorities for entry permits for CIMADE representatives. Due to Barot’s resourcefulness and courage, she and her associates were nonetheless able to accomplish their mission. CIMADE’s presence in Gurs became a fait accompli, and Barot struggled to effect the release of camp inmates. She succeeded in having children, ill adults, and the elderly transferred to facilities that she opened under CIMADE auspices, mainly in the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

From the summer of 1942, Jews brought to these institutions also faced the danger of arrest, but Barot resolutely used underground strategies to protect her wards -- providing false papers and transferring some to other institutions and some to Switzerland. Barot’s activities are believed to have saved hundreds of Jews. On March 28, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Madeleine Barot as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gabrielle Barraud● (Gutman, 2003, p. 58)

Georgette Barraud● (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE). Lived in the largely Protestant town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Ran a children’s home that hid some of the Sabelman family.  (Gutman, 2003, p. 58)

Barraud, Georgette Barraud, Gabrielle File 3833 Georgette Barraud lived in the largely Protestant town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, where, with the help of her daughter Gabrielle, she directed Beau Soleil, a children’s home. During the occupation, Barraud maintained contact with CIMADE, a Protestant rescue network that operated in Le Chambon, and she was one of the many townspeople involved in its welfare activities. Barraud sheltered Jews, both individuals and families, in her children’s home for lengthy periods of time despite the danger of detention and deportation threatening anyone who hid Jews. Although they had forged identity cards, Barraud knew her charges were Jews. Two of them were fourteen-year-old Serge Sobelman, who was accepted as a student at the Collège Cévenol in Le Chambon, and his mother. They had traveled about France in order to avoid the fate of Serge’s father, who had been arrested and interned in a camp for “foreign workers”. After Serge’s father escaped from the camp, the family moved to Lyons. Mme Sobelman consulted with a Catholic priest there, and he referred her and her son to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Serge Sobelman was enrolled in the school under his own clearly Jewish name, but no one paid any attention. Sobelman joined a local YMCA-sponsored Protestant association and wore its distinctive shirt to avoid potential roundups of Jews. Sobelman lived in this fashion from June 1942 to March 1943, with his parents paying a minimal sum for his food and board.

Oskar Rosowsky, a German Jewish refugee who had lived in Nice since 1933, also stayed at Beau Soleil. After a futile attempt to cross the border, his mother had been interned in the camp at Rivesaltes. Rosowsky arranged her release with a forged authorization document. On the advice of two French partisans with whom he produced forged identity cards, Rosowsky went to Le Chambon and stayed for nearly two years; he spent October 1942 through January 1943 at the Barrauds’ home. Barraud obtained forged identity cards for other Jews staying in the home, including Professor George Vajda, a specialist in medieval Jewish philosophy and a senior lecturer at a rabbinical seminary. On March 28, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Georgette and Gabriel Barraud as Righteous Among the Nations.

Bertrand, Joséphine, and Bertrand, Raymond

Bertrand, Joséphine Bertrand, Raymond File 6754 In 1928, Israel Salzer was named the chief rabbi of Marseilles. He, his wife Fanny, and their two daughters lived in an apartment on Florac Street. Among their neighbors in the building were the Bertrands, a Protestant family. Raymond Bertrand held a white-collar job with an oil company; his wife was a homemaker. Even before the Germans occupied southern France in November 1942, Bertrand had offered to help Rabbi Salzer. When the Germans entered Marseilles, the Jews’ situation deteriorated. The Bertrands agreed to store the rabbi’s valuable books, and twenty-eight boxes of ritual objects from the synagogue, in their house to prevent vandalism. The Bertrands’ most important service, however, was in saving lives. As the danger mounted, they offered to arrange safe haven for the rabbi’s two daughters, aged five and eight, and for the three sons of the Hirschler family aged four through nine. The chief rabbi of Strasbourg, René Hirschler, had fled with his family to Marseilles and headed a rabbinical committee that aided prisoners in detention camps. Bertrand personally delivered the five children to the refuge he had arranged, an institution in Combloux, a town in the département of Haute-Savoie. The parents had no direct contact with their children. Bertrand was the only channel of communication, a personal mail service. Nevertheless, in December 1943, Rabbi Hirschler and his wife visited their children in the orphanage in Combloux and were arrested in Marseilles several hours later.

They had brought back photographs of the children, including the Salzers’ daughters, so they could see that they were treated well. The photographs and the orphanage’s address were in Mme Hirschler’s purse when she was arrested. To prevent the children from being arrested, they had to be be removed from the orphanage immediately. Raymond Bertrand made the long journey to the Alps and had the Hirschler children sent to relatives. Heand his wife Joséphine kept Rabbi Salzer’s daughters in their own apartment for a short time, until he found a place for them and their mother in Dunières, a small village near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Rabbi Salzer shaved his beard to avoid recognition and left Marseilles under an assumed name. After the liberation, Raymond Bertrand returned all the valuables that were stored in his home. Bertrand and his family remained close friends with Rabbi Salzer’s family. On August 20, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Raymond and Joséphine Bertrand as Righteous Among the Nations.

Bettex, Pastor André

Bettex, Pastor André File 3834 In the years 1934-1945, André Bettex was pastor of a Protestant congregation in Mazet-Ste. -Foy, a village in the département of Haute-Loire, about five kilometers west of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a Protestant stronghold in France. Pastor Bettex was schooled in the tolerant tradition of Protestant Christians and had sympathy and respect for the Jews, whom he regarded as the chosen people. When the plight of the Jews in France worsened, particularly after Germany occupied southern France in November 1942, Pastor Bettex opened his doors to Jews and offered every possible assistance. He accommodated Jews in his home for a night, several days, or even longer, until he found them a hiding place with his congregants or on a nearby farm. Serge Vollweiler, a refugee from Germany, was one of the Jews whom Bettex helped. Vollweiler was about eighteen years old in March 1943, when he arrived at the pastor’s house after fleeing from a children’s home near Le Chambon where he hid previously. The French police discovered his hiding place and came to arrest him, but Vollweiler escaped to the forest, where he stayed for three days before mustering the courage to knock on Bettex’s door. After providing him with forged papers and ration cards in the name of Pierre Bernardon, the pastor sent him to Joseph Argaud (q.v.), a member of his congregation. Vollweiler became a farmer and shepherd on Argaud’s farm and remained there for the rest of the occupation.

Pastor Bettex visited him occasionally to hear that all was well. Vollweiler and Pastor Bettex remained close after the liberation, and Vollweiler, who made a point of visiting “his” pastor, subsequently introduced him to his family. On March 28, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor André Bettex as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Marc Boegner●, president of the Protestant Church in France, co-founder and head of CIMADE (Comité Inter-Mouvements Aupres des Evacues), Amitié Chrétienne (Christian Friendship), awarded Righteous Among the Nations title June 21, 1988 (Yad Vashem Archives; Fabre, 1970; Gutman, 2003, pp. 89-90, 195, 268; Hallie, 1979, p. 43; Moore, 2010, pp. 101, 128-129, 131; Zuccotti, 1993, pp. 58-59, 62, 141, 146, 150)

Boegner, Pastor Marc File 2698 In May 1941, Pastor Marc Boegner, president of the Protestant church in France, became the first leading French cleric to protest the antisemitic laws of the Vichy regime, explicitly and officially. In 1940, Boegner became head of CIMADE, a Protestant relief organization that acted on behalf of Jews incarcerated in concentration camps in France. In 1942, Boegner and Cardinal Pierre Marie Gerlier (q.v.) served as honorary presidents of Amitié Chrétienne, an organization set up to support French Jewry. Boegner supported and encouraged Protestant ministers and many active laypeople to rescue Jews, and his prestige lent great impact to his statements. Thanks to Boegner, Protestant communities sheltered thousands of Jews, primarily in Lyons, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, and the départements of Lozère, Gard, Drôme, and Tarn. Many others were smuggled into Switzerland with the help of Protestant ministers who worked in border areas under Boegner’s influence and inspiration. Starting in the summer of 1941, Boegner maintained personal contact with the Vichy leadership—Marshal Pétain, Prime Minister Pierre Laval and Commissioner of Jewish Affairs Xavier Vallat. In his talks with them, Boegner condemned the regime’s antisemitic policies and sought to have the anti-Jewish decrees rescinded. In a stormy meeting with Laval in the summer of 1942, Boegner vehemently protested the intention to deport Jewish children to camps in the east and the inhumane character of these measures.

On September 6, 1942, during the annual Assemblée du Désert at the Mas Soubeyran, in the département of Gard, Boegner preached to more than sixty parsons and urged them to rescue Jews. This courageous attitude earned him many enemies. In the summer of 1941, the radical antisemitic weekly Au Pilori began to castigate Boegner’s activity and to demand that he be prosecuted. Beecause of his courageous deeds on behalf of the Jews, Marc Boegner risked his life and liberty, likeother Protestant ministers, some of whom were arrested and deported. He was personally involved in the rescue of approximately one hundred German Jewish children who had been interned at the Gurs concentration camp in southern France. With the help of others, he helped hide the children when the gendarmerie was about to deport them to Auschwitz. Thus, the children’s lives were saved. In 1940, the Strauss family, French-born Jews, reached the city of Nîmes in the unoccupied zone, where Boegner moved in 1941. In November 1942, after the Germans extended their occupation to the Vichy zone, M. Strauss asked Boegner for his help. The minister received him warmly and sent his family to the city of Montélimar, where he arranged a hiding place for them. In 1943, when the Strausses had to move again, Boegner sent them to the Protestant seminary in Collonges, in the département of Haute-Savoie near the Swiss border, where they found refuge until the liberation in August 1944. Through his resolute opposition to Vichy collaboration with Germany and his support of the rescue of French Jewry—which he advocated fearlessly to those at the head of the regime—Boegner had a profound influence on the French Protestant clergy. As a result, thousands of Jews indirectly owe their survival to him. On November 26, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Marc Boegner as Righteous Among the Nations.

August Bohny During the war, Auguste Bohny was active in Le Secours Suisse, a Swiss rescue organization that operated in Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute Loire), France. (Gutman, 2003)

Bohny, Auguste During the war, Auguste Bohny was active in Le Secours Suisse, a Swiss rescue organization that operated in Le-Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute Loire), France. Bohny, and his wife Friedel Bohny-Reiter*, ran an institution in Chambon that sheltered at least 800 children in 1941-1944. These unfortunate children, who had been saved from concentration camps by other employees of Le Secours Suisse, spent between three and six months there until permanent arrangements could be made for them. Many survivors subsequently described the warmth and love that Bohny lavished on them during their ordeal. Nathalie Stern, née Plessner, depicted Bohny as “a refined, serious person, loving and forgiving, who gave wonderful care to children who had been persecuted for their origin (as foreigners), their race (as Jews), or because of their situation (parents in the Resistance or dead).” Similar accounts were offered by Johanna Liebmann and Margot Vicki-Schwarzschild, who, along with another three members of Vicki’s family, owed their lives to Bohny. In addition to providing devoted care, Bohny made superhuman efforts to keep French police and German soldiers away from his institution and camouflaged the presence of the Jewish children there. Teenagers hiding in other rescue agencies active in Chambon at that time were captured and deported to their deaths after their hideout was searched. In contrast, the children in Bohny’s institution survived unscathed. In July 1986, a memorial conference was held in Chambon, with the participation of many of the children who had spent the occupation in Bohny’s facility.

On this occasion, Bohny said, “Children who were haunted night and day by the memory of the horrors of the past came together in our institution. From the moment they came they were given an opportunity to gradually resume the ordinary, tranquil, happy lives of young people –even though they were fearful about their parents’ fate.” On July 16, 1990, Yad Vashemrecognized Auguste Bohny as Righteous Among the Nations.

Fiedel Bohny-Reiter●  was a Swiss citizen who, in 1940, joined the staff of Secours Suisse, an organization affiliated with the Swiss Red Cross that sponsored and ran relief programs for needy children in the southern zone of France.

