Favre Louis

Favre, Father Louis File 193 Father Louis Favre, who took his orders in 1936, lived in Ville-la-Grand (Haute-Savoie), a town on the Franco-Swiss border, and he taught at the Juvénat Catholic school. When World War II broke out, Favre joined the French army. After France surrendered, he returned home and set up an underground cell to provide intelligence reports to both the Resistance groups in his region and to the Allied intelligence station across the Swiss border. Favre was also active in smuggling Jews and Resistance fighters into Switzerland. Later, he did the same for Allied aviators whose planes had been shot down. Although he was the moving spirit of the operation, Favre was not alone. Four other priests on the school’s faculty, notably Fathers Boccard and Pernoud (q.q.v.), assisted him. Together, the five clergymen were responsible for the survival of hundreds of people, including many Jews. In September 1942, Favre welcomed David Bar-Stav and his wife, Polish Jewish refugees, with open arms. He took them to the top floor of the school, which afforded a good view of the Swiss border, and gave precise instructions about the changing of the guard and exactly how to slip across the border. Following these instructions, the Bar-Stavs successfully made the crossing. Eventually, an informer brought Favre’s name to the attention of the Germans. On February 3, 1944, German forces surrounded his school. Favre fled to a fellow priest’s storehouse, and was momentarily safe. German secret agents sacked his room and interrogated everyone in their path. As their interrogations became increasingly violent and cruel, Favre surrendered in order to spare the other priests further danger. On July 16, 1944, after several weeks of brutal torture, the Germans took Father Favre, along with seven other prisoners, to a nearby forest, and shot them to death. He was thirty-four years old. The Germans also closed the Juvénat school, following their raid on it in February. OnNovember 6, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Father Louis Favre as Righteous Among the Nations.