Joly Joseph & Jeanne (Valette)

Joly, Joseph Joly, Jeanne Joséphine File 4281 Joseph Joly, of Agde (Hérault), was a tailor by occupation and a highly decorated World War I veteran. He also performed notably in World War II as a hero of Verdun. In September 1942, David Blum, a Jewish boy hiding with his brother and mother on a farm not far from Agde, asked the Jolys for urgent assistance in moving their mother, who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, to a hospital. Mme Blum had a Polish passport and identity card stamped with the word “Jew.” There was no available ambulance and so the Jolys literally carried Mme Blum in their arms, by bus and by train. During the journey, she suffered a second hemorrhage and lapsed into unconsciousness. The police inspected the Jolys several times and, miraculously, Mme Blum’s identity was not discovered. The Jolys’ action was truly heroic because the French police sometimes specifically chose to arrest infirm and disabled Jews. In addition to this act of rescue, which unfortunately ended with Blum’s death, M. and Mme Joly offered to take in the infant daughter of Blum’s aunt until the end of the war. The Jewish mother refused, unwilling to part with her baby. She and the rest of her family were deported to concentration camps, where they died. On June 4, 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Joseph Joly and his wife, Jeanne Joséphine, as Righteous Among the Nations.