Bohny-Reiter, Friedel Friedel Bohny-Reiter, the wife of August Bohny* was a Swiss citizen who, in 1940, joined the staff of Secours Suisse, an organization affiliated with the Swiss Red Cross that sponsored and ran relief programs for needy children in the southern zone of France. The operation was run by Maurice Dubois* from his office in Toulouse. He also opened day centers and clinics for Jewish children in dire circumstances in the quarantine camps of southern France. Bohny-Reiter’s regular base of operations was the Secours Suisse hut in the Rivesaltes camp (Pyrénées Orientales). With great resourcefulness, warmth, and devotion, she made sure that Jewish children received medical and nursing care. In August 1942, Reiter made enormous efforts to save children and other young people from the large-scale deportations from Rivesaltes. Sixteen-year-old Hilda Kreizer was waiting in line to be deported by train with her mother and younger sister. A policeman was assigned to make sure the Jews boarded the trains in orderly fashion. Taking advantage of a lapse in the policeman’s attention, Hilda, who knew Friedel well because she had taken care of Hilda in her work for Secours Suisse, ran with her sister to Bohny-Reiter, who had signaled to them. Bohny-Reiter led them to an unlit storeroom in the camp, which contained the food supplies of Secours Suisse. Bohny-Reiter continued to deliver young children to the storeroom until the train left. She then sent the youngsters to private homes affiliated with her organization, thus saving their lives, since their parents were deported to Auschwitz and murdered there.

In her rescue actions, Bohny-Reiter disregarded instructions from the heads of Secours Suisse, who stressed that their activists must obey the French government’s orders and diligently punished operatives who acted to save Jews contrary to the authorities’ wishes. On July 16, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Friedel Bohny-Reiter as Righteous Among theNations. File 4681

Lily (Russier) Boît (Gutman, 2003, p. 491)

Russier, Elie Russier, Marie Boît, Lily (Russier) File 4011 Elie and Marie Russier owned a family pension in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute-Loire) known as Le Côteau Fleuri. They and their daughter Lily (whose married name was Lily Boît) lived in a house attached to this building with its own private entrance. During the occupation, the Russiers made the building available to the Protestant charitable organization CIMADE. That organization worked in the detention camps in the southwest of France where the Vichy regime had interned tens of thousands of Jewish refugees. The CIMADE volunteers tried to ease their suffering and occasionally succeeded in obtaining “vacations” for dozens of Jewish detainees, mainly eldery people. More than eighty of them, removed from the Gurs and Rivesaltes camps, were sheltered in Le Couteau Fleuri. In 1942, the gendarmerie received the order to transport “non-liberable” people back to the detention camps in preparation for their deportation. One of these, Hilda Hillebrand, the youngest resident of Le Coteau Fleuri at that time, told how the Russiers had prepared shelter with the people of Chambon for some of the inmates, and in the forests for others, for the duration of the emergency. While there was hardly any risk of denunciation in that town, which was so hospitable to the Jews, Lilly Russier and her parents risked grave penalties from the authorities. When the gendarmes found their pension vacant, the Russiers put them off with all sorts of stories.

After the war, Hilda Hillebrand and several of her Jewish friends, who had been saved in the Coteau Fleuri, kept up friendly relations with the Russiers and their daughter Lily, Mme Boît. On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Elie and Marie Russier and daughter Lily Boît as Righteous Among the Nations

Jean Bouix● lived in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire, (Gutman, 2003)

Bouix, Jean File 3976 Jean Bouix, born in 1898, lived in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire, part of the area controlled by the Vichy regime. The entire village, which was mainly Protestant, rallied to help Jews during the occupation. The villagers sheltered Jewish refugees, including many children. Oscar Rosowski, born in 1923, came to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon on August 26, 1942, after a spate of arrests in Nice. He lived there under a false identity. Jean Bouix, the owner of a farm and a teacher in the village, was acquainted with local farmers and thus knew that many Jewish refugees were hiding on farms because they did not have forged identity papers that would allow them to live openly. Bouix decided to establish contact with these Jews and provide them with forged papers. That was when he made the acquaintance of Rosowski. The two men began to work together. Rosowski provided the photographs, and Bouix prepared the false documents. On December 28, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Jean Bouix as Righteous Among the Nations.

Marie Brottes● a religious Protestant from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire, (Gutman, 2003)

Brottes, Marie File 4101 “Our region of the Cévennes has received a heritage from its ancestors, who suffered for their faith and left us an example to follow, though sometimes we are disloyal to it.” Thus Marie Brottes, a religious Protestant from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire, explained her attitude during the occupation. Moved by her horror of all religious persecution, she found the strength and devotion necessary for saving several Jewish families. Dr. Mautner and his wife Grète were Jewish refugees who came from Vienna to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in 1940. They became good friends with Marie Brottes. When the gendarmerie began anti-Jewish raids in the summer of 1942, Brottes found the Mautners a hiding place on the farm of Elie Russier (q.v.), the local blacksmith. The Mautners stayed as long as their lives were in danger. Brottes provided them with food and false identity papers so that they could cross the border and escape into Switzerland. Unfortunately, the Mautners were caught at the border. First, they were interned in the camp at Rivesaltes in southern France and then transferred to the camp at Gurs. Brotte had her own baby to tend and suffered serious deprivation under the occupation. Nevertheless, she shared the little that she had with her friends. Every week, while they were in Gurs, she sent them one-kilo parcels containing potatoes, flour, candy, and clothing. When the camp at Gurs was closed, the Mautners were released and returned to Le Chambon, where, in 1944, their son Erik was born.

The two families remained on friendly terms after the war. The Mautners returned to Vienna, and several years later Erik visited the Brottes in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and saw his birthplace. Marie Brottes also risked her life to save other Jews. In her postwar testimony, she said that the police interrogated her more than once about her activities. On March 5, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Marie Brottes as Righteous Among theNations.

Yvonne Cellier lived in St. -Etienne (Loire), in the unoccupied Vichy zone, where she was in charge of a home for girls.

Cellier, Yvonne File 4010 During the occupation, Yvonne Cellier lived in St. -Etienne (Loire), in the unoccupied Vichy zone, where she was in charge of a home for girls. Cellier was born in Tence, a town in the département of Haute-Loire, near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. During this period, many German Jewish refugee families, vulnerable to arrest and deportation, moved to Tence -- including the Brills and their daughter Gertrude, who was in her early twenties. The situation for Jews deteriorated in November 1942, when the Germans took control of southern France. Cellier, aware of the plight of Jews in her area, arranged refuge for M. and Mme Brill in a village near Tence and hid Gertrude in her girls’ home. Cellier hid Gertrude Brill’s true identity from the girls. Sometimes, she successfully arranged for Gertrude to visit her parents, by hiding her in a van going to the village where her parents were hiding. Cellier attended to Gertrude’s needs until the end of the occupation without seeking any recompense. After the war, Cellier and the Brill family remained close friends. On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Yvonne Cellier as Righteous Among the Nations.

André Chouraqui, was a Jewish activist in the rescue of Jews in the area of Le Chambon sur Lignon, Haute Loire.

Courtial, Eugène Paul Courtial●, lived in Les Tavas, a small village about three kilometers from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

Célie Eugène and Célie Courtial lived in Les Tavas, a small village about three kilometers from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, with their sons, Paul and Philémon. They ran a small farm and barely managed to provide for themselves. Nevertheless they were people of faith and strong Protestant belief, who followed the voice of their leader, the pastor André Trocmé (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1971). Father Trocmé spoke in public of the need to stand against the Germans and help those who were persecuted, especially the Jews. In May 1943 the Courtials received two Jewish brothers from Montreuil: Georges (b. 1930) and Jacques (b. 1933) Passentin. Georges and Jacques were from a Jewish Polish family. They stayed in Montreuil until 1940 with their parents, Eliezer and Hana. When France capitulated, they all fled to the south, trying to leave France but not succeeding. They got as far as Toulouse, but after a short time they decided to return to Paris, believing, as many Jews did, that the worst had passed. Unfortunately, Eliezer was soon arrested. He managed to escape the Pithiviers camp, fleeing straight to Lyon. After his escape, the police came to Hana, searching for her husband. As soon as they left, Hana decided to flee as well. Leaving everything behind, she took her two children and crossed the demarcation line to join Eliezer in a rented apartment in Lyon. Soon the situation in Lyon worsened, and Eliezer and Hana understood that they had no choice but to try to save their children by handing them over to a children’s organization.

Georges and Jacques were then given to the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants), which was responsible for placing many Jewish children in the countryside. The brothers were sent to Eugène and Célie Courtial—at first only Jacques, but Georges joined him about two weeks later. Both stayed there until May or June 1944, when they were sent, along with many other children, to the La Guéspy children’s home, which was under the direction of the Secour Suisse aux enfants organization. After about a month Hana came and took her children back. She had rented a small place in Les Tavas and wanted her children close to her. Eliezer survived the war in Lyon. In his testimony Jacques Passentin stated that during their stay at the Courtials’ home, he and Georges felt secure and surrounded by loving people. They went to school and never noticed the German presence. The Courtials, like everyone in the area, were well aware of the risk involved in helping to hide Jews. They either hid the Jewish children when they felt it was needed or moved them to the woods behind the farm until the danger had passed. Despite their own difficult financial situation, Engène and Célie were kind people of strong character, and they were motivated by faith to help the persecuted—all at their own risk and expense. On June 13, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Eugène Paul and Célie Courtial as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Daniel Curtet●

Wife Suzanne Curtet● (Swiss) Fay-sur-Lignon, a village near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (Gutman, 2003)

Curtet, Pastor Daniel Curtet, Suzanne File 3797 In 1990, after Yad Vashem recognized Protestant minister Daniel Curtet as Righteous Among the Nations, he contacted the Israel Embassy in Paris and asked not to be awarded a personal citation of appreciation. He stated that many of his friends and acquaintances in and near the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon had endangered their lives to save Jews during the occupation; in his opinion, they all deserved the State of Israel’s medal of honor. During the occupation, Pastor Curtet lived in Fay-sur-Lignon, a village near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, which had many refugees, most of them Jews without French citizenship from Germany, Austria, and Poland. Pastor Curtet and his wife, who was active in the French underground both before and after their marriage, helped the refugees indefatigably, with warmth and kindness. They arranged refuge on local farms, provided false papers, and assured safe transport from one hiding place to another -- all without any payment. The Curtets, assisted by many local residents, often sheltered Jewish refugees and assisted those wishing to cross into Switzerland, thus saving many Jewish lives. They took great personal risk, aware that the penalty for hiding or aiding Jews during the occupation could be as severe as deportation to the camps in Germany. Oskar Rosowsky came from a Russian Jewish family that had migrated from Berlin to Nice, in 1933. His father was arrested in July 1942, deported to the camp at Drancy and from there sent to Auschwitz.

His mother, who had attempted to flee to Switzerland, was apprehended and interned at the camp in Rivesaltes, near the Spanish border. With the help of two Protestant acquaintances, Rosowsky obtained false papers for his mother, with which he brought her back to Nice. His mother moved to Fay-sur-Lignon in January 1943, and from then until August 1944, Pastor Curtet and his wife spared no effort to aid and protect her. They invited her to theirwedding, introducing her as a relative and thus lending credibility to her disguise as a Christian. Twice a month, Rosowsky, who was hiding in Le Chambon, bicycled to Fay-sur-Lignon and, via his mother, delivered forged papers to Pastor Curtet for Jews he was hiding. After the war, many survivors remained close friends with Curtet and many others maintained correspondence with him. On December 28, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Daniel Curtet and his wife, Suzanne, as Righteous Among the Nations.

Roger Darcissac● was the principal of the public school in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), (Gutman, 2003)

Darcissac, Roger File 3905 Roger Darcissac was the principal of the public school in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. In March 1942, thirteen-year-old Serge Sobelman wished to be accepted in the school. Being afraid to disclose his Jewish identity, he used an assumed name and did not show Darcissac his identification papers and education records. Darcissac immediately realized that Sobelman was Jewish and enrolled him, nevertheless. Indeed, he was not the only Jewish youngster in the student body. Darcissac, who ordinarily showed interest in the families and relatives of his Christian students, never asked the Jewish children about their background to avoid embarrassing or worrying them. Like everyone in Chambon, Darcissac, pretended there were no Jews in the town, making it easier to hide them. Darcissac demonstrated his loyalty and devotion to the Jewish students when he was arrested together with Pastor André Trocmé ● (q.v.) and Pastor Edouard Theis ● (q.v.), who were also active in saving Jews. Darcissac courageously withstood interrogation by the French police and did not reveal the presence of Jewish boys in his school. After he was released and allowed to return to his school, Darcissac continued to protect his Jewish pupils until the end of the occupation, despite the danger. Sobelman remained at Darcissac’s school until his graduation, in July 1944. Darcissac gave him a diploma with the assumed name that Sobelman had chosen. By allowing Jewish children to attend his school during the occupation, Darcissac risked his life, as can be seen from the case of Pastor Daniel Trocmé (q.v.) ●, who headed the “La Maison des Roches,” a boarding school in Le Chambon. When the Germans discovered several Jewish boys in Trocmé’s school, they immediately deported Trocmé and the youngsters to an extermination camp, where all of them perished. On November 14, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Roger Darcissac● as Righteous Among the Nations.

