Dallière Louis & Marie

Dallière, Pastor Louis Dallière, Marie File 4501 Louis Dallière, a Protestant minister, was active in the French underground Charmes, a town in the vicinity of Ardèche. The eminent Jewish author André Chouraqui knew Dallière before the war. In his postwar testimony, Chouraqui recounted that Dallière was known as a spiritual leader who acknowledged the religious mission of the Jewish people and exhorted his parishioners to protect Jews fleeing their German persecutors. Dallière’s assistance went beyond fine words. He provided precious assistance to the Jewish underground. As an underground operative, Chouraqui arranged shelter for Jewish children. Dallière advised him whom to contact and warned him about places that were dangerous to Jews and the underground. Chouraqui later stated that Dallière had effectively saved his life, because he could not have survived without the minister’s vital information. Anne Trachtenberg, born in St. Petersburg, Russia, also owed her life to Louis and Marie Dallière. From 1939 on, Trachtenberg lived in the Dallières’ home in Charmes, a town in the vicinity of Ardèche under the control of the Vichy regime. After the persecution of Jews began, the Dallières provided Trachtenberg with forged documents and registered her with the church, under an assumed name, as a baptized Protestant. In 1939-1940, Trachtenberg worked for the municipality as a secretary. The neighbors were accustomed to her as the minister’s tenant and let her live in peace. In 1944, however, two German officers visited the minister’s home and asked questions about Trachtenberg. Dallière was not home, but his wife Marie persuaded the officers that Trachtenberg was not Jewish, showing the baptism ledger, which recorded that she had been baptized on December 31, 1934. The German officers accepted Marie Dallière’s claims and Trachtenberg was saved. She remained with the Dallières until the liberation. Her hosts did not ask for the slightest financial remuneration.After the war, she remained friends with the Dallières’ daughter. After Louis Dallière’s death, an institute bearing his name, devoted to the dissemination of his religious writings, was established in France. On January 8, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Louis Dallière and his wife Marie as Righteous Among the Nations.