Piguet Gabriel

Piguet, Gabriel Bishop Gabriel Piguet, a veteran of the 1914-1918 War, had been seriously wounded and was a recipient of the Croix de Guerre. He was head of the bishopric of Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) since 1933. After the debacle of 1940 he supported Pétain, “the Victor of Verdun,” and joined the French Legion in support of his “Révolution Nationale.” The invasion of the southern zone of France by the German army and the intensification of repressions against those opposed to the regime, as well as Jews, revealed another reality to him. This led him to support the rescue of Jews by Catholic institutions in his diocese. Through his care, Nadine Faïn, 11, her two sisters and a cousin were placed at the Sainte Marguerite boarding school in Clermont-Ferrand, where they lived for a year. The secular principal of the institution, Marie Lafarge*, was Monsignor Piguet’s niece. Nine-year old Claudine Goetschel and her two sisters were lodged there as well during the 1943-1944 school year. After the arrest of the girls’ parents, the free school of Vernet-la-Varenne for girls, supervised by Sister Marie-Angélique, took over their care. Maurice Jonas, 15, and his 13-year-old brother Joseph were enrolled at the Saint-Pierre school in Courpière during the 1942-1943 school year. The two boys were protected by the principal, Father Delaire, and Monsignor Virollet, vicar-general of the bishopric, on Bishop Piguet’s recommendation. He had promised the boys’ mother they would not be converted. Through the monsignor’s intervention, young Jean-Pierre Berkovitz, age one, and his grandparents were hidden with the Sisters of Saint-Joseph du Bon Pasteur in Lezoux. In the same way, two 10-year old boys, twin brothers by the name of Chaimowicz, were accommodated by the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes in Chapdes-Beaufort for two years. Arrested at the cathedral in Clermont in May 1944, Bishop Piguet was deported to Dachau for having protected priests who were resisters. The only bishopin France to ever have been deported, he fortunately returned in 1945. On November 7, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Bishop Gabriel Piguet as Righteous Among the Nations.