François d’Allens DeCellery● (Gutman, 2003) see Baron Olivier de Pierrebourg●

De Cellery d’Allens, Françoise File 2267a.  In 1941, eighteen-year-old Françoise de Cellery married Baron Olivier de Pierrebourg ● (q.v.). From then, until her husband was arrested in 1943, de Cellery helped him in all his relief and rescue operations. In 1941, in Lyons (southern zone), the Baron was involved in setting up the Amitié Chrétienne organization, which provided help for persecuted Jews, camouflaged as relief for refugees from Alsace and northern France. Many of the Jewish children whom de Cellery and de Pierrebourg saved were sent to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a Protestant town in the département of Haute-Loire which was a safe haven for Jews. The Baron and his wife transformed their small apartment into a way station for refugees from many countries, Jews and non-Jews, who slept on mattresses spread on the floor. The couple arranged escape routes to Switzerland, smuggled refugees and Resistance fighters out of France, obtained forged papers, found hiding places, and distributed Resistance newspapers. In September 1942, de Cellery hid three members of the Silverman family, Austrian Jewish refugees who had unsuccessfully tried to run the border by crossing Lake Geneva. Ten days later, the Silvermans tried again, this time accompanied by the Baron himself, who smuggled them into Switzerland across the Alps, east of Chamonix. From 1941 on, the de Pierrebourgs’ principal occupation, which required great courage, was frequently dangerous underground activity on behalf of fugitives.

After the Germans entered the unoccupied zone in November 1942, de Cellery and her husband had to stop their rescue activity and hide from the authorities. In May 1943, the Germans arrested the Baron on his way to join the Free French forces in Algeria. Miraculously he survived. After the war, de Cellery and her husband learned that when the Baron’s arrest became public knowledge, prayers were offered on his behalf in the synagogue in Lyons. On May 3, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Françoise de Cellery d’Allens as Righteous Among the Nations.

Deléage●, Léonie Philit, Eva

Deléage and her daughter, Eva Philit, lived in Les Tavas, a village near the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. The two women, opponents of the occupation regime, made their house available to the OSE Jewish rescue organization in the area.

Deléage, Léonie Philit, Eva File 3835 Léonie Deléage and her daughter, Eva Philit, lived in Les Tavas, a village near the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. The two women, opponents of the occupation regime, made their house available to the OSE Jewish rescue organization in the area. Madeleine Dreyfus, an OSE activist, brought Jewish children to the Deléage residence, where they were sheltered until foster parents were found. Léonie Deléage often waited at the local train station to greet groups of four or five Jewish children. She took them home, and together with her daughter, fed them and was warmly attentive. Raymonde Herszlikowicz, one of the children, praised the care and attention that Deléage and her daughter provided. The two women were undeterred even after the local authorities realized what was happening. They merely continued, but with increased prudence. One day Deléage discovered that the French and German police in the area planned an imminent raid in the area in search of Jews. She hid the children temporarily in the nearby forest. The police knocked on the Deléage door several times. Each time Léonie and her daughter responded with false information. Deléage also helped the OSE find peasants willing to shelter Jewish children, and she performed liaison work for the OSE in Les Tavas and the vicinity. On March 28, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Léonie Deléage and her daughter Eva Philit as Righteous Among the Nations.

Charles Delizy● lived with his wife and children in Freycenent de Saint-Jeures, a small village near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire.

Delizy, Pastor Charles File 4006 Protestant minister Charles Delizy lived with his wife and children in Freycenent de Saint-Jeures, a small village near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. The residents of the region were well known for the help they offered to refugees. After the outbreak of the great waves of deportations of Jews in France, many Jewish families arrived in the town and the surrounding area, looking for hiding places. The pastor arranged lodgings for the Jewish families and appealed to the consciences of his parishioniers. When Rolande Lehmann and her parents arrived in Saint-Jeure in 1944, Delizy provided forged identity and ration cards and placed them with peasants without revealing their Jewish identity. Every month, Delizy reported to administration headquarters and, outwitting a series of officials, obtained ration cards for the Jewish families. German agents and French militia regularly searched the area for Jews. When this occurred, Delizy warned the Jewish families and led them to a nearby forest, where they hid until the danger passed. The three surviving members of the Rheims family, who found refuge through Delizy’s efforts, subsequently described his goodheartedness and efforts to boost their morale. Every Friday evening, Jews from three different families visited the Delizys at home, listened to news broadcasts on the Swiss Radio, and discussed the situation. Rheims wrote satirical rhymes castigating members of the Vichy regime.

Delizy always rejected all forms of reward for his actions. Upon hearing that the State of Israel intended to recognize him as Righteous Among the Nations, he said, “We did not think that the little we did to help Jewish families would attract such a mark of recognition. Any merit of our action belongs to God, for it is He who placed love of the persecuted children of His people in our hearts, making us see them as brothers and sisters.” After the war, Delizy remained in touchwith the Jewish families and even visited them in Israel. On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Charles Delizy as Righteous Among the Nations.

Simone Mairesse●, Mairesse lived in Mazet-Saint-Voy, about six kilometers from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

Mairesse, Simone File 4012 Simone Mairesse was only thirty years old and seven months pregnant when her husband, an officer in the French forces, died in the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. Mairesse lived in Mazet-Saint-Voy, about six kilometers from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. She shared her modest home with her mother, two sisters, a niece, and her infant daughter, born two months after her husband’s death. Although fate had treated her harshly, Mairesse became involved in rescuing Jewish refugees. She approached Pastor André Trocmé ● (q.v.), the spiritual leader of Le Chambon. He put her in charge of coordinating the reception and hiding places of Jewish refugees, which she did from November 1942 until the liberation of France, at constant risk to her life and the lives of her family. Her familiarity with the area and its inhabitants was a great asset. Through her efforts, hundreds of Jews were placed with host families, thus saving their lives. Eventually Mairesse became a liaison for the Jewish underground organization Service André, which was especially active in the vicinity of Le Chambon. Claude Spiéro, a Jew who was active in Service André, later recounted that the economic aid Mairesse arranged, and the regular transfer of funds she obtained from a support organization, enabled his mother and him to survive in their hiding place in the Le Chambon area. Apart from material aid, Mairesse also warned refugees and resisters of impending raids by the French militia or the Germans.

On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Simone Mairesse as Righteous Among the Nations.

Madeleine Dreyfus, an OSE activist, brought Jewish children to the Village of Le Chambon.

Elisabeth Duphil●, René-Maurice Duphil●

François●, Pierre François,

Elisabeth Duphil, René-Maurice Duphil, Henriette André and Estelle Dennery, originally from Alsace-Loraine, lived in Paris with their three daughters, Lise (b. 1924), Françoise (b. 1926) and Annette (b. 1929). When war broke out, the family decided to move to the southern "free" zone, and ended up in Cusset (Allier) a few kilometers from Vichy. Andre worked for an “Aryan” company, since the new racial laws forbade him to own a business. His three daughters went to school and joined the local scouts, headed by Elisabeth François. Her husband Pierre was the national head of the Scouts movement in France. The couple owned the “Pavillon Sévigne” – the residence of Marshal Pétain. The Dennerys remained in Cusset until 1943, leading a relatively normal life although surrounded by threats and fear. They were descendants of at least five generations of French citizens, which allowed them to stay in the Vichy-controlled area despite the fact that they were Jewish. In 1943, the situation in Vichy became more dangerous, and the Dennerys decided to move to the nearby village of Le Mayet de Montagne. With the help of Elisabeth François, they were put in touch with the woman in charge of the food rations in the municipality, Mme. Lucien. Armed with false identities, they sent their youngest daughter, Annette, to pick up the ration cards once a month. In October 1943, a large-scale round-up of Jews took place at the University of Clermond-Ferrand, where Lise was studying.

Miraculously Lise escaped arrest, but the family decided to go into hiding. Three families, all connected to the local scout movement, helped the Dennery girls survive the war. They also refused any financial compensation from their parents, despite the great risks involved. The Risler family (Mme. Risler was Elisabeth François’ sister) accepted Lise as a nanny for the their children. Françoise was sent to the Basdevant family (M. Basdevant was thesecretary of the scouts). Annette ended up with René and Henriette Duphil in Vichy (Allier). René Duphil was also a very active member of the scouts (after the war, he replaced Pierre as scout leader). Annette took on the false identity of Jeannette Le Touzé. She continued going to Mme. Lucien every month for the ration cards. The Duphils gave her a room of her own, and accepted her as part of their family. In April/May 1944, the Germans arrested Mme. Lucien, while Annette was on her way to pick up the monthly ration cards. Elisabeth François managed to warn her, saving her from deportation. The Duphils then escorted her, dressed exactly like their own children, to Mayet de Montagne, where her parents were hiding, to warn them as well. They then left the village immediately, and Annette returned to the Duphils under a new identity. “My family and I are vastly aware of the irreplaceable help these people gave us,” Annette later wrote, "and we were not the only one the beneficiaries from their help." Indeed, Elisabeth François aided other children by sending them to Chambon sur Lignon, where they benefited from the protection of the local people. Pierre François brought one of the children, Nicole Lehmann, to the village himself. On June 28, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Pierre and Elisabeth François along with René and Henriette Duphil as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Edmond Evraud● (Gutman, 2003, p. 231)

Léon Eyraud●, (alias “Père Noël”), Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title December 28, 1987, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 231-232; Hallie, 1979, pp. 178, 185, 188)

Madam Antoinette Eyraud●, wife of Léon Eyraud (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title December 28, 1987, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 231-232; Hallie, 1979, pp. 127, 177-179, 185, 199, 296)

Eyraud, Antoinette Eyraud, Léon File 3795 Léon Eyraud and his wife Antoinette were residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Early in the German occupation, Eyraud contacted the French underground leaders and was charged with organizing the clandestine political and military activity in the area. Through this work, Eyraud met many Jewish refugees and underground activists, including Oscar Rosowsky, a Jewish refugee in Le Chambon. Rosowsky and his parents had come to France from Berlin in 1933, and had settled in the southern city of Nice. In July 1942, Rosowsky’s father was arrested and deported to Drancy; from Drancy he was sent to Auschwitz, where he perished. On August 9, 1942, Oscar Rosowsky was arrested and interned in a labor camp for foreigners in Mandelieu, near Nice. One month later, he escaped from the camp and, with his mother, tried to cross the border into Switzerland. His mother was caught and sent to the camp in Rivesaltes. Although Rosowsky managed to cross the border, he was sent back by the Swiss authorities and had to return to Nice. He and two Protestants prepared forged papers with which his mother was able to leave the camp. Following the advice of his Protestant associates, Rosowsky returned to Le Chambon and joined an underground group that assisted refugees and operated a network that provided forged papers for all localities on the Vivarais-Lignon plateau. The group operated under Eyraud’s auspices, and his house was a meeting place for many partisans, underground activists, and Jewish refugees.

Eyraud and his wife took in refugees, saw to their needs, and supplied them and others with false papers. There were many Germans in Le Chambon, and underground activists and people who helped Jews were in considerable danger there. On December 28, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Léon Eyraud and his wife Antoinette as Righteous Among the Nations.

Arthur Franc● and Louise Franc● owned a farm in the hamlet of Pont de Cholet, near Chambon sur Lignon (Haute Loire).

Franc, Arthur Franc, Louise File 8506 Arthur and Louise Franc owned a farm in the hamlet of Pont de Cholet, near Chambon sur Lignon (Haute Loire). They had no children and employed a very young farm boy, René. During the occupation, at great risk for themselves, they sheltered a number of Jewish little boys sent by the OSE rescue organization for various lengths of time. In the summer of 1942, a woman who was a courier for the organization thus brought Pierre Cohen, aged nine, to them. His family had fled Belgium to seek asylum in France. There, they had been arrested and taken to the Gurs camp and subsequently to the Rivesaltes camp, whence they managed to escape. However, the Cohens were caught trying to cross the border illegally into Switzerland. Subsequently, Pierre arrived in Pont du Cholet. “The farmers treated me like their own son. Louise told everyone I was her child. I lived a relatively worry-free life on that farm as Pierre Colin, a child born in Paris whose parents had been killed in a car accident. I went to the village school, took care of the cows, and helped in the fields. I was happy to make myself useful. The gendarmes came around a few times to ask questions about me. Hidden in the hay, I listened to the farmers yelling at them and standing their ground. The young refugee and the adults became deeply attached during the two and a half years the boy spent on the farm. In December 1944, as Pierre was about to be reunited with his mother, Louise Franc wrote to Mme Cohen: “Dear madam, you have such a beautiful boy and my greatest joy would be to keep him still.

