Glasberg Alexandre

Glasberg, Alexandre (Abbot) Glasberg, Vila (Victor Vermont) Alexandre and Vila Glasberg were brothers born into a Jