Valls de Gomis Manuel

Valls de Gomis, Manuel File 7560 Manuel Valls de Gomis was the son of a textile manufacturer in Barcelona. In 1938, when he was a student, he fled to Perpignan (Pyrénées Orientales) after General Franco’s forces occupied his hometown. When France fell to the Germans in June 1940, Valls de Gomis became active in intelligence for the French Resistance and led fugitives from Vichy and German persecution to Spain. Valls de Gomis himself slipped across the border in both directions and, in Madrid, established liaison with British and American emissaries. When Jewish refugees in Perpignan contacted Valls de Gomis, he helped them obtain forged papers and escape to Spain. They included the Kirszbaums, who had fled from Paris in the summer of 1942 and made their way to Perpignan. The first member of the family to arrive was one of the sons, who had escaped from a German prisoner of war camp; his parents and his four brothers and sisters followed him. Valls de Gomis gave each of the Kirszbaums a forged identification card and sheltered twenty-four-year-old Frajda Kirszbaum in his home. In 1943, he arranged refuge in Saint-Ferreol (Haute Garonne) for M. and Mme Kirszbaum and their twelve-year-old son Lucien, and personally paid for their upkeep. In January 1944, aware that the Gestapo was searching for him, Valls de Gomis fled from his home in Perpignan to Toulouse. He took Frajda with him and, in October 1944, married her. After the war, the French, British, and American governments gave Valls de Gomis citations for his valor. On May 21, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Manuel Valls de Gomis as Righteous Among the Nations.