My husband and I are truly proud of him. When we part, we’ll all need a handkerchief.” The Francs later adopted a little boy who became the father of four children. Pierre Cohen and his children and grandchildren meet the Francs every year. “Louise who is now eighty five has not forgotten one single naughty deed I did as a child and takes delight in reminding me,” he wrote. On May19, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Arthur and Louise Franc as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Charles Guillon●, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE). Mayor of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title May 5, 1991, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 291) On June 23, 1940, Guillon tendered his resignation as the mayor of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire.

Guillon, Pastor Charles File 4897 “France lost its honor when it signed the armistice agreement with Germany; now it has to fight for its soul.” The author of this statement, Pastor Charles Guillon, fought without military weapons but with spiritual prisoner of warer. On June 23, 1940, Guillon tendered his resignation as the mayor of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. He explained that as secretary-general of a Protestant organization, his first commitment was to prisoners of war and refugees; this was inconsistent with serving as mayor in a regime collaborating with an occupier that was France’s enemy. Guillon labored on behalf of war refugees throughout the occupation and applied all his domestic and international religious contacts to obtain resources and funds to help camp internees of all faiths. After resigning from his position as mayor, Guillon worked for Protestant organizations. He was the world secretary of the YMCA, one of the four ranking members of an interdenominational ecumenical council based in Geneva, and was active in CIMADE, a French Protestant organization that established an agency which rescued Jewish children by taking them to Switzerland. On countless occasions and at great risk, Guillon crossed into France from Switzerland with large sums of money for the purchase of food parcels for camp internees and provisions for refugees. He also delivered intelligence information to freedom fighters in France and elsewhere.

Hundreds of Jews and non-Jews owe their lives and freedom to Guillon. His extraordinary personality and his ethical principles, which in the years preceding the occupation had made him the spiritual and moral leader of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, found practical expression during the harsh occupation years and attracted loyal followers. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon occupies a unique place in French history. Nowhere else were Jews saved so extensively and so generously. Pastor Guillon, himself, ran a networkthat rescued Jewish refugees from the Les Milles concentration camp near Aix-en-Provence; the refugees were then smuggled into Switzerland. The network was based at the YMCA office in Valence, in the département of Drôme. The Germans suspected Guillon, but he evaded them and went underground in the autumn of 1942. When France was liberated, Pastor Charles Guillon once more became mayor of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. On May 5, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Charles Guillon as Righteous Among the Nations.

Emma Héritier●

Henry Hertier●

Héritier, Emma Héritier, Henri File 3794 Henri and Emma Héritier lived with their four children in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in Haute-Loire. In 1943, Oscar Rosowsky, a twenty-year-old Jewish partisan, came to their home and asked for shelter. In the underground, Rosowsky’s principal task was to prepare forged papers, helping Jewish refugees escape the occupation authorities and circulate freely in France. Although the Héritiers were aware of Rosowsky’s underground activities and the inherent danger, they did not hesitate to offer him refuge. The Héritiers hid Rosowsky in a structure next to their rented farmhouse. Rosowsky stayed with them in 1943-1944, despite the landlord’s objections. Shortly before the end of the war, German soldiers were stationed in the center of the village, exacerbating the danger to the Jews in general and to Rosowsky in particular. Henri Héritier, fearing for Rosowsky’s life, hid Rosowsky’s personal possessions and tools, which would have given Rosowsky away, amid beehives that he tended. Through their devoted assistance, Henri and Emma Héritier saved Oscar Rosowsky’s life and, indirectly, the lives of many other Jews. On December 28, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Henri and Emma Héritier as Righteous Among the Nations.

Eva Jouve● (Chastanger) Ran a children’s home called Les Airelles in Le Chambon. Hid Jews.

Jouve, Eva File 4009 Eva Jouve, a devout Protestant, ran a children’s home called Les Airelles in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. Children who attended the private school in town lived in the home. During the occupation, many of the children in Les Airelles were Jewish. Until the spring of 1942, the Sobelman family had found refuge in Lyons, but following rumors of an impending raid on Jews, the Catholic priest of the neighborhood advised them to flee to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. The Sobelmans placed their son in a children’s home run by Georgette Barroud● (q.v.), where he stayed for about a year. He was then transferred to Les Airelles, where he lived until the end of the occupation. All the children, including the Jewish children, observed Protestant rituals and recited prayers before and after meals, before going to sleep, and on Sundays.This was done for the children’s protection and not at all to convert them. The Sobelman boy retained intense memories of a particular evening service at the chapel. Jouve had discovered that French gendarmes and German troops were advancing toward the town and wanted to pray for the safety of the children under her protection, who were treated with warmth and compassion. Eva Jouve’s husband was a prisoner of war in Germany. She used to listen to Radio London to keep informed about the war and passed the information on to the children. A map in her office indicated the advance of the Red Army with pins and red yarn.

Michel Coblentz, another Jewish child who found shelter in Les Airelles, recalls the equal treatment he and other Jewish children were given by Jouve and the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. When the war ended, Coblentz, Sobelman, and the rest of the Jewish children were astonished to discover how many other Jewish children had found refuge in Les Airelles. On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Eva Jouve as Righteous Among the Nations.

Jouve, M. Jouve● M. and Mme Jouve owned a farm in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. In response to a request from the OSE, the Jouves agreed to hide Jewish children in their home when roundups of Jews began in this area.

Jouve, M. Jouve, Mme File 4193b M. and Mme Jouve owned a farm in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. In response to a request from the OSE, the Jouves agreed to hide Jewish children in their home when roundups of Jews began in this area. Léon Minkowski was brought to them in the spring of 1943. Minkowski’s father had been arrested in Paris and deported to the east; his married sister and her family escaped. The Jouves gave Minkowski a warm welcome, cared for him like a son with exceptional devotion and energy. They jeopardized themselves, knowing that the entire area was swarming with German soldiers. The soldiers were pursuing underground fighters who came to collect arms that were parachuted to them in this region. Minkowski stayed with the Jouves until the liberation in August 1944. When the time came for Minkowski to rejoin his family, he and his rescuers found the separation extremely difficult and painful. On April 28, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized M. and Mme Jouve as Righteous Among the Nations.

Berthe Kittler● and  Charles Andre Kittler●. Owned a farm in Le Chambon that hid Daniel Milgram.

Kittler, Berthe Kittler, Charles-Andre File 4193a Berthe and Charles-andre Kittler owned a farm in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. When roundups of Jews began in this area, the Kittlers, acting on a request by the OSE, agreed to hide a Jewish child in their home. In the spring of 1943, young Daniel Milgram was brought to them. Daniel’s parents, Michel and Berthe Milgram, had fled Paris after three relatives had been arrested and deported to the east. The Kittlers gave Daniel Milgram a warm welcome, treated him like their own son, and cared for him with great warmth and affection. They endangered themselves, knowing that the entire area was swarming with German soldiers in pursuit of underground fighters who were collecting weapons that had been parachuted to them. Daniel stayed with the Kittlers until the liberation in August 1944. When he left to rejoin his family, both he and his rescuers found the separation extremely difficult and painful. On April 28, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Berthe Kittler and her husband as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Jean Séverin Lemaire●  Pastor Jean Séverin Lemaire was pastor of the Evangelist congregation in Marseilles and active with rescue group Service Andre.

Lemaire, Pastor Jean Séverin File 1039 Pastor Jean Séverin Lemaire was pastor of the Evangelist congregation in Marseilles and a lecturer in Bible. As an intellectual and a pious Christian, he refused to acquiesce to the persecution of Jews. In late 1941, after delivering a lecture to an audience in Marseilles, Lemaire made the acquaintance of Joseph Bass, a Russian-born Jew who had gone underground and established a rescue organization called Service André. Lemaire agreed to support Bass’s organization, which sought every means to save people persecuted by the Vichy government or by the Germans, including many Jews. Service André was active in the vicinity of Marseilles and along the Mediterranean coast. It drew activists of many faiths, all of whom were aware of the risks they were taking. The organization helped rescue persecuted Jews. They sent some of them to other parts of France, such as the Haute-Loire département, where many Jews had found shelter in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. The inhabitants of this largely Protestant village were particularly sensitive to the issue of religious persecution and were willing to help its victims. They sent other fugitives abroad. On Sundays after services, Lemaire provided Jewish fugitives with forged papers and the addresses of non-Jews willing to shelter them. He placed Jewish children with Christian families or in institutions for Christian youth, and helped Jewish adults cross the border or go underground.

On March 14, 1943, after an informer denounced them to the authorities, the Gestapo arrested Lemaire and Bass. Joseph Bass managed to escape. Pastor Lemaire, who had not wanted to go into hiding, was incarcerated in the same cell as the Jews in the Saint-Pierre prison. He bolstered their morale and prayed with them on Sabbath eve. Francine Weil, who was five years old at the time, remembered him as a tall rabbi with a black beard. Francine had been arrested with her grandparents, the Abravanels, andcontracted whooping cough. Thanks to Lemaire’s vigorous intervention, she was sent to the hospital, from which underground operatives removed her. Lemaire also protected a Jew who had been thrown into the Jewish cell and was suspected of being an informer. On April 5, 1944, Lemaire was deported to the Mauthausen camp; from there, he was transferred to Dachau, where he remained until liberated by the Americans.He also managed to rescue the 8 months old child of the Wigderbun family, from the prison in Marseille where 13 members of this family where held. None of the Jews detained in the cell survived. On February 19, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Jean Séverin Lemaire as Righteous Among the Nations.

Roland Leenhardt● was the pastor of a Protestant church in Tence, a small town near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. During the occupation, Tence was a center of French Resistance activity.

Leenhardt, Pastor Roland File 4444 Roland Leenhardt was the pastor of a Protestant church in Tence, a small town near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. During the occupation, Tence was a center of French Resistance activity. Leenhardt, an active opponent of German policies in France, was a disciple of Pastor Louis Dallière (q.v.). Leenhardt orchestrated the rescue of Jews in Tence, and, in his Sunday sermons, at risk to his life, Leenhardt publicly condemned German atrocities and preached brotherly love and prevention of unnecessary bloodshed. André Chouraqui, a Jewish activist in the rescue of Jews in this area, described Pastor Leenhardt’s courageous deeds in his book L’amour fort comme la mort (Love is as strong as death). Thanks to Leenhardt’s activities, many Jews found shelter and refuge in Tence, particularly Jewish children who were transferred there by various rescue movements. Chouraqui himself, after fleeing from the Clermont-Ferrand area, turned to him for help. In certain cases, Leenhardt equipped Jewish refugees with false identity cards. He arranged forged papers and hiding places for the Weill family. In order to make it difficult to find the Weills, he hid the parents and children in different locations. On the day before Passover 1943, Leenhardt asked M. Weill to prepare a large quantity of matza (unleavened bread). Leenhardt distributed the matza among Jewish children sheltered with French families in the vicinity of Tence. On December 19, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Roland Leenhardt as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Raoul Lhermet●   Hid and cared for Jewish fugitives from French concentration camps and members of the Resistance pursued by the Gestapo.

Lhermet, Pastor Raoul File 2698 During the occupation, Protestant minister Raoul Lhermet was active in the French underground and participated in the management of Côteau Fleuri, a hostel in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. The hostel initially accommodated Jewish fugitives from French concentration camps and then members of the Resistance pursued by the Gestapo. Lhermet housed some of the fugitives in Côteau Fleuri and placed others with local peasants. He obtained ration cards and forged papers for anyone in need of them, using a rubber stamp from the municipality of Lussan (département of Gard), which he received from a fellow clergyman. Lhermet, a congenial man, established good relations with the gendarmes in Le Chambon, and his tenants felt safe even when the Germans searched the area for Jews. On one such occasion, when the Gestapo conducted searches dangerously close to the hostel, Lhermet sent the tenants to hide in the nearby forests. Jewish youngsters in the Collège de Cévenol, a boarding school in the town, were arrested and deported, but thanks to Lhermet’s vigilance and resourcefulness, the tenants of his hostel survived. As the German forays increased, the hostel became unsafe, and the refugees had to be moved out of town or out of the country, if possible. Lhermet organized many actions in which refugees were smuggled into Switzerland. This was extremely difficult. The trains were searched, and the border was closely guarded.

