Popeleu Mathilde

Popeleu, Mathilde In May 1942, eleven-year-old Marguerite Spichler from Brussels went into hiding with Mathilde Popeleu, in the village of Halle. Mathilde’s daughter Joséphine had earlier been employed by the Spichler family as a domestic. Marguerite’s parents paid a modest sum for the upkeep of their daughter. Mathilde Popeleu, a widow who kept a very small farm, took in Marguerite without forged papers and so the girl could not go to school. At the same time, it appears that many in the village knew that Mathilde Popeleu was keeping a Jewish girl, but no one betrayed the secret. In 1943 Marguerite underwent surgery on her appendix, and Mathilde Popeleu cared for her with love and devotion. In 1943, Marguerite’s mother, Mrs. Spichler-Kohn was arrested at her hiding place in Grammont and deported, but she jumped from the train, while still in the region of Halle, and Mathilde Popeleu helped her get back to her hiding place in Grammont. Marguerite remained with Mathilde Popeleu until the liberation of Halle in September 1944. On March 7, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Mathilde Popeleu as Righteous Among the Nations.