Brasdu Maurice

Brasdu, Father Maurice File 1027a Father Marurice Gaston Brasdu was born in Barlieu (Cher) in 1893. He was ordained as priest in 1925, and served until 1936 in St. Eustace in Paris. During the occupation, Father Maurice Brasdu was the priest of the Sainte-Therèse de L'enfant Jesus parish in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris. In late 1942, four Jewish women and one Jewish man made their way to Brache. These were Ahuva Fried and her daughter, Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia, her sister Frida Berkovitz and her husband, and their elderly mother. Ahuva Fried’s husband remained in Czechoslovakia and perished. The five Jews had received forged identity and ration cards from Henri Roser (q.v.), a Protestant minister in Paris. Fried had made Roser’s acquaintance several years before the war at a conference of pacifists in Czechoslovakia. It was upon a friend’s recommendation that Ahuva Fried turned to Father Brasdu, whom she did not know, during the mass arrests of Jews in Paris, in July 1942. He provided them with lodgings in an apartment he rented in his name. Although he placed himself in grave danger by assisting Jews, he rejected any payment or other reward for use of the apartment. Fried’s brother-in-law, M. Berkovitz, was well off, so the family could remain hidden in the apartment without having to go out and work to support themselves. Nevertheless, Ahuva Fried decided to leave the apartment for the safety of all concerned. Once again, Father Brasdu came to her aid by giving her a letter of recommendation to two nuns whom he knew well. Thanks to the priest interventions, Ahuva and her family found work and housing in another region. Thus, by virtue of Brache’s actions, Fried and her family managed to survive the occupation. On March 18, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Father Maurice Brasdu as Righteous Among the Nations.