Nevertheless, most of these operations were successful. Among those whom Lhermet saved in this fashion were the Prinz family of Romania, the Wolf family of Germany, and the Vurgaft family of Paris. In 1943, Lhermet left Le Chambon and returned to his congregation in St. André-de-Valborgne, in the département of Gard. He remained active in the underground, hid the German Jewish Polie family in his home for two months, and later helped the Polies reach Switzerland. Lhermet risked his life to saveJews and other refugees. After the war, he moved to Nîmes and was decorated for his service in the underground. After his death, the municipality of Nîmes named a street for him. On January 17, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Raoul Lhermet as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Liotard (CIMADE), (Gutman, 2003, p. 544)

Llinarès, Eusébie Llinarè,s Fanny Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

Adolphe Zadek’s parents, Chaim and Sheva, immigrated to Belgium from Poland after the First World War. Following the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, the family – parents with four children aged 8-18 – fled to France, where they were interned in a camp for refugees. There was an organization called l’Assistance Publique, whose mission was to take children under 14 out of the camp and transfer to the Secours Suisse, which rented a house in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon* owned by Mr. Argoud. Three of the Zadek children arrived there in spring 1943, including 17-year-old Adolphe. He was sent to work with a farmer, but in the winter when there was no produce to pick, he was let go. He went back to the house in Chambon, but the director refused to accept him because of his age. Mr. Argoud, the owner of the house, was also the manager of a farm in Cannes-et-Clairan (Gard). When he heard that Adolphe was not welcome in the Secours Suisse house, he asked the owner of the farm he managed to allow him to bring Adolphe there and to employ him. Shortly after Adolphe arrive at the farm in Cannes, Mr. Argoud died. His sister-in-law Fanny Llinarès, and her husband, Eusébie (b. 1919) replaced him in managing the farm. The Llinarèses were aware that Adolphe was Jewish, and the only one they told was the village head whom they approached for permission to keep him on the farm. Adolphe spent most of his time working in the vineyard or with the horses.

On Sundays, he accompanied his hosts to church, where he was introduced to the villagers as a relative. It was important to keep his Jewish identity hidden because German soldiers came often to the village for farm produce, and there were those among the villagers who collaborated with the enemy. Despite the ever-present danger of exposure, the Llinarès couple hosted Adolphe until the liberation of the area in August 1944. He then returned to Belgium, where he discovered that his parents had beendeported and murdered. He remained in Belgium, married and raised a family. It was only in 2000 that he managed to make contact with his rescuers, and thank them personally for saving his life. On October 15, 2009, Yad Vashem recognized Eusébie and Fanny Llinarès as Righteous Among the Nations.

Simone Mairesse●, Mazet-Saint-Voy, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Service André, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title December 26, 1988 (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 369-370)

Mairesse, Simone File 4012 Simone Mairesse● was only thirty years old and seven months pregnant when her husband, an officer in the French forces, died in the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. Mairesse lived in Mazet-Saint-Voy, about six kilometers from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. She shared her modest home with her mother, two sisters, a niece, and her infant daughter, born two months after her husband’s death. Although fate had treated her harshly, Mairesse became involved in rescuing Jewish refugees. She approached Pastor André Trocmé (q.v.), the spiritual leader of Le Chambon. He put her in charge of coordinating the reception and hiding places of Jewish refugees, which she did from November 1942 until the liberation of France, at constant risk to her life and the lives of her family. Her familiarity with the area and its inhabitants was a great asset. Through her efforts, hundreds of Jews were placed with host families, thus saving their lives. Eventually Mairesse became a liaison for the Jewish underground organization Service André, which was especially active in the vicinity of Le Chambon. Claude Spiéro, a Jew who was active in Service André, later recounted that the economic aid Mairesse arranged, and the regular transfer of funds she obtained from a support organization, enabled his mother and him to survive in their hiding place in the Le Chambon area. Apart from material aid, Mairesse also warned refugees and resisters of impending raids by the French militia or the Germans.

On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Simone Mairesse as Righteous Among the Nations.

Jacqueline Martin● (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), wife of Pastor Jacques Martin, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title September 6, 1989, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 378-379)

Pastor Jacques Martin● (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), awarded Righteous Among the Nations title September 6, 1989, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 378-379)

Martin, Jacqueline Martin●, Pastor Jacques File 8122 The Protestant cleric Jacques Martin served in a congregation in Ganges (Herault). Before the war, Martin refused to do military service for reasons of conscience and was in prison for about a year. A military physician arranged his discharge in 1939 because of his poor health, but in accordance with its policy toward conscientious objectors, the Church would not assign him to a parish. He accepted the post of temporary pastor, without pay, in Ganges (Hérault). To support his family, Martin worked at a large needlework factory that turned out silk stockings. He and his wife joined CIMADE and collaborated with Madeleine Barot (q.v.), who placed them in touch with Jews who had been interned at Gurs. The Martins sent the inmates food parcels and helped several of them obtain their release and emigrate to destinations overseas. When arrests of Jews in the southern zone began, Pastor Martin and his wife played a central and active role in rescuing large numbers of Jews. They concealed Jews in their home for short periods while seeking permanent hideouts for them, usually with members of their congregation. Martin also forged identification cards, gave them to Jews in need, and participated in a network that filched ration cards and distributed them to sequestered Jews. The Martins concealed Jacques’ brother-in-law, Pastor André Trocmé● (q.v.), in their family home in Perdyer (Drôme). On June 22, 1944, the militia arrested Martin and had him imprisoned in Montpellier, on suspicion of activity in the Resistance.

In one of the strangest transactions of this troubled period, the Resistance negotiated his release in return for one thousand sheep, and Martin was freed three days before the liberation. After the liberation, the French general staff awarded Jacques Martin, the erstwhile conscientious objector, the esteemed Croix de Guerre for his feats “on behalf of the victims of enemy actions.” On June 22, 1998, YadVashem recognized Jacques and Jacqueline Martin as Righteous Among the Nations.

May●, Jean May, Eugénie May, Roger May, Germaine File

May, Jean May, Eugénie May, Roger May, Germaine File 3899 Jean and Eugénie May ran a hotel in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a mainly Protestant town in the département of Haute-Loire. The inhabitants of this town, responding to the urgings of the local pastor, André Trocmé ● (q.v.), sheltered many Jews in a large-scale rescue operation. From November 1942 to liberation day, the Chez May Hotel provided temporary refuge to dozens of Jews until permanent hiding places were arranged in Le Chambon and villages nearby. The hotel became the headquarters for rescue operations, and the May family, through contacts with the local gendarmerie, was warned of raids by the Gestapo and the militia. Roger and Germaine, the Mays’ children, like their parents, took it upon themselves to warn the Jews who were going to be arrested. Those whose hames appeared on the list fled to the nearby forest until the danger had passed. Professor Léon Poliakov, then a liaison agent in the Jewish underground organization “Service André,” testified after the war that he spent April-June 1944 near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and ate lunch at the Chez May every day, using these occasions to meet with other agents who helped him find hiding places for Jews. The Germans were aware that Le Chambon was a center of French underground activity and frequently raided the village and its environs. The Mays welcomed underground members and Jewish refugees warmly and did not make them fill out the required police forms.

Those who could not afford to pay for their lodgings were welcome in any event. On June 13, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Jean and Eugénie May and their children, Roger and Germaine, as Righteous Among the Nations.

Mettenet, Eugénie● Eugénie Mettenet (b. 1916) and her mother and brother lived on a remote farm near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. This town’s residents, under the leadership of its pastor, André Trocmé ● (q.v.), helped hide Jews from both the French authorities and the German occupiers.

Mettenet, Eugénie File 4158 Eugénie Mettenet (b. 1916) and her mother and brother lived on a remote farm near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. This town’s residents, under the leadership of its pastor, André Trocmé ● (q.v.), helped hide Jews from both the French authorities and the German occupiers. Myriam Rosowsky (b. 1902) was sheltered in various places in Fay-sur-Lignon, a town near Le Chambon, after escaping from the French detention camp at Rivesaltes. In 1943, after having been warned of an impending roundup of Jews in Le Chambon, Rosowsky fled to Mettenet’s farm. In the roundup, twenty-three Jewish students and their Christian teacher, Daniel Trocmé (q.v.), were arrested in Le Chambon and deported to the east, where they perished. Rosowsky spent nearly three months with Mettenet, who not only provided her with moral and material support but also became her close friend. Fears of further raids in the area intensified in the spring of 1944, and Rosowsky again fled to Mettenet’s farm. Eugénie Mettenet, who acted without any thought of reward, incurred great personal risk because Rosowsky’s husband had been deported to the east and her son was active in the underground. On May 7, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Eugénie Mettenet as Righteous Among the Nations.

Hubert Meyer● (b. 1915) (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), ran a home for refugees under the auspices of CIMADE, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title May 7, 1989, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 396-397)

Meyer, Hubert File 4159 During the occupation, Hubert Meyer (b. 1915) ran a home for refugees under the auspices of CIMADE, a Protestant charitable organization. The institution, known as Coteau Fleuri and located in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (département of Haute-Loire), was founded in April 1942 to care for ill prisoners who had been rescued from the camps at Gurs and Rivesaltes. Jean Hilbrand and his wife Hilde were interned in Gurs from December 1940 to July 1942. After they were rescued, they were accommodated in Meyer’s institution and Hilde became part of the administrative staff. Coteau Fleuri admitted, housed, and fed several dozen Jews, ranging in age from three to eighty-five. A large roundup of Jews took place in Le Chambon in August 1942. Meyer was warned in advance and sent some of the Jews he was sheltering to the surrounding forest and placed others with peasants in nearby villages. When the gendarmes came searching for them, Meyer denied knowing their whereabouts. After the roundup, the gendarmes returned to try and track down the escapees. As it was no longer possible to run the home, it was disbanded. Meyer became director of a similar home, Maison des Roches. The Hilbrands moved with him, and Hilde performed various maintenance chores. In the spring of 1943, as mobilizations for forced labor in Germany escalated, Meyer was inducted but managed to escape. He joined the Maquis and was wanted as a deserter until the end of the occupation.

On May 7, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Hubert Meyer as Righteous Among the Nations

Pastor (Reverend) André Morel●+, chaplain, Gurs French detention camp (1941-1942), Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, member of Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE, OSE, Marc Boegner Rescue Network, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title September 23, 1990, (Yad Vashem Archives; Fabre, 1970, pp. 26, 66; Gutman, 2003, p. 402; Halle, 1979) see also Andre Chouraqui

Morel, Pastor André File 1288 Reverend André Morel was a Protestant minister who worked for CIMADE, a Protestant aid organization headed by Marc Bogner (q.v.) and Madeleine Barot (q.v.). In 1941-1942, Morel was active in the camp at Gurs. He provided Jewish inmates with false baptismal certificates, assisted in rescue operations, and participated in attempts to improve the prisoners’ living conditions.

In 1942, CIMADE sent Morel to help smuggle Jews into Switzerland, a highly risky venture because of the difficult mountainous terrain and the many French soldiers who patrolled the area regularly to capture fleeing Jews and other opponents of the regime. Morel helped dozens of Jews run the border and neither sought nor received any remuneration. He was then transferred to Le Chambon sur Lignon (Haute Loire), where he operated in 1943-1944. Le Chambon and the surrounding villages were renowned for their active assistance in hiding Jews. Morel, in coordination with the Jewish organization OSE, located villagers willing to shelter Jews. André Chouraqui, coordinator of the local OSE team, later described Morel’s activities. Chouraqui entrusted Morel with twenty Jewish children, whom he saved by placing them in safe havens with village families. At one point, the French gendarmerie arrested and prosecuted Morel for smuggling Jews into Switzerland. Morel was convicted and fined 4,000 French francs, beyond the means of the young clergyman. Chouraqui came to his aid.

He appealed to the Jews of the region, who contributed willingly. On September 25, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized André Morel as Righteous Among the Nations.

Münch, Eugène Münch, Elisabeth, officers in the Salvation Army. In 1942, they began working at Les Grillons, a family-run boarding school in Chambon-sur-Lignon. Hid 15 Jews.  

