Serrière Simone

Serrière, Simone File 532 Two Jews, Jacques Barosin, a painter, and his wife Sonia, who had been a solo violinist with the Colonne orchestra before the war, fled occupied Paris and found refuge in Florac, in the département of Lozère. In February 1943, Barosin was arrested and taken to the concentration camp at Gurs. He escaped and returned to his wife in Florac. They had to flee because their presence was known. Fleur, the wife of the town pastor, André Gall (q.v.) brought them to Simone Serrière, who taught in the small mountain village of Montméjean. Serrière, about twenty-five years old at the time, married and the mother of a small child, hid the Barosins in a small room on the top floor of the school building. She lived in La Salle-Prunet, a village thirteen kilometers from Montméjean, and cycled each day from her home to the school with baskets of provisions for the Barosins. She did not buy food in Montméjean so as not to arouse suspicion there. Only her sister-in-law, who promised to look after her young child if she were arrested, knew that she was hiding Jews. In July 1943, after the Barosins had spent about four months in Montméjean, local villagers discovered their hiding place. They treated the Barosins with affection and sympathy, recalling that their ancestors had been persecuted because of their Protestant faith. Notwithstanding the villagers’ sympathy, the Barosins looked for another refuge. Serrière parted from them with sorrow and concern. The Barosins returned to Paris, where they hid with friends they had known before the war. The Barosins and their rescuer, Simone Serrière, maintained a correspondence after the liberation. On his table, Barosin always kept the Bible he received as a present from Serrière in 1943, and several of Barosin’s paintings, depicting scenes from the life of Jesus, hung on the walls of Serrière’s home in La-Salle-Prunet. On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Simone Serrière as Righteous Among the Nations.