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Jules & Jeanne Roger
Esther & Roger Perret - France
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| Ehud Lev with his father in Buehl |
Ehud Lev |
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Dr. Ehud Loeb was
born in 1934 as Herbert Odenheimer in Buehl, Germany. During the
Holocaust his family was deported to France; from there his parents
were sent to Auschwitz where he perished. Dr. Loeb survived as a
child in hiding. Ehud Loeb today lives in Jerusalem and is a member
of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the
Nations. He feels that as someone who was saved, it is his duty to
contribute in some way to rewarding those who helped the Jews.
All Commission members are volunteers; most of them are Holocaust
survivors who devote great efforts to honor rescuers and to search
within the nations that were involved in the terrible tragedy that
befell them and their families for the few who stood by the Jewish
people. It is natural that exploring the cases and the circumstances
of the rescue acts often brings back painful memories from the time
of the Holocaust.
One of the most emotional moments for Ehud Loeb was in July 2006,
when the Commission discussed the file of Esther and Roger Perret.
Seemingly it was a file like many others – a survivor requesting Yad
Vashem to recognize Esther and Roger Perret, his rescuers, as
Righteous Among the Nations. But it was the name of the town where
the rescue took place that caught Dr. Loeb's eye. It was Buzancais,
where he himself had been in hiding. Dr. Loeb’s rescuers, Jeanne and
Jules Roger had been recognized as Righteous in 1989. Here now was
another case of rescue that took place in the same town.
Surprisingly, Roger Perret too – like Loeb’s own rescuer – was a
butcher.
After the Commission decided to bestow the title of Righteous on
Esther and Roger Perret, Dr. Loeb decided to travel to France and to
attend the ceremony where Claude Marx’ rescuers were posthumously
honored. His meeting with Claude Marx was very emotional, and they
have since formed a strong friendship. As it turned out, both of
them were of the same age and although they didn’t know each other,
they shared a similar past. From the rescuers’ families they learned
that their rescuers had known each other. This was no surprise,
considering that the two were butchers in a small town of a couple
of thousand inhabitants. It is very possible that the two butchers
met each other from time to time during the war years. At these
meetings they probably talked about the hardship of wartime, the
prices of meat, and told each other about their families. But there
seems to be one topic that they never shared with each other –
neither one ever mentioned to the other that he was hiding a young
Jewish boy at his home.
Jules & Jeanne Roger
Ehud Lev (Loeb) once described his childhood as a film. He remembers
flashes - some most traumatic, others highly emotional. It is the
story of a child who was torn first from his home in Germany, who
was then incarcerated in a terrible camp where he was victimized,
witnessed great suffering and saw his beloved grandmother die; he
was consequently separated from his family, put in institutions and
with strangers, moved again and again from one place to another. It
is the story of a child who at a very young age realized that he was
the target of a systematic manhunt, who for several years lived in
constant fear of being caught, who learned to switch names,
identities and languages.
Born as Herbert Odenheimer in Buehl, Baden, Germany, in 1934, Ehud
was the last Jewish child born in the community that ceased to exist
six years later. He remembers being plagued by the neighbors’
children. When he was four years old, during Kristallnacht, the
synagogue was set on fire and the mob attacked the family home. Two
years later, in October 1940, when he was six years old, the
remaining 26 Jews of Buehl and all the Jews of Baden were deported
to the South of France and put in the Gurs detention camp, close to
the Spanish border. Conditions in the overcrowded camp were
terrible. There was a constant shortage of water, food and clothing;
the barracks where the inmates were housed were primitive and lacked
basic facilities; sanitary conditions were deficient and the camp
was plagued by epidemics. Hundreds of inmates died of typhoid fever
and dysentery, among them Ehud's grandmother. In February 1941, the
Jewish aid organization for children, OSE, managed to take Ehud and
other children out of the camp. Agreeing to part from their only son
and to trust strangers to take care of him was probably the hardest
decisions parents could take. They never heard or saw their child
again. A year and a half later, in the summer of 1942, Hugo and
Julchen Odenheimer were deported to Auschwitz where they perished.
Herbert’s name was changed to a French name – Hubert Odet – and he
had to shed his former identity, to learn French and become a French
child. His new name was Hubert. He spent the first months in a
children’s home in Chabannes, suffering immensely from the
separation from his parents. The OSE moved him from one institution
to another, always under the fear of being caught. In late 1942
after the roundups of Jews were intensified, it was decided it would
be safer to place the children with families. The first family
treated him very badly. Herbert - now Hubert - did not complain and
tried to be obedient, but when the OSE social workers came to see
him they decided to move him immediately to another family - to the
home of Jules and Jeanne Roger in Buzancais.
Jules Roger was a butcher and an active member of the resistance.
Although they had a ten-year-old son, the couple opened their home
to fugitive underground members and Jews. The underground used
Rogers’ home to hide weapons and documents, and, frequently, to
shelter operatives. Hiding a Jewish child therefore put them in even
greater danger. Food was rationed and the family shared what they
had with their wards. In order to buy extra provisions Madame Roger
took on ironing. The Rogers displayed exemplary devotion to their
wards. They spared no effort to alleviate the children’s distress of
being separated from their parents.
With the Roger family Ehud had finally found a warm and welcoming
home, but this was not to last. When the situation became dangerous,
he would be moved to different places for several weeks, before
being returned to the Roger's house. In late 1943, when informers
threatened to denounce Jules Roger, Ehud was taken to Roger’s
mother, in a small adjacent village, who enrolled him in at school.
To hide his Jewish identity, Ehud-Hubert became an altar boy. He
wanted to be Catholic like all his friends, but the Rogers explained
that he must not deny his origins, but rather be proud of them. When
the situation became less tense he was returned to the Roger family,
where he stayed until liberation.
Ehud was put in a children's home. The war was over and the children
were waiting for their parents or relatives to come and get them.
Every day children left accompanied by family, but no one came for
Ehud. Later he learned that his mother had been deported on 4
September 1942 to Auschwitz, and his father was put on a transport
three days later. Both perished. In 1946 Ehud was sent to distant
relatives in Switzerland. He had to re-learn his mother tongue –
German, and his family name was changed - again - to Loeb. When he
emigrated to Israel he adopted a Hebrew name: Ehud Lev.
Yad Vashem knows of another child that was hid by the Rogers.
Léopold Lazare was four years old when he found shelter with the
Rogers after his family had been sent to Buchenwald and the OSE had
removed him from the Rivesaltes camp. Lazare lived with the Rogers
until the end of the occupation. He regarded the Rogers as his
parents, and was reluctant to part with them when his parents
reclaimed him after the war.
On May 7, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Jules and Jeanne Roger as
Righteous Among the Nations.
Esther & Roger Perret
The Marx family were Jewish refugees from Nancy, who came to
Buzancais in 1940. Justin Marx was a butcher and found employment at
the town's slaughter-house. The family befriended their neighbors –
Esther and Roger Perret. In 1943 the French policemen warned the
Jews in Buzancais that a roundup was planned. The Marx family
escaped to the villages in the town's vicinity, but their young son,
Claude, who was nine years old at the time, stayed with the Perret
family. The family arranged a hidden space for him in the attic.
From his shelter he heard the police arriving at night in the next
house, which used to be his family's home, and their knocking on the
door. Claude stayed with the Perret family until liberation.
On 10 July 2006 Esther & Roger Perret were recognized as Righteous
Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
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