Eugène and Elisabeth Münch, originally from Strasbourg, had chosen France after the German occupation of Alsace. They were both officers in the Salvation Army. In 1942, they began working at Les Grillons, a family-run boarding school in Chambon-sur-Lignon, and settled there with their three young children. At first they were responsible for the staff store. In 1943, Eugène became the institution’s director, assisted by Elisabeth. They were Protestants, and worked closely with the Secours Suisse and the Collège Cévenol, founded by Pastor André Trocmé. The Münchs accommodated approximately 15 adolescent Jews at Les Grillons. Some had been sent by parents who paid for their stay, but others were allowed to live there at no charge. These adolescents had been studying at the Collège Cévenol. On June 29, 1943, the boarding school was raided and all the young Jews, as well as Eugène, were arrested and transferred to Les Roches, another boarding school for youth in Chambon-sur-Lignon, where many other Jews from the Collège Cévenol had already been detained. Eugène was interrogated by the Germans, and then released when it was discovered they were searching for someone else by the name of Münch. Eighteen lodgers from Les Roches, along with their director, Daniel Trocmé, were deported. Despite these tragic events and the risks he would be taking, Eugène returned to Les Grillons and the couple continued to take in young Jews who were being persecuted.

Among them were two sisters, Arlette and Maryse Auerbacher, as well as Martine and Jean-Michel Schmoll, who were registered as Protestants, and who have recorded the Münchs’ exceptional devotion and great generosity. On April 4, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Eugène and Elisabeth Münch as Righteous Among the Nations.

Jean Ollivier● (Gutman, 2003, p. 414)

Nancy Ollivier● (Gutman, 2003, p. 414)

Ollivier, Jean Olliver, Nancy File 4193 Jean and Nancy Ollivier owned a farm in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. When roundups of Jews commenced in this area, the Olliviers agreed to the OSE’s request to hide Jewish children. In the spring of 1943, two children were brought to their home; Claude Milgram, the son of Michel and Berthe Milgram, and Hélène Minkowski, Berthe Milgram’s sister. Three of the children’s relatives had been arrested and deported to the east. The Olliviers gave the children a warm reception, and so that the neighbors would not suspect they were Jewish, they passsed them off as their own children. They renamed three-year-old Claude “Claudie,” let his hair grow, and trained him to act like a girl. Claude and Hélène called Jean “papa” and Nancy “maman,” and they became very attached to the Ollivers, who were taking a great risk by hiding Jewish children. The area was swarming with German soldiers, who were trying to catch the resistance fighters who came to recover arms dropped by parachute for them by the Allies. The Ollivers viewed their rescue work as a moral imperative. The two children remained with them until August 1944. When the time came to return to their parents, they and the Olliviers found the separation a painful experience. On April 28, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Jean and Nancy Ollivier as Righteous Among the Nations.

Hermine Orsi*●, helped Jews escape from Marseilles to village safe houses of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon; arrested and murdered by the Gestapo (Gutman, 2003, p. 416)

Orsi, Hermine File 3211 In November 1942, after the Germans occupied southern France, the persecution and deportation of Jews intensified, and the various relief organizations had to go underground. One of these organizations was the GAD (Groupe d’Action contre la Déportation), formed by Joseph Bass and known as Service André. The purpose of this underground was to hide Jews from large cities in the south (mainly Marseilles and Lyons) and provide them with forged papers and ration cards. Their primary activity was hiding Jewish children in Protestant villages in the mountainous area of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire. Hermine Orsi was a housemother and cook in Les Grillons, a boarding school in Le Chambon that had taken in twenty-three Jewish youths. The home was run by Daniel Trocmé (q.v.) who, together with his wards, was seized by the Gestapo and sent to a camp in Poland, where they perished. Orsi had met “M. André” at the home, and after the institution was shut down following the arrest of Trocmé and his wards, Orsi went to work for Service André. She escorted groups of Jewish children from Marseilles to villages in the vicinity of Chambon, and was very successful, both in the way she implemented her mission and in the warmth and love she lavished on the children in her care. Sometimes Orsi took part in search parties looking for unfortunate children who had been left alone and destitute after their parents were arrested, and who were hiding in cellars and improvised hiding places.

She took these young people to Chambon and its vicinity and placed them with families who agreed to take them in. In that manner, despite the danger, Orsi saved the lives of dozens of Jewish children. More than once, during the last two years of the occupation, she sheltered Jews in her modest apartment in Marseilles. Among others, she hid Dr. Ghinsberg, who had taken refuge in Marseille in December 1941, and who was pursued by the Gestapo. In 1944,Hermine put him in contact with Resistance fighters in the Chambon region, and he joined them. When Marseille was bombarded in June 1944, Orsi sheltered five Jewish adults, foreigners who did not know a word of French and had lost all their possessions and papers in the heavy bombings. They spent several months in her home, until the liberation. On April 29, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Hermine Orsi as Righteous Among the Nations.

Léonie Pélissier●

Samuel Pélissier●, Mazet-Sainte-Voy, near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire, Pélissiers, risking their lives and those of their children, hid a Jewish mother and daughter.

Pélissier●, Léonie Pélissier, Samuel File 4005 During the occupation, Chinda Bulwa and her daughter Cécile (b. 1928) lived under borrowed identities. After moving from one hiding place to another, they reached Mazet-Sainte-Voy, near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the département of Haute-Loire, and from late 1943 until the end of the occupation, they rented two rooms in the home of the Pélissier family. Samuel and Léonie Pélissier, who lived on a farm with their six children, knew that the Bulwas were Jewish and were aware of the danger of sheltering Jews. Previously, they had sheltered another Jewish family, the Dubrovskys. The Pélissiers treated the Bulwas as family, providing security, food, and a warm home. The refugees were relatively free. Cécile attended school, closely supervised by the principal, M. Roux, who knew her true identity. Roux escorted her to the département capital of Le Puy, where the BEPC (Brevet Etudes Premier Cycle, a secondary school certificate) examinations were held. Whenever gendarmes or soldiers came through the area, the Pélissiers, risking their lives and those of their children, hid the mother and daughter until the danger passed. In her subsequent testimony, Cécile described her year with the Pélissiers as “the best year of my childhood.” After the war, Cécile bought a summerhouse in the village where she had been hidden, and remained close friends with two of her rescuers’ children. On November 14, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Samuel and Léonie Pélissier as Righteous Among the Nations

Francois Périllat●+* (CIMADE), (Gutman, 2003)

Périllat, François File 4239a During the occupation, François Périllat of the village of Veigy-Foncenex, together with Joseph Lançon (q.v.), a farmer and his employer, smuggled hundreds of Jews to Switzerland. Périllat was a central figure in the network of border runners, which included clergymen, underground operatives, and local residents. The fugitives turned first to the clergy, particularly Father Jean-Joseph Rosay (q.v.), the priest of Douvaine, who sent them to Périllat and his comrades. These local people exploited their familiarity with the terrain and considerable experience to smuggle Jews over the border in the safest possible way. Périllat’s daring operations saved the lives of hundreds of Jews, but not his own. The Germans occupied this area on September 9, 1943, and Périllat’s activities were discovered. He, Lançon and Rosay were arrested and deported to concentration camps in the east. Périllat was shuttled from one camp to another and forced to do backbreaking work, until he died of exhaustion on December 13, 1944, in the Hersbrueck camp in Bavaria. On May 16, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized François Périllat as Righteous Among the Nations.

Georges Perrod, school principal see Father Jean Joseph Rosay●, Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; (CIMADE), Douvaine Rescue/Escape Network, Douvaine, France, school principal, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title October 17, 1994, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003)

At Father Jean Joseph Rosay’s● request, Georges Perrod● (q.v.), principal of the government school in Douvaine, provided Jewish children with temporary hiding places while preparing to cross the border.

Maria Perrod●, wife of Georges Perrod, CIMADE, Douvaine Rescue/Escape Network, Douvaine, France, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title October 17, 1994, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003)

Perrod, Georges Perrod, Maria File 6352 At the beginning of the war, Georges Perrod was the principal of an elementary school in Douvaine, in the département of Haute-Savoie about eight kilometers from the Swiss border. During the occupation, due to its location, Douvaine was a good point of departure for attempts to cross the border into Switzerland. Several Catholic priests, including Simon Gallay (q.v.) and Jean-Joseph Rosay (q.v.), were involved in smuggling refugees, both Jews and non-Jews, across the border. Their house served as a temporary asylum, sometimes for a few hours and other times for a few days, until border guides could cross people at night. Perrod worked with the priests who organized the rescue network. He hid refugees in the basement of his school until they could cross the border. His wife Maria met all their needs and fed them at the family table. The number of Jews who crossed the border near Douvaine with the Perrods’ assistance is not known because no records were kept and the rescuers did not know the refugees personally. There is reason to believe, however, that, thanks to their help, scores of fugitives survived. Several members of the smugglers’ network were uncovered, deported to the east, and murdered, including Father Rosay, the parish priest of Douvaine. Perrod’s actions were documented in two books on the subject: Les secrets d’une frontière (The Secrets of a Border) by R. Mossu, published in 1964, and Ma vie pour la tienne (My Life for Yours), by René Nodot (q.v.), published in 1987. On October 17, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Georges and Maria Perrod as Righteous Among the Nations.

Mireille Philip● Co-founder and leader, Protestant rescue organization Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), smuggled young Jews to from Le Chambon to Switzerland, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title March 18, 1976, (Yad Vashem Archives; Fabre, 1970; Gutman, 2003, p. 439)

Philip, Mireille File 1026 Mireille Philip was active in the Protestant rescue organization CIMADE. Her husband, Socialist leader André Philip, had left occupied France in 1940 and joined General de Gaulle. Mireille assumed responsibility for leading small groups of young Jews from the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon to the Swiss border, from where they were smuggled into Switzerland. Although aware of the risks of these operations, she worked energetically, instilled confidence in the youth, and recruited additional volunteers for work in rescuing Jews. CIMADE obtained Swiss entry visas for all Jews whom its agents delivered across the border. To obtain the visas, lists had to be taken to Switzerland with extreme precautions. For that purpose, Mireille Philip sometimes went to Geneva on a locomotive, disguised as a railroad mechanic. Sometimes it was necessary to wait several days for the visas, and Philip would have to hide her Jews in the département of Haute-Savoie, near the border. She was assisted by Catholic priests and institutions, including Father Camille Folliet● (q.v.) of Annecy and Father Jean Rosay (q.v.) of the town of Douvaine. In January 1943, Mireille Philip turned over her duties in CIMADE to Pierre Piton● (q.v.) and joined the Resistance. After the war, she described her experiences in the rescue operations: “By helping them, we received more than we gave. After all, it was so convenient to be in our situation and not in theirs. For we had chosen our role, which, in my opinion, was a normal situation that discriminated in our favor.”

On March 18, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Mireille Philip as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pierre Piton● (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Collège Chévenol, helped smuggle Jews to Switzerland, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title May 16, 1989, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 439)

Piton, Pierre File 4247 Pierre Piton was born in 1925 in Le Havre. His father was a ship’s captain and his mother was a teacher. In 1941, Piton ran away from home to escape his violent father. The Protestant Scout movement, the Eclaireurs Unionists, became his second family. When he reached Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Pastor Edouard Theis● (q.v.) hired him as a dormitory counselor at the Collège Cévenol. In August 1942, the town’s Protestant leadership asked Piton to escort the Jewish refugees streaming into Le Chambon to the families who were sheltering them. In early 1943, Mireille Philip● (q.v.) recruited Piton to guide small groups of Jews who were being smuggled into Switzerland. Piton, wearing a scout uniform, traveled by train to the border village of Collonges-sous-Salève; passing through the stations of Lyons, St.-Etienne, and Annecy. Wherever he changed trains, he was closely followed by three Jews who had left Le Chambon early that morning. At eleven a.m. the next day, they took a bus from Annecy to Collonges-sous-Salève; at sundown they were met by the Catholic priest Marius Jolivet (q.v.). Father Jolivet monitored the border guards’ patrol movements, and told them when to move toward the barbed-wire fence. Piton lifted the wire, allowing the refugees to crawl to the other side. After twenty successful operations, an Italian border patrol caught Piton and three Jews and handed them over to French gendarmes, who imprisoned them in Grenoble. They were released three months later, and a police officer explained to Piton, “I know everything you did.

Albert Pradier●

Lucie Pradier● St.-Agrève, in the département of Ardèche, near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Hid Jewish baby.

Pradier●, Albert Pradier, Lucie File 4272 In June 1943, when Nicole Sidès was approximately eighteen months old, her mother Julie fled with her and her two brothers from their home in Marseilles. Several months earlier, Nicole’s father had been deported to camps in the east. From earlier vacations, her mother was familiar with St.-Agrève, in the département of Ardèche, not far from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. When Julie Sidès discovered that the Gestapo was looking for her in Marseilles, she realized that she had to flee St.-Agrève, too, and find a new hiding place. She left her baby daughter with the Pradiers, her next door neighbor, sent her two older sons to a children’s home, and found shelter for herself and her mother in Lichessol, a village about three kilometers from St. Agrève. The Pradiers treated Nicole as though she were their fourth daughter. Despite the danger of betrayal, because a Gestapo command post had been established in the village, the Pradiers accepted the huge risk and safeguarded Nicole throughout the last year of the occupation, the most difficult and dangerous year for Jews. Nicole was so at home with the Pradiers that even when the occupation ended and her family went home, she remained with the Pradiers. She rejoined her mother in Marseilles when she was six years old and had to begin attending school. In her postwar testimony, Nicole recounted how sad she felt parting with the Pradiers and how happy her childhood memories were. Indeed, Nicole’s relations with her foster sisters, who had become a second family for her, continued after the war.

On June 4, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Albert and Lucie Pradier as Righteous Among the Nations.

Rivière, Dora Arnold● Le Chambon-sur-Lignon* (Haute-Loire). Hid Jewish children. Rivière was later denounced to the authorities, arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Rivière, Dora Arnold and Irma Lewin, originally from Germany, fled to Belgium before the outbreak of World War II. Their two sons, Jack (14) and Martin (15), joined them in October 1939. In May 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium, the family had to evacuate, and marched toward France under heavy bombardment. They were arrested in Charleroi, Belgium, by French and Belgian soldiers; Irma was sent to the Gurs detention camp, and Arnold and the boys were sent to a number of camps before they, too, arrived in Gurs. In the summer of 1942, a lady from the OSE rescue organization approached the Lewins for permission to send Jack to a village. The couple agreed, and in September Jack was taken with a group of children to a home in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon* (Haute-Loire) run by Le Secours Suisse, a Swiss rescue organization. Eventually Martin joined Jack in the children’s home. Meanwhile Arnold and Irma Lewin were deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. In August 1943, Vichy militiamen arrived at the children's home to arrest the Jewish children. Auguste Bohny*, the director of the home, prevented their arrest by claiming that it was neutral Swiss territory. The police left the premises, but not before declaring they would return. In the middle of the night, the children were awakened and spirited out of the home. They were taken to hide in the woods, where they remained for all of the following day. At nightfall, they were dispersed among the villagers.

Jack, Martin and their friend Walter Jakubovsky were taken to the home of Dora Rivière in Le Chambon. Rivière, an ophthalmologist, was a member of the underground involved in the rescue of Jewish children. The boys stayed with the family for some six weeks, and Dora’s teenaged children, Jacques and Hélène, made them feel welcome, willingly sharing the family’s food rations. The "guests" then returned to the children’s home, and Jack and Martin eventually made their way across the borderto Switzerland with the help of various resistance members. Dora Rivière was later denounced to the authorities, arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. There, she used her medical skills and dedication to help fellow inmates, before being transferred to Mauthausen, where she was liberated in April 1945. After the war, she became Deputy Mayor in charge of Social Affairs in Saint-Étienne. She passed away in April 1983. On February 6, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Dora Rivière as Righteous Among the Nations. *(Yad Vashem recognized the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in 1988 as Righteous Among the Nations – the only instance of an entire community being so recognized. Most of the people in Le Chambon were Protestants. With their history of persecution as a religious minority in Catholic France, empathy for Jews as the people of the Old Testament and the powerful leadership and example of their pastor André Trocmé* and his wife, Magda, the people of Le Chambon acted on their conviction that it was their duty to help their "neighbors" in need.)

Rosay, Father Jean-Joseph● File 3580

Father Jean-Joseph Rosay●, the priest of Douvaine, near the Swiss border in the département of Haute-Savoie, worked with all his power to help Jews cross the border illegally. For this purpose he created an impressive network staffed by Catholic priests, Protestant clergymen, and lay people from villages and towns in the border area. Rosay used his home as a transit station for Jewish children until they could safely run the border. The Jewish organization OSE and the Protestant organization CIMADE referred Jewish children to Rosay. At Father Rosay’s request, Georges Perrod● (q.v.), principal of the government school in Douvaine, provided Jewish children with temporary hiding places while preparing to cross the border. On February 10, 1944, the Gestapo arrested Father Rosay and two members of his congregation, Joseph Lançon (q.v.) and François Périllat (q.v.), who had served as volunteer border guides. All three were deported to Auschwitz. Father Rosay was taken to Bergen-Belsen in January 1945, and died there several days before the British liberated the camp. Joseph Lançon and François Périllat perished as well. On March 19, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Father Jean-Joseph Rosay as Righteous Among the Nations.

Albert Roux●, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Children’s Aid Rescue Society, Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants; (OSE) awarded Righteous Among the Nations title January 18, 1990, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 231, 439)

Eugenie Roux●, wife of Albert Roux (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, worked with Children’s Aid Rescue Society, Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants; OSE,  awarded Righteous Among the Nations title January 18, 1990, (Yad Vashem Archives; (Gutman, 2003, p. 231, 439)

Roux, Albert Roux, Eugénie File 4502 Albert Roux owned a grocery store in Chaumargeais, in the département of Haute-Loire near Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. André Chouraqui, born in 1917, lived in Chaumargeais from the summer of 1942 and was a liaison for the OSE, a Jewish organization that sheltered children. Chouraqui lived across the street from Roux’s grocery store and established a center to rescue children in the Haute-Loire region. Roux and his wife allowed the OSE to transmit urgent messages with his telephone, the only one in the area. They warned OSE agents of French militia movements and the unexpected arrival of German policemen. They also provided members of the underground with food from their store, even though food was rationed and in extremely short supply. Roux and his wife also made contacts with the underground and found peasants willing to hide Jewish children and members of the underground in their homes, often rising in the middle of a snowy night to take children from the railroad station to their new hiding places. In response to information from Mireille Philip (q.v.), the Rouxes warned André Chouraqui that a Gestapo agent was due to visit the area in order to arrest and deport him and his wife. The warning enabled the Chouraquis to move to the hiding place they had prepared. Albert Roux and his wife performed their acts of rescue with clear awareness of the dangers.. On January 8, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Albert Roux and his wife as Righteous Among the Nations.

Lucie Ruel●, ran a café and restaurant in St.-Voy-le-Mazet, in the département of Haute-Loire. During the war, she made her establishment a refuge for Jewish refugees and Resistance fighters who came to the vicinity of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.

Ruel, Lucie File 4008 Lucie Ruel, born in 1892, ran a café and restaurant in St.-Voy-le-Mazet, in the département of Haute-Loire. During the war, she made her establishment a refuge for Jewish refugees and Resistance fighters who came to the vicinity of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Ruel provided people in need of help with lodging and forged papers. Many refugees remained for several days until permanent shelter could be arranged. The local Resistance hid arms and ammunition in her house. André Weil, born in 1913, was a pharmacist in a Paris hospital. In January 1943, a young Protestant minister urged him to flee to Haute-Loire and find a hiding place there. He went to Ruel’s home and stayed for more than a year, from March 1943 to April 1944. Whenever members of the pro-Nazi militia raided the village, Weil and other Jews hid in the church attic. After the war, Weil and Ruel remained close friends. On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Lucie Ruel as Righteous Among the Nations.

Elie and Marie Russier● (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE). Owned a family pension in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute-Loire) known as Le Côteau Fleuri. Awarded Righteous Among the Nations title December 26, 1988, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 491)

Russier●, Elie Russier, Marie Boît, Lily (Russier) File 4011 Elie and Marie Russier owned a family pension in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute-Loire) known as Le Côteau Fleuri. They and their daughter Lily (whose married name was Lily Boît) lived in a house attached to this building with its own private entrance. During the occupation, the Russiers made the building available to the Protestant charitable organization CIMADE. That organization worked in the detention camps in the southwest of France where the Vichy regime had interned tens of thousands of Jewish refugees. The CIMADE volunteers tried to ease their suffering and occasionally succeeded in obtaining “vacations” for dozens of Jewish detainees, mainly eldery people. More than eighty of them, removed from the Gurs and Rivesaltes camps, were sheltered in Le Couteau Fleuri. In 1942, the gendarmerie received the order to transport “non-liberable” people back to the detention camps in preparation for their deportation. One of these, Hilda Hillebrand, the youngest resident of Le Coteau Fleuri at that time, told how the Russiers had prepared shelter with the people of Chambon for some of the inmates, and in the forests for others, for the duration of the emergency. While there was hardly any risk of denunciation in that town, which was so hospitable to the Jews, Lilly Russier and her parents risked grave penalties from the authorities. When the gendarmes found their pension vacant, the Russiers put them off with all sorts of stories.

After the war, Hilda Hillebrand and several of her Jewish friends, who had been saved in the Coteau Fleuri, kept up friendly relations with the Russiers and their daughter Lily, Mme Boît. On December 26, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Elie and Marie Russier and daughter Lily Boît as Righteous Among the Nations

Gabriel Soulier● and Juliette Soulier● had operated a small farm in a place known as La Bouscarasse in Lasalle (Gard), (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), 

Soulier, Gabriel Soulier, Juliette Gabriel and Juliette Soulier had an isolated farm in a place known as La Bouscarasse in Lasalle (Gard), and lived modestly on what the farm produced. Despite their limited means, from February 1943 to February 1944 they accommodated a 17-year-old Jewish boy named Jacques Rojtenberg. Jacques, his three brothers and his parents had fled from Paris to Nîmes after the defeat. In 1942, with the worsening of the situation for Jews, the Rojtenbergs looked for help from CIMADE, a Protestant refuge aid organization. The two older brothers were sent to Chambon-sur-Lignon and from there transferred to Switzerland. Jacques, his younger brother Roger and their parents were sent to the Lozère, where they were moved from one farm to the next until they met Pastor Edgard Wasserfallen● in Lasalle. Jacques was virtually adopted by the Souliers, who treated him as their own son. Due to limited space, Jacques shared a bed with their 16-year-old son Georges. On Christmas in 1943, when a denunciation was feared, Gabriel found him a temporary hiding place in Vigan, 60 kilometers away. He traveled there with him on bicycle, in spite of the police checkpoints. Once the danger had passed, Jacques was able to return to La Bouscarasse. The Souliers never accepted the least compensation for their help. On the contrary, when Jacques was forced to leave the farm once and for all, following a second denunciation, Gabriel stuffed 200 francs in his pocket, despite his protests.

Gabriel and Juliette’s grown daughter Jeanette, who was already married, had Roger at her home in Calviac, while his parents stayed with other members of the Soulier family. On August 13, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Gabriel and Juliette Soulier as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Roland Tartier●, St.-Laurent-du-Pape, in the département of Ardèche.

Madeleine Tartier●  Hid Jews and was subsequently arrested.

Tartier, Pastor Roland Tartier, Madeleine File 4430 The Drillichs, a Jewish family from the Netherlands, had fled to France after the German invasion. In the winter of 1942, they were living in St.-Laurent-du-Pape, in the département of Ardèche. The Germans had already occupied southern France and the villagers knew that the family was Jewish. On December 15, 1942, Tartier, the village pastor, visited the Drillichs and warned them to go into hiding at once, because the authorities had begun deporting Jewish refugees from Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg, and arrests were taking place in a village only eight kilometers away. Since the Drillichs did not know where to go, the pastor brought them to his house, and they spent the night in his attic. For the next two weeks, they slept in the attic and spent the day on the second floor. The pastor, whose home was accessible to everyone, incurred a great risk by taking in the Jewish family. He provided the Drillichs with forged identification cards, and then, though seriously ill with bronchitis, he cycled fifty kilometers on icy mountain roads to Privas, hoping to find a border runner. He was unable to find one and returned home empty-handed. The danger increased, and the refugees could not remain in the pastor’s house any longer, so he decided to send them to the département of Haute-Loire. Four of his parishioners helped the Drillichs put their suitcases on the train. The fugitives then traveled unaccompanied to St.-Sauveur-de-Montagut, where the Reverend Bonnet awaited them. From St.-Sauveur-de-Montagut, they migrated from place to place until they arrived at the village of Freycenet-de-St.-Jeures, where they spent the rest of the occupation. The Drillichs would never forget the generosity of the pastor and other clergymen, who devoted themselves to helping people whom they did not know. Pastor Tartier’s wife also helped Gertrude, a Jewish girl from Mannheim, who was rescued from the Gurs detention camp in thePyrénées after her mother perished there. After sheltering Gertrude in their home, Mme Tartier helped her relocate to Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. On October 1, 1943, the Gestapo arrested Pastor Tartier and imprisoned him for about two months. Although he was released and spared deportation, his health was severely impaired by the ordeal. On October 26, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Tartier and his wife as Righteous Among the Nations.

