Chambre Pierre

Chambre, Pierre File 4792 Pierre Chambre lived with his wife and two daughters in Chambéry, a town in the Alps, and taught literature in high school. In January 1944, Gestapo agents burst into the principal’s office and ordered him to hand over the Jewish students, immediately. The school’s educational coordinator heard about the Gestapo’s demands, rushed into the classroom, and told Paul Honigman and Max Tenenbaum, sixteen-year-old cousins who had fled from Paris, to escape before the Gestapo could arrest them. At that moment, Chambre came to their aid, saving their lives and the lives of their families. He sheltered the two boys in his home, exposing himself and his family to mortal danger. He protected the Honigman and Tenenbaum families, seven people in all, by providing forged identity cards. For their safety, Chambre placed the adults and the four children in separate hiding places. He later transferred Max and Paul to a vocational boarding school near Grenoble and warned them not to talk, so as not to jeopardize the partisans in the entire region. Indeed, Chambre was active in the Resistance and helped the two Jewish families with no thought of remuneration. After the war, the survivors, who lived to witness the liberation because of Chambre’s assistance, spoke of his warmth and concern. Chambre’s friendship with Paul Honigman and Max Tenenbaum continued after the war. On November 29, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Pierre Chambre as Righteous Among the Nations.