Loire Paulette

Loire, Paulette File 1926 Paulette Loire lived in Roanne, a city in the Loire département. During the occupation, while her husband was a prisoner of war in Germany, Loire helped many Jews, mainly children. Loire joined the rescue effort after meeting Henri Lévi, an activist in the Jewish Scouts and the UGIF (Union Générale des Israélites de France). Although the Vichy regime had set up this organization to monitor Jews and implement its anti-Jewish laws, some of the organization’s officials, including Lévi, utilized their standing to thwart those laws. Lévi sought places of refuge for Jewish children in rural areas and visited his charges at least once a month. After meeting Lévi, Loire frequently accompanied him on his visits to the children, irrespective of the risk. Eventually, Lévi and his wife, Denise, were arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where they perished. However, Paulette Loire and Jean Lévi, Henri‘s brother, soon took over the work. When Loire had difficulty finding a hiding place for Jewish families in distress, she often hid them in her own home. Paulette Loire worked together with Jean Lévi until April 5, 1944, when the Roanne militia arrested him together with Ernest Moser, another underground activist, who was on his way back from Lyons with a pouch of materials to forge documents. Both men were released on June 22, but it was too dangerous for them to return home. Loire offered them her own home. Unfortunately, when Moser left her house to travel to Lyons, he was captured and deported to the east, where he was killed. On November 20, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Paulette Loire as Righteous Among the Nations.