Germaine Ribière (13 April 1917 in Limoges, Haute-Vienne – 20 November 1999) was a French Catholic, member of the Résistance, who saved numerous Jews during World War II, and was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations (July 18, 1967, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel).
The Résistance and the rescuing of Jews As a studentSee, Élodie Jauneau. Les étudiantes à Paris pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale. Mémoire de maîtrise d'histoire contemporaine sous la direction de Gabrielle Houbre. Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot UFR GHSS. Juin 2002. 242 pages. .She studied philosophy and joined the "marche de l'étoile", the first great demonstration of the students' resistance, at the place de l'Étoile, on November 11, 1940. See, Jauneau, 2002, p. 178, who quotes the book of Marie Granet, Les jeunes dans la Résistance, avoir 20 ans en 1940. Éditions France-Empire, 1985, p. 190. The thesis of Jauneau describes the life of female college students in Paris during World War II.According to Jauneau, p. 178, for this demonstration of November 11, 1941, no official directive was given. From mouth to ear and the diffusion of handouts, the college students and the highschool students were informed. Some female students were dressed in blue, others in white, or also in red. Jauneau quotes on this demonstration the following reference: Raymond Josse, La naissance de la résistance étudiante à Paris et la manifestation du 11 novembre 1940, Revue d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, no 45, janvier 1962, pages 1-31. at the University of Paris,She was part of the team of the national executive of the JEC. See, Yagil, 2005, p. 137. Germaine RibièreGermaine Ribière is quoted quasi universally as Germaine Ribière, but certain of her interventions in the last part of her life are signed Germaine Anne Ribière. reacted against the discrimination against the Jews, noting for example in her diary in May 1941: "Those who should be awake are those who put the others to sleep",Phayer, 2000, p. 127. "those who should keep watch are the ones to put others to sleep." then in June 1941: "The Church, the hierarchy, remain silent. They let the truth be profaned".Phayer, 2000, p. 127. "The church, the hierarchy, remain silent. They allow the truth to be profaned." In May 1941, Germaine Ribière was present during the arrest of Jews in the Marais, the old Jewish neighborhood of Paris (also known as the Pletzl).Phayer, 2000, p. 127.
Deciding that her place was no more in Paris, she went to Vichy, where she got involved in the journal Cahiers du Témoignage ChrétienGermaine Ribière was a disciple of father Yves de Montcheuil. She joined Father Pierre Chaillet, founder of Témoignage chrétien, becoming one of his three closest collaboratrices. See Yagil, 2005, p. 137.Germaine Ribière recounts: "At the Cahiers du Témoignage Chrétien founded and directed by Father Chaillet, I was the one people call the « right arm ». Among other responsibilities, I had the one of the organisation of the social service, which included also the aussi camouflage of the Jewish children. A friend Marcelle Deschamps, a medical student was in charge of the fabrication of false papers. We lived together at 114 rue du Bac, an apartement on the third floor, which served as a GQ for the Cahiers du Témoignage Chrétien. Here is the help we brought to Father Devaux: we supplied him with the false papers that he needed for the children as well as the couriers who were going to bring them where they would be welcomed." See, Céline Marrot-Fellag Ariquet.Cardinal Henri de Lubac wrote in 1988, p. 143: "Father Chaillet (a Jesuit) never had in mind to swap his occupation of theologian for a profession of director of clandestine editions. If he came to found the Cahiers du Témoignage chrétien, it was due to the urgency of a situation which put the Christian souls in peril, facing the most pressing high standards of their faith. More generally, it was to hurl a scream which served as a title for Father Fessard (Gaston Fessard) (a Jesuit) for the first Cahier: France, prends garde de perdre ton âme!."As underlined by Curtis, 2002, p. 138: "In mid-1942, the Cahiers du Témoignage Chrétien, a clandestine review, prepared and circulated pamphlets in both zones of France; the most important of them were Antisémites, which was distributed with over 20,000 copies, Silence and Complicity, J'Accuse and Fraternité." and the organisation Amitié Chrétienne.Rohrlich, 1998, p. 7, notes: "For Germaine Ribière, as for other members of the Amitié Chrétienne, the rescue of Jews was a top priority, a patriotic duty, part of their resistance to Nazism."Germaine Ribière remained a laywoman. See, Curtis, 2002, p. 138.
