Charreton Marie-Rosalie (Drevon); Sister: Drevon Rose ; Sister: Drevon Joséphine

Charreton, Marie-Rosalie (Drevon) Drevon, Joséphine Rosine Mélissa Drevon, Rose Louise Léon and Sarah Wagner lived in Dijon (Côte d’Or), France, with their two children, Ginette (b. 1927) and Camille (b. 1936). They owned two different textile shops. When the war broke out, the whole family left Dijon and moved to Villeurbanne, near Lyon. They stayed there for about two years, continuing with their lives, until the Germans invaded the south of France in November 1942, by which time the Wagner family lived with the children’s grandmother and two cousins. When one day they received an order to appear within 24 hours in a camp for Jews in the area, they immediately left their home and fled. At first they stayed with Jewish friends in the area, the Krystals, who were also in Villeurbanne. Ginette was sent away to a boarding school. In 1943 Léon received a warning to move again. After a while they arrived in Coublevie (Isère) at the house of Marie-Rosalie Charreton, and Ginette soon joined them. When they arrived, Léon immediately told Marie-Rosalie that they were Jews. In response she jokingly said, “What is that? Ahh, yes, those with horns on their head?” She lived near the head of the German militia, which greatly increased the risk involved, for both her and the Wagners, in allowing them to stay there. Nevertheless, she did not hesitate: she welcomed them and gave them a room in her home. Every time there was a search or fear of arrest, the Wagner family escaped through the garden to a secret hiding place organized by Léon under a small isolated cabin in the garden. Marie-Rosalie found a place for Ginette to stay at a boarding school, while Camille was taken under the good care of Marie-Rosalie’s two sisters, Joséphine and Rose, who ran a local school and taught there. They received Camille as one of the regular children and warned him to not reveal his true identity. During the weekends, the two children went back to Marie-Rosalie’s house. The whole Wagner family stayed in Coublevie until June 1944. Camille recalls a frightening night when the Germans suddenly broke into the house, and the Wagners barely had time to jump out the window and run away. Camille was wearing only his underwear, so his father held him close, and they hid in the woods. They spent that night and the next at a neighbor’s house, until they could go back to Marie-Rosalie Charreton. “My family was saved by Mémé Charreton and her two sisters, who welcomed me to sleep at their place sometimes. Mémé’s son, Albert, was part of the Resistance and was murdered by the Germans in August 1944. We kept in close contact with those sisters. They were three courageous women who deserve to be recognized for their bravery and actions during the war.” On October 16, 2013, Yad Vashem recognized Marie-Rosalie Charreton and her sisters Joséphine Drevon and Rose Drevon as Righteous Among the Nations.