Pastor Edouard Theis●+, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), director, College Cevenol, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, arrested and interned by Germans for helping Jews, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title July 15, 1981, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 519; Hallie, 1979, pp. 4-7, 12, 22-44, 61, 82-85, 177, 232-233; Zuccotti, 1993, pp. 221, 229)

Mildred Theis●, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title July 15, 1981, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, p. 519; Hallie, 1979, pp. 5, 12, 27, 82, 251; Zuccotti, 1993, pp. 221, 229)

Theis, Pastor Edouard Theis, Mildred File 2066 The Protestant minister Edouard Theis, whose sermons contained an anti-war message, was invited by his colleague, the Reverend André Trocmé (q.v.), whose beliefs and views he shared, to run the newly founded Collège Cévenol in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire. When France was occupied and the Vichy regime formed, the two clergymen urged their congregants to shelter persecuted Jews, “ the people of the Bible.” Le Chambon and the surrounding villages became a refuge unique in all of France; hundreds of Jewish refugees, children and entire families, were hidden in various institutions and homes until the liberation. Edouard Theis and his wife Mildred regularly kept Jewish families in their home until they could place them in permanent shelters, and they treated their wards warmly and with dignity. On August 16, 1942, Georges Lamirand, the Minister of Youth in the Vichy government, made an official visit to the town. Trocmé and Theis refused to preach in the church in his presence. A dozen students in the Collège Cévenol handed him a letter stating: “We insist on making it known to you that there are a number of Jews among us. If our comrades, whose only fault is that they were born in another religion, receive the order to submit to deportation, they will disobey those orders, and we will do our best to hide them.” Within two weeks of Lamirand’s visit, a large detachment of gendarmes equipped with police vans moved into Le Chambon and began to make systematic searches.

In church that Sunday, Trocmé and Theis urged the congregants to “do the will of God, not of men.” Theis later explained that he was obeying Deuteronomy 19:2-10, where God commands His people to create cities of refuge where an innocent man could find asylum: “so that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, ... so blood [will not] be upon you.” After a few days of fruitless searches, the gendarmes left the townin frustration. In February 1943, Theis and Trocmé were arrested along with the teacher Roger Darcissac (q.v.) and were interned for three weeks at the Saint-Paul d’Eyjeaux camp near Limoges. The camp commander pressured them to sign a commitment to obey all orders of the government and its agents, but they refused and were, nevertheless, released. Once released, Theis joined the underground, and participated in the CIMADE escape network to Switzerland. On July 15, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized the Reverend Edouard Theis and his wife Mildred as Righteous Among the Nations.

Magda Trocmé●, (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon. Awarded Righteous Among the Nations title January 5, 1971, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 529-530; Hallie, 1979, pp. 19-21, 64-67, 149-150, 152-156, 161-163, 195-196, 259, 265; Zuccotti, 1993, p. 229)

Pastor André Pascal Trocmé● (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon. Awarded Righteous Among the Nations title January 5, 1971, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 529-530; Hallie, 1979, pp. 19-21, 64-67, 149-150, 152-156, 161-163, 195-196, 259, 265; Zuccotti, 1993, p. 229)

Trocmé, Pastor André Trocmé, Magda File 612 In the early 1930s, when Charles Guillon*, pastor of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, in the département of Haute-Loire, was elected mayor of the town, André Trocmé took over as pastor of the congregation. On June 23, 1940, after the armistice, Trocmé and his colleague, Edward Theis*, urged his congregants to resist using “the weapons of the spirit.” In so doing, they followed in the footsteps of Guillon. This policy and the high-mindedness of many congregants made Le Chambon and the surrounding villages a unique refuge in France, where many hundreds of Jews, children and entire families, survived the war. Magda, Trocmé’s wife, was actively involved in creating and maintaining this haven. With others, she located families willing to accommodate Jewish refugees and prepared the town’s many boarding schools for increased enrollment. Reverends Trocmé and Theis vigorously encouraged all these endeavors, which frustrated the regime’s anti-Jewish policies. Neither pressure from the authorities nor searches by security agents diminished the resolve of the Trocmés and their team, and their activity did not cease. On August 15, 1942, Trocmé vehemently articulated his opinions to Georges Lamirand, the Vichy Minister for Youth, on an official visit to the town. Several days later, gendarmes moved into Le Chambon to “purge” the town of its foregin alien residents. On August 30, the suspense peaked. Rumor had it that the pastor was about to be arrested.

In his overflowing church, Trocmé urged the congregants to “do the will of God, not of men” and stressed the importance of fulfilling the commandment in Deuteronomy 19:2-10 concerning sheltering the persecuted. There were no arrests that day, and the gendarmes were withdrawn from the town several days later, their mission an utter failure. In February 1943, Trocmé and two colleagues, Reverend Edouard Theis and the teacher Roger Darcissac*, were arrested and interned at the Saint-Pauld’Eyjeaux camp near Limoges. They were held for three weeks, while the camp commander tried to pressure the pastors to sign a commitment to obey, but they did not succumb to the pressure. Upon their release, Theis joined the CIMADE and participated in the escape network to Switzerland. Trocmé, who was not in the best of health, joined the underground, and was able to keep the safe haven in Le Chambon and its vicinity operating smoothly. On January 5, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized the Reverend André Trocmé and on May 14, 1984 his wife, Magda, as Righteous Among the Nations.

Daniel Trocmé●* (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, head of Maison des Roches (children’s home), awarded Righteous Among the Nations title March 18, 1976, (Yad Vashem Archives; Gutman, 2003, pp. 529-530; Hallie, 1979, pp. 168, 181, 205-217, 219, 221, 247, 259; Zuccotti, 1993, p. 230)

Trocmé, Daniel File 1037 Daniel Trocmé was born in 1912. He taught physics, chemistry and natural sciences at Les Roches, an old, prestigious Protestant boarding school in Verneuil, in the département of Eure. In 1941, his uncle, Pastor André Trocmé (recognized as Righteous in 1971), asked him to become the principal of Les Grillons, a boarding school for Jewish refugee children established by the American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers), in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. A determined and stern-looking man, Daniel Trocmé had sublimely humane traits. Jonathan Gali, who at age sixteen found shelter and work at Les Grillons, recalls a fascinating and profoundly cultivated person. “Daniel Trocmé never thought of himself. He was deeply conscientious. At night you might find the director working by a dim nightlight, repairing children’s shoes with bits of rubber tire". On winter mornings, Trocmé cooked soup in a large metal pot. Although suffering from heart disease, he loaded the soup for the pupils’ lunch onto a wheelbarrow and pushed it for two kilometers over a steep track. At bedtime, Trocmé read the youngsters stories, which he then discussed with them at length. After several months, Daniel Trocmé was offered to take the position of principal of the school of La Maison des Roches. There too he continued his rescue activity. On June 29, 1943, the Gestapo raided the school in search for Jewish students and the director. Trocmé was not on the grounds, because he had spent the night in Les Grillons.

Although he could have fled, he chose to return and joined his Jewish students. Under threat of the German submachine guns, Trocmé and eighteen of his students were imprisoned in the town of Moulins. During his confinement, Trocmé continued to show courage and determination, bolstering the spirits of the students interned with him. Trocmé was taken to the Gestapo headquarters in Moulins for interrogation and, when accused of protecting a Jewish sixteen-year-old, heexplained that he was only protecting the downtrodden. In August 1943, Trocmé was sent to the detention camp in Compiègne in France; from there he was deported to the camp of Dora. In the beginning of 1944 he was taken in a “transport of the sick” to Majdanek, where he died in April 1944 of exhaustion and sickness. He was just thirty-two-years old. On March 18, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Daniel Trocmé as Righteous Among the Nations.

Juliette Usach● (Gutman, 2003, p. 353)

Usach, Juliette File 4186 Many young Jews from Germany, Poland, and Russia were imprisoned during the occupation in camps in southern France. The Jewish organization OSE tried to arrange their release and transfer to safe refuges. One of these was Le Guespy, an institution for children in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, run by Juliette Usach for the Swiss Red Cross. Rudy Appel, Lilly Braun, and Joseph Atlas were among the children whom she saved. Their postwar testimony recalls Usach’s devotion and kindness. She created an atmosphere of religious tolerance that was consistent with the atmosphere of the entire town. As much as possible, Jewish festivals were celebrated in Le Guespy. The survivors remembered that Usach played Ma’oz Tsur on the piano as the children lit Hanukka candles each evening, as stipulated by Jewish ritual. Usach incurred considerable risk in hiding such a large group of Jewish children, even though they had assumed false identities. On April 18, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Juliette Usach as Righteous Among the Nations.

Emma Voirin●, layperson (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), layperson, hid and protected young Jewish girl in their home, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title April 18, 1989, (Yad Vashem Archives; Fabre, 1970; Gutman, 2003, p. 544)

Jean Voirin●, layperson (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE), hid and protected young Jewish girl in their home, awarded Righteous Among the Nations title April 18, 1989, (Yad Vashem Archives; Fabre, 1970; Gutman, 2003, p. 544)

Voirin, Emma Voirin, Jean File 8374 Jean Voirin, a clerk, lived in Génissiat (Ain) with his wife Emma, their four children aged thirteen to twenty, and a nephew whose father was prisoner of war in Germany. Devout Protestants, they never turned away Pastor Liotard from Bellegarde when he asked for food, clothing, and blankets for Jewish children sheltered by the CIMADE. One day in January 1943, the Pastor arrived accompanied by a twelve-year-old girl, Henni Krzuk, a Jewish refugee from Germany whom the CIMADE had been able to remove from the Rivesaltes camp. “Poor kid, she was wondering where she had landed: a family of unknown people, new faces,” wrote Renée, the Voisin daughter who was thirteen at the time. For her parents however, “Another child, that was normal: they had a heart as big as a mountain, especially when children were concerned.” Though very shy, Henni adjusted quickly to her new surroundings. Jean Voisin had a pleasant garden and raised hens and rabbits. The mayor, the gendarmes and the schoolteachers all helped protect the girl, who passed her final elementary school examinations easily. Three times, however, Jean Voirin had to deal with a couple of informers who were accusing him – quite rightly – of helping the underground. Each time he managed to convince them they were wrong. Henni was fortunate. She found her family again after the liberation. But the Voirin children always considered her as their little sister. On February 17, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Jean and Emma Voirin as Righteous Among the Nations.

Edgar and Elise Wasserfallen● and their two children lived in Lasalle (Gard) in France where Edgar was a pastor in the Reformed Church. (Comite d’Inter Mouvement après des Evacues; CIMADE)

Wasserfallen, Edgar Wasserfallen, Elise Edgar and Elise Wasserfallen and their two children lived in Lasalle (Gard) in France where Edgar was a pastor in the Reformed Church. When war was declared, the couple, who were of Swiss nationality, could have returned to their homeland, but decided to stay. Pastor Wasserfallen thought that, “… it was the only thing I could do. How could I have continued to live if I had not fulfilled my duty?” The couple saved many Jews who were being hunted down and also helped the Resistance. The Rojtenberg family, Jews from Reims who had sought refuge in Nîmes at the time of the debacle, owed Pastor Wasserfallen their lives. In 1942, with the situation for Jews worsened, Jacques Rojtenberg, 17, his younger brother Roger, 11, his two older brothers who were 21 and 18, as well as his parents, asked for help from CIMADE, a Protestant aid organization for refugees. The two older sons were sent to Chambon-sur-Lignon and from there to Switzerland. Jacques, Roger and their parents were sent to Florac (Lozère) and lodged with farmers, until they could no longer be kept there. Jacques left to look for help. In Lasalle, he asked to see the pastor, who had hung a sign on the door of the presbytery: “Here live Swiss citizens placed under the protection of the Swiss Embassy…”. Jacques explained his tragic situation to him. Pastor Wasserfallen and his wife Elise immediately took in Roger and his mother and accommodated them for four months. The pastor placed Jacques with a family in his parish, the Souliers*, where he was literally adopted as a son.

His father was placed with cousins of the Souliers, and Roger was later accommodated by a Souliers daughter. Pastor Wasserfallen arranged for the mayor of Lasalle to have false papers made for the Rojtenbergs, and served as a “mailbox” for correspondence between the two older sons and their parents. In February 1944, following a denunciation, Jacques had to be quickly evacuated to the home of othermembers of the Soulier family. In spite of the serious risks involved, Pastor Wasserfallen personally accompanied him there by bus. On August 13, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Edgar and Elise Wasserfallen as Righteous Among the Nations.