During the roundups in the Zone libre, in Haute-Vienne, Creuse and Indre, on August 26 and in September 1942, Germaine Ribière and Pastor Chaudier of Limoges provided hideoutsAndré Kaspi, 1991, p. 360, notes: "The Italian occupation still stimulates the move towards Switzerland. Networks link up the border with Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Lyon, Valence, the homes of the OSE, the Amitié chrétienne, the CIMADE and all those who devote the essentiel of their activities to organize the escape, to find "hideaways" as does tirelessly Germaine Ribière." in non-Jewish familiesZuccotti, 1999, p. 240, notes that "as Germaine Ribière explains, young Christian rescuers like herself tended to look for hiding places for Jews among those they knew personally". This is according to the testimony by Germaine Ribière given during an interview with the author, on May 24, 1989. See, Zuccotti, p. 353. for the children of the homes of the OSESee, OSE-Georges Garel . of Masgelier and of Chabannes. The physician of that organisation, Gaston Lévy, who called Germaine Ribière, "our heroine of times of distress"See, "Souvenirs d'un médecin d'enfants à l'O.S.E. par le Docteur Gaston Lévy (4)." testifies:
It's almost from the very start of our arrival in Limoges that a clear-sighted and efficient help was given to me by Mademoiselle Germaine Ribière in all my activities. Born in Limoges in a deeply religious catholic family, she was at the time when she came to offer me her help at the day nursery, responsible of the JEC (Jeunesse etudiante chrétienne).In her Master's Thesis of 2002, p. 165, Jauneau notes that the JEC was in fact intended for the male college students, the female college students belonged to the J.E.C.F. (Jeunesse Etudiante Chrétienne Féminine).
She was seen with an evangelic spirit, an unselfish love of her neighbour. She suffered visibly from the situation done to us, us Jews. Prior to coming to see me at the day nursery, her revolt against the Hitler–Vichy persecution had already a certain efficiency. She had stayed a certain time next to the internees of the appalling "Center of Housing" of Récébedou.Doctor Gaston Lévy places this camp on the list of the "ordeal camps of the Pyrénées: Rivesaltes, Gurs, Recébédou, Le Vernet". See, Docteur Gaston Lévy. "Souvenirs d'un médecin d'enfants à l'O.S.E. en France occupée et en Suisse. 1940-1945".According to Betty Saville, general secretary of l'Association des Enfants Cachés, and a hidden child herself, in her speech at the Conférence des Enfants Cachés durant la Dernière Guerre, on May 19, 1999: "After the roundups of August 26, 1942, the camps filled anew. In the zone sud, most of the camps were shut in 1943. Practically all the children of that zone were saved by the different humanitarian organizations aforementioned. One shall note that there was no catholic organisation. The first prelate who became concerned was Monseigneur [Jules-Géraud] Saliège (Jules-Géraud Saliège) [Archbishop and futur cardinal] of Toulouse [He was named posthumously in 2001 Righteous Among the Nations]. For his information, he sent on the spot his right-hand woman, Germaine Ribière, to the camp de Récébedou in May 1942. This explains the late arrival of the Amitiés Chrétiennes in the Camps (June 1942)." and went to the camp of Gurs (Gurs internment camp). Her report on the dreadful circumstances in which the internees vegetated led to the Pastoral letter of Cardinal Jules Saliège of Toulouse, of August 23, 1942, severely condemning the Jewish persecutions. Germaine Ribière, as we shall see later, has done tremendously in this tragic period to save Jewish lives. She remained faithfully at our side in all the rescue actions of children in danger, as she remained to this day a faithful friend of Israel.After reading a document of the Vatican in 1975 on the links between Land and Nation (New Vatican Guidelines and Link between Land and People), Germaine Ribière wrote in Information Juive (France), in January 1975: "The uneasiness I experienced after reading the document is due to a feeling of having been let down, and this feeling comes from the fact that throughout the whole document there is no mention of the State of Israel. Yet, when one realizes the role played by the State of Israel in the deep religious life of present-day Judaism in so far as the State is the land, the land on which the Torah can be freely lived, one cannot fail to be amazed that ignoring thus the concrete existence of Israel anybody could dare to speak of open and fraternal dialogue with Judaism." See, SIDIC-Rivista SIDIC. Germaine Ribière et Israël.
On August 23, 1942, the O.S.E., the Eclaireurs Israélites de France, the Amitiés Chrétiennes and several other humanitarian organisations, joined the «screening» committee of the 1200 Jews of around Lyon arrested during the roundups of the summer of 1942 and interned in the camp at Vénissieux.See OSE-Georges Garel.
The committee managed to save at once 160 adults, of which 80 are again taken in for questioning the following day, besides 108 children. This tragic event is known under the name of Night of Vénissieux. The O.S.E., the Amitiés Chrétiennes and l'Action catholique of Germaine Ribière refused to give back the children despite the orders given by Vichy to the regional prefect Angéli to not separate the families. They are dispersed with false papers in catholic institutions, under the watch of the O.S.E.See, Les enfants cachés pendant la seconde guerre mondiale aux sources d'une histoire clandestine. Céline Marrot-Fellag Ariquet..
Germaine Ribière took care to provide false papers to those in need and to supply to Resistance fighters materials to produce them.She sent the materials to Hélène Durand, a teacher at the Lycée Victor Hugo of Poitiers, who made the false papers with Constance de Saint Seine. See, Les Justes De La Vienne. She was helped in this task by the draftsman Jean Setten-Bernard.According to Cointet, 1998, p. 246, "The service of false papers is taken care [for the Amitié Chrétienne] by an expert on the subject, also a supplier of the 2nd Bureau and of the BCRA, the draftsman Jean Stetten-Bernard".See Yagil, 2005, p. 137.
The Amitié Chrétienne, where Germaine Ribière belonged, was founded in Lyon in 1941, with the goal to help the Jews and other victims subjugated to the decrees of Vichy and the occupier.