Andrée Geulen
Andrée Geulen | |
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Committee for the Defence of Jews during the Holocaust in Belgium |
Andrée Geulen-Herscovici (6 September 1921 – 31 May 2022) was a Belgian teacher and member of
Biography
Career and resistance activities
Andrée Geulen was born in Schaerbeek, a suburb of Brussels, on 6 September 1921 into a liberal family of the urban bourgeoisie.[1] After the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, the country was placed under military occupation and Geulen became a schoolteacher and received a job in a primary school in central Brussels in 1942.[1] She became aware of the escalating persecution of Jews through witnessing the introduction of the compulsory yellow badge used to identify Jews in public among the pupils in her class.[1]
Through an introduction by
Geulen taught and lived at the
Righteous Among the Nations |
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By country |
Postwar life and recognition
After the war, Geulen became involved with the Jewish community in Belgium and maintained contact with the children with whom she had come into contact. She was involved in trying to reunite the hidden children with surviving family members and became actively involved in the relief organisation Aid for Israelite Victims of the War (Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre, AIVG) which supported Jewish survivors of
Geulen was recognized with the honorific Righteous Among the Nations in 1989. She was granted honorary Israeli citizenship in a ceremony at Yad Vashem in 2007, as part of the "Children Hidden in Belgium during the Shoah" International Conference.[4] Upon accepting the honor, Geulen-Herscovici said, "What I did was merely my duty. Disobeying the laws of the time was just the normal thing to do."[5] She received honorary citizenship of the municipality of Ixelles.[6]
Geulen's 100th birthday on 6 September 2021 was covered in the press in Belgium.[7] The same year, a creche in Brussels was renamed in her honour.[8] She died on 31 May 2022 in Ixelles.[9]
See also
- Jeanne Daman, a Belgian teacher with a similar background active in protecting Jews during the Holocaust
References
- ^ CEGESOMA. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ Decoster, Gérald (16 December 2021). "Andrée Geulen, dite "Mademoiselle Andrée" et le sauvetage des enfants juifs" (in French). RTBF. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f "Andree Geulen-Herscovici". The Righteous Among the Nations. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ "Belgian Who Rescued 300 Children to Receive Honorary Citizenship at Yad Vashem Ceremony Tomorrow", Yad Vashem, 17 April 2007.
- ^ Aron Heller Woman honored for saving kids from Nazis Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Associated Press, 18 April 2007.
- ^ "Andrée Geulen: Elle a changé leur vie" (in French). Commune of Ixelles. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ "Andrée Geulen, l'institutrice bruxelloise qui a sauvé des milliers d'enfants juifs pendant la guerre, fête ses 100 ans" (in French). BX1. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
- ^ "Une crèche rebaptisée en hommage à la résistante Andrée Geulen" (in French). BX1. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ "Andrée Geulen, l'institutrice bruxelloise qui a sauvé des milliers d'enfants juifs pendant la guerre, est décédée" (in French). BX1. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
Further reading
- Vromen, Suzanne (2008). Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518128-9.
- Steinberg, Lucien (1973). Le Comité de défense des juifs en Belgique, 1942-1944. Brussels: Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles.
- Dambreville, Frédéric (2022). Les disparus de Gatti de Gamond. Brussels: CFC-Editions. ISBN 978-2-87572-075-7.
External links
- Oral history interview with Andree Geulen-Herscovici at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Mademoiselle Andrée (2021) (documentary) at Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep