Veyrine Germaine

Lafont, Marie-Louise (Mother Marie-Madeleine) Veyrine, Sister Germaine File 6892 Marie-Louise Lafont was the Mother Superior of La Providence Convent in Le Coteau, a village near Roanne (département of Loire). Many Jews who had fled from the occupied zone to the south had gathered in the area, desperately seeking shelter. Thus, the Mendzylewskis, elderly Jews from Poland, escaped from Paris to Roanne and arrived in advance of their daughter and son-in-law. Although a relative provided a residence permit for living in the town, they were quickly sent to detention camps; first in Gurs, then in Rivesaltes. When those camps were closed in November 1943, the Mendzylewskis were released and returned to Roanne. Because they looked like foreign Jews and spoke rudimentary and heavily accented French, their daughter, Chasia, feared for their lives. She contacted Catholic institutions, hoping to arrange shelter for them. After three institutions refused her, she contacted Sister Germaine Veyrine, a nun at the La Providence Convent, who agreed to accommodate the couple in the convent’s old-age home. The Mother Superior, Marie-Louise Lafont, Sister Marie-Madeleine, approved of this generous action. Despite the danger, she ordered her nuns to present the Mendzylewskis as Alsatian refugees, which would explain their heavy accent. The couple remained in the convent until the liberation, and the sisters gave them devoted and loving care, refusing all remuneration. According to the tesimony of members of the survivors’ family, Sister Marie-Madeleine also sheltered Jacques Klieman, a relative of the Mendzylewskis, and employed him as a gardener. Thus, she saved the lives of three persecuted Jews. On January 14, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Mother Marie-Louis Lafont and Sister Germaine Veyrine as Righteous Among the Nations.