Gineste Marie-Rose

Gineste, Marie-Rose File 3256 The Jewish underground organizations in occupied France, which saved the lives of innumerable Jews, usually worked together with non-Jews, including several members of the clergy. In August 1942, Bishop Jules Gerard Saliège (q.v.) of Toulouse and Bishop Pierre Marie Théas (q.v.) of Montauban published vehement letters against the policies of the Vichy government, condemning the arrest and deportation of French Jews. Underground activists circulated these letters throughout France, which influenced public opinion and fostered readiness to help save Jews. Marie-Rose Gineste, a social worker from Montauban, in southwestern France, was an underground activist who helped many Jews during the occupation. She worked with Bishop Théas, cycling from place to place in her département, Tarn-et-Garonne, and distributing his letter to the parish priests in the diocese, along with other underground publications. She joined the underground in 1942, when she could no longer bear to witness the suffering of persecuted adult Jews and Jewish children who were cruelly separated from their parents. Her house, which was about a hundred meters from the Gestapo building, became a center for refugees and underground activity. She collaborated with Bishop Théas in anti-German activity and together they rescued many Jews. Gineste hid Jewish children and several women in monasteries in the Montauban area and, with the help of underground members and Jewish friends, gave them forged identity cards. She was involved in every stage of the production process, from obtaining the official forms needed to produce them, to the signatures, and then delivering the final products to those in need; Jews in hiding, underground activists, and Allied airmen who had bailed out in the area. Gineste’s varied and extensive activities placed her in constant danger, and eventually she aroused the suspicions of the Montauban police, who arrested her and beat her during theinterrogation. She maintained her composure, persuaded the interrogators of her innocence, and was released for lack of evidence. The Brill family, Jewish residents of Montauban, testified that Gineste provided them with forged papers, including a baptismal certificate. She warned them of an impending action against Jews, thereby saving their lives. Emilie Braun, a German Jewish woman, could no longer remain in her hiding place in Montauban and needed help, urgently. Gineste provided her with the necessary papers and explicit instructions on how to flee the town. Braun found shelter on a nearby farm and stayed there until the end of the occupation. She then settled in Israel. About forty years later, after being recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, Gineste traveled to Jerusalem and met Emilie Braun, the woman she had saved. On October 27, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Marie-Rose Gineste as Righteous Among the Nations.