Leloup Marthe ; Sister: Marie ; Sister: Marie-Thérèse

Leloup, Marthe Leloup, Marie Leloup, Marie-Thérèse Leboutte, Father Olivier Mariette Bermowitz, born 1938 in Brussels, was three years old when her mother and sisters, one of them ten months old, were deported. Mariette’s father managed to escape with her. Arriving in Liège/Luik, her father connected to an underground organization that helped him find a place for his daughter in the Notre-Dame Convent in Banneux, (province of Luxembourg), where nuns took care of orphans and some Jewish children. As the Germans intensified their search for Jews, the nuns began to place the Jewish children with private families. Thus, in April 1943, Mariette was taken in by three women – sisters of Jeanne Leloup, the mother superior of the convent. The Leloup sisters, who lived together, were Marthe, Marie, and Marie-Thérèse. As they were afraid to stay by themselves under the risky circumstances, they asked the local priest, Olivier Leboutte, for help. The latter invited them to come and live in his house, in Fraiture, (south of Liège) with the Jewish child, and here they spent many months. During the German offensive in December 1944, Father Leboutte decided to relocate to a town outside Bastogne, which turned out was still close to where the Battle of the Bulge took place. However, with great luck, the whole group survived in an underground shelter while the battle raged above their heads. During the earlier bombings, a German officer came to the rectory in Fraiture and asked to see the entire household. Father Leboutte was asked about this child who did not look like the other children. His answer, that she was an orphan found wandering on the road, satisfied the curious German. After the war, the Leloup sisters helped little Mariette get re-accustomed to her father, who survived. On November 01, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Marthe, Marie and Marie-Thérèse Leloup, and Father Olivier Leboutte, as Righteous Among the Nations.