Grand Marcel

Grand, Marcel File 7299a Marcel Grand was mayor of Chilly-le-Vignoble (Jura). In the summer of 1940, five members of the Mannheimer family, Jews expelled from Alsace, reached the village. The Mannheimers arrived penniless, and the mayor decided to help them. He referred them to the Maublancs (q.v.), a family of villagers who placed a cabin on their land at their dispostion. He then asked other villagers to donate furniture and other essentials for them. After the Germans occupied the southern zone in November 1942, Jews were required to imprint their identification and ration cards with the word Juif. The Mannheimers’ papers were duly imprinted at the Ministry of Interior prèfecture, but several weeks later, Grand summoned M. Mannheimer, asked him to return the documents, and, in contravention of regulations, issued new papers that did not bear the word Juif. In the summer of 1944, a Resistance unit operating in the village assaulted a French militiaman. In response, German and militia forces raided Chilly and combed the village for Resistance members and Jews. When it came Grand’s turn to be interrogated, the mayor claimed that there were no Jews in the village. Shortly before the liberation, in late August 1944, two residents of a neighboring village, who posed as partisans, murdered Marcel Grand, allegedly for collaborating with the enemy. After the war, a court defined the execution as a criminal murder. On December 9, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Marcel Grand as Righteous Among the Nations.