Chevalley Lucie (Sabatier)

Chevalley-Sabatier, Lucie File 5891 Lucie Chevalley-Sabatier (b. 1882) devoted her entire life to service in humanitarian organizations. When the war began, she headed the large Service social d’aide aux émigrants. The SSAE operated from its Paris headquarters and, under official auspices and with official support, assisted impoverished foreign workers. Under cover of this organization, which was supported by donations from wealthy individuals, Chevalley established the underground organization Entraide Temporaire (“Temporary Mutual Assistance”), which, beginning in the summer of 1942, toiled night and day to rescue 500 Jewish children. The E. T. was also privately funded, and all the children were saved. Every action was taken clandestinely: transferring funds, forwarding addresses, and masking the real identities of the children, who were placed in hiding with French families. Beginning in 1941, Chevalley had worked with Rue Amelot, a Paris-based organization involved in financial assistance, placement in hiding, and distribution of forged papers for Jews in need. David Rapoport orchestrated these activities, most of which were illegal. They were financed with funds collected in the unoccupied zone. Lucie Chevalley-Sabatier met with Rapoport regularly and served as a courier to deliver information and money from the south. Chevalley, chairwoman of the SSAE, used this title whenever she needed an acceptable explanation of her comings and goings. David Rapoport was deported to the east, where he died. On November 7, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Lucie Chevalley-Sabatier as Righteous Among the Nations.