Vautravers René & Juliane ; Child: Henri ; Child: Bardou Jacqueline (Vautravers)

Vautravers, René Vautravers, Juliane Vautravers, Henri Bardou, Jacqueline René Vautravers owned a garage in the eleventh arrondissement of Paris where he lived with his wife Juliane and one of their children, Henri, a professional violinist. He would often play in the small flat with two students, Mina Finkielsztein, piano and Henri Szwimmer, violin. Mina’s father, a Jewish refugee from Poland, had been arrested and incarcerated in 1941. In 1942, her brother was arrested as well. Both were deported and killed in the camps. In July 1942, a civil servant in the local police station told Henri that a massive roundup of Parisian Jews was about to begin. The young man immediately warned his Jewish friends and told them that he and his parents would hide them in their flat even though it was so small. Henri Szwimmer, his parents and his brother Maurice were the first to arrive. On the morning of the roundup, Henri Vautravers, violin case in arm, went to see Mina and her mother Marthe who lived nearby. The two women were hiding in the flat of a nurse who lived in the same building. She worked at night and had given them the key. Henri took them to his parents as well. Thus, nine adults crowded the two-room flat. It would have been unbearable but for the spirit of generous solidarity of the Vautravers family. Fortunately, none of the other tenants of the building said anything or showed hostility. The refugees remained until October. Then the Szwimmers left for another hiding place arranged for them by friends. As for Mina, the pianist, and her mother, Jacqueline Bardou, one of the garage owner’s married daughters, rented a small flat for them under her maiden name. She visited them daily until the liberation, risking her life to bring food and provide moral support to the two Jewish refugees who could not get out. On September 2, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized René and Juliane Vautravers, Henri Vautravers, and Jacqueline Bardou as Righteous Among theNations. File 8631