Thiery Armand

Thiery, Canon Armand Canon Thiery, from Louvain/Leuven, was contacted by Georges Wilmes*, who asked him to a find a sheltering place for a friend of his – Grounia Schicharewitsch, originally from Tirlemont. Previous to this, Grounia, an engineer at the university of Louvain, in her early thirties, was hiding in an apartment building in Louvain, with the help of the concierge, but could no longer stay there. The aged Armand Thiery (in his seventies), found a hiding place for her in a convent, the Grand Beguinage, in Louvain. Grounia had false identity papers with her, which enabled her to continue working at the university. In May 1943, however, when she received a summons for ‘labor in the East,’ under her real name, she could no longer continue work there. At the convent, Grounia stayed mostly indoors, and was brought food by one of the Sisters on the property. When warned about an expected German search of the premises, Armand Thiery took Grounia to Heverlee, a suburb of Louvain, where she was lodged in a building set aside for housing visiting religious dignitaries. Canon Armand was also involved in finding hiding places for other Jews in various parts of the country. In the winter of 1943-1944, Grounia’s hiding place had expanded into a center for resistance activities, and for her security, it was necessary for her to move on. With Thiery’s consent, she moved back to the city, and stayed in various places, with the help of the Wilmes couple. On June 1, 1944, Grounia was arrested and imprisoned in Malines/Mechelen. On one of the postcards she was allowed to write, she contacted Thiery. He visited her, bringing food and other items, as well as the name of a priest she should see, in the event of her release. Thanks to his intercession, and the fact that Grounia had an ID under a different and non-Jewish name, the Germans could not prove their suspicion with regard to Grounia’s Jewish origin and she was eventually released. On June 26, 1980, YadVashem recognized Canon Armand Thiery as Righteous Among the Nations.