"The Mother of the Warsaw Ghetto's Children": 5 Inspiring Stories

1. Henk Drogt – A Dutch Policeman Who Refused to Arrest Jews

Henk Drogt, a Dutch policeman, refused to arrest Jews and send them to the train station. Additionally, he took part in smuggling Allied pilots across the Belgian border, helping Jews hide, and other resistance activities.

Due to his refusal, Drogt was on the German wanted list. He was captured in August 1943 and executed on April 14, 1944. The death records at Oranje Hotel prison in Scheveningen noted dryly: "Officer, refused to arrest Jews." It should be noted that Henk Drogt was a young man expecting his first child.

64 years after Drogt's death, his son came to Jerusalem to receive the "Righteous Among the Nations" award on his behalf. 

2. Irena Sendler – "The Mother of the Warsaw Ghetto's Children"

Irena Sendler, dubbed "The Mother of the Warsaw Ghetto's Children," saved the lives of 2,500 Jews in Poland. She did so with courage, risking her life and the lives of her family.  

In Poland, the Nazi occupation authorities imposed the death penalty on anyone who helped Jews. Additionally, the Polish nation was mostly antisemitic. In fact, Irena was not only on the Gestapo's wanted list but also on the hit list of an extreme Polish nationalist organization.

She succeeded in her dangerous mission thanks to a rescue network that included brave couriers, Polish volunteer social workers, nurses, and the Zegota organization, established during the war to assist Jews, including Poles and Jews from different political parties.

Warsaw Ghetto (Photo: shutterstock)

In a variety of ways, Irena and her couriers smuggled children from the Warsaw Ghetto to hiding places throughout Poland. The Gestapo tracked her down, and when she refused to reveal the names of the children she saved and her "operators," she was sentenced to death. Her friends in Zegota, the Jewish Aid Committee, managed to rescue her from death at the last moment. When she left the infamous Pawiak prison, she saw in Warsaw streets a poster with her picture and the announcement of her execution. 

Irena passed away in 2008, in poor health and as a war invalid, due to the torture she suffered at the hands of the Gestapo.

In 1965, Yad Vashem gave her the "Righteous Among the Nations" award.

3. André Trocmé – Pastor Who Encouraged an Entire Village to Save Jews

André Trocmé was the spiritual leader of the Protestant community in the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in Haute-Loire in southeastern France. 

Trocmé encouraged his followers to save the Jews of the village. When deportations from France began in 1942, Trocmé urged the villagers to provide aid to any Jew seeking refuge. Soon the village and its surroundings were filled with hundreds of Jews. Some found permanent refuge in the hills around Le Chambon, while others were given temporary shelter until they managed to cross the border, usually to nearby Switzerland. Despite the severe danger, Jews lived with local residents and farmers, in public institutions and children's homes. With the help of local residents, some Jews were taken on dangerous treks to the Swiss border. The entire community mobilized to save Jews, believing it was their Christian duty. 

According to various estimates, about 5,000 Jews passed through Le Chambon and surrounding villages by the end of the war. The villagers were convinced that aiding their "neighbors" in distress was their moral duty. Many factors contributed to this view: the fact that Protestants themselves had been a persecuted minority in Catholic France, empathy for the Jews – people of the Old Covenant and a shared Biblical heritage. No less influential were the leadership and personal example set by their pastor, André Trocmé, and his wife Magda.

The Vichy authorities became suspicious of the activities in the village. After all, such a large-scale activity could not be hidden for long. They demanded that Pastor Trocmé cease his activities. His response was unequivocal: "These people came here for help and refuge. I am their shepherd. A shepherd never abandons his flock... I don’t know Jews. I know human beings." Trocmé and his followers would not let the authorities' pressure or the security officers' searches deter them from continuing their rescue efforts.

In 1971, he received the title "Righteous Among the Nations."

4. Daniel Trocmé – Jewish School Headmaster Who Refused to Leave His Students

Daniel Trocmé, André Trocmé's son, was a Gentile headmaster of a Jewish school. Like his father, he was characterized by his love of humanity and refused to abandon his students. Under machine-gun threats, he was taken by the Germans along with 18 of his students to detention in the town of Moulins. During his incarceration, Trocmé continued to show courage and determination, encouraging the spirits of his students. He was taken to interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters in Moulins, and when accused of protecting a 16-year-old Jewish boy, he replied that he was merely protecting an innocent being. In August 1943, Trocmé was sent to the Compiègne internment camp, then deported to the Dora camp, and from there to Majdanek, where he was murdered in the gas chamber in April 1944. He was only 34 years old. 

On March 18, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Daniel Trocmé as "Righteous Among the Nations."

5. Lucien Bunel – Priest and School Principal Who Hid Jewish Students in His School

Lucien Bunel, better known as Father Jacques, was a Carmelite priest and headmaster of the boarding school Petit Collège des Carmes in Avon, near Fontainebleau.

During the occupation, Bunel decided to open the institution's doors to those fleeing Nazi persecution. Three Jewish youths: Markus Halpern, David Schlosser, and Hans Helmut Michel, were admitted to the boarding school. The three, desperately seeking a refuge, were initially housed by him with a family living across from the boarding school, but he later concluded it would be safer for them to stay at the institution. They lived and studied under false names chosen by Bunel. Father Jacques also employed a Jewish teacher named Lucien Weil, a natural sciences instructor, who had lost his job from the Fontainebleau school due to Vichy regime laws barring Jewish teachers.

(Photo: shutterstock)

Under Father Bunel's protection, the hidden Jews lived nearly normal lives, until that winter day in January when the arrests were made. On January 15, 1944, based on precise and detailed information from an informer, a Gestapo contingent appeared at the institution's gates. Without any prior warning, they raided the classrooms and arrested the three Jewish students as well as Father Jacques, the institution's headmaster. The three boys were first taken to the Drancy transit camp, and on February 3, 1944, were deported on transport number 67 to Auschwitz. Father Jacques was detained, and the boarding school was closed by German order. That same day, Lucien Weil, his mother, and sister were also arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where they perished.

According to Colonel de Larminat from Fontainebleau, Father Jacques said shortly before his arrest: "Sometimes I am accused of irresponsibility. They tell me that as someone responsible for the boarding school's children, I have no right to risk possible arrest by the Germans. But I believe that if this happens and I am killed, it will be a more important example for my students than any other lesson I could teach them."

Lucien Bunel was imprisoned in Fontainbleau prison and later deported to Mauthausen. He managed to survive until liberation, but the exhaustion from the camp's inhuman conditions overcame him, and a few days after liberation, he passed away.

Since his rescue efforts unfortunately ended with no survivors, the story only emerged years later, thanks to the testimony of Hans Helmut Michel's sister. According to her testimony, not only did Father Jacques hide her brother, but he also managed to arrange two meetings between her and her brother during school holidays. In one of the meetings, the sister expressed her gratitude to Father Jacques and told him she doubted she would ever be able to repay him for her brother's education at the school. Father Jacques replied that he did not expect anything in return, not then or in the future. What's more, he hoped to see her brother continue his studies at the institution even after the war up to graduation.

In 1988, one of the school's students, Louis Malle, told a New York Times correspondent: "The memory was undoubtedly the strongest of my childhood memories. It remains vividly clear above all others." He recounted how he remembered Father Bunel turning to the students while being led away with his three Jewish students and saying "Goodbye. See you soon." "Then," Malle added, "something very unusual happened. Someone started clapping and everyone joined in, despite the Gestapo's screams to maintain silence."

On January 17, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Lucien Bunel, known as Father Jacques, as "Righteous Among the Nations."