Farny Renée

Homel, Germaine Bouvard, Marthe Farny, Renée Germaine Homel was the manager of Les Feux Folletts, an institution for children sponsored by the Red Cross in Saint Cergues, a village on the slopes of the French Alps near the Swiss border. There were few Jewish children in this institution, but it served as a transit station for Jewish children from La Hille, an institution in southwest France, also sponsored by the Swiss Red Cross. With the help of Renée Farny, her co-worker, and of Marthe Bouvard, who was responsible for the laundry, Germaine Homel had agreed to make les Feux Follets a way station on the path for the rescue of Jewish children, contrary to the instructions of the Red Cross and unknown to that organization. The children at La Hille were older than the ones at Feux Follets, and they were all Jewish. In August 1942, some had already been arrested by French police. They were released because of the firm and courageous intervention of members of the Swiss organization, headed by Maurice Dubois (q.v.), and by Rosa Naef (q.v.), principal of La Hille. Homel and Naef worked hand in hand to smuggle the Jewish children over the Swiss border. The youngsters from La Hille would travel in groups of three or four to Saint Cergues, where they would spend the night. The next day, they would go on a walk with dozens of local children. Their route took them near the barbed wire of the border and its Swiss patrols. Léon Balland (q.v.), who lived next door to the Les Feux Folletts school, would lead the Jewish “hikers” to a thicket in the forest that abutted the border fence, and when the guards were occupied elsewhere, he smuggled them across. At the end of these outings, the staff members and the other children would return to les Feux Follets. After the Germans annexed this area to the Occupation Zone on September 9, 1943, the border was patrolled day and night. The Swiss authorities discovered what Homel and Naef had been doing and dismissed them. Nevertheless, Germaine Homel did not give up and continued, with the help of Renée Farny and Marthe Bouvard, to smuggle children across the border until she herself was arrested and deported to a concentration camp. On February 11, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Germaine Homel, Marthe Bouvard and Renée Farny as Righteous Among the Nations. Files 5119, 5119a, 5119b