Massonnat Marie

Massonnat, Marie File 7420 Marie Massonnat, a widow with three children, had a farm in Le Montcel (Savoie). In November 1941, she took in nine-year old Berthe Elzon. The girl’s parents, who lived in Paris, decided to place her in hiding outside of town. Although her parents had provided her with a certificate of baptism from the priest of the Catholic church nearest their place of residence, Massonnat knew the girl’s real identity. The Elzons gave Massonnat a modest sum to cover their daughter’s maintenance. Berthe attended school and learned the catechism at church. In her post-war testimony, she said she had been treated no differently from Massonnat’s two daughters. From the day they occupied the area in September 1943, the Germans frequently combed the region for Resistancae fighters and hiding Jews. Some Jewish refugees who had fled to Le Montcel were arrested and deported. On one occasion, German soldiers and French militiamen visited Massonnat’s house with a warrant for the arrest of one Marcel Massonnat, who had fled from forced labor (STO) in Germany. Marie Massonnat, whose twenty-year-old son had the same name, kept the agents from searching her home by resourcefully and coolly persuading them that an error had occurred and the wanted man was not her son. Berthe, who eventually moved to Israel, stayed in close touch with the Massonnats after the war, visited them in France regularly each year, and hosted Marie’s son Marcel in her home in Jerusalem. On March 13, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Marie Massonnat as Righteous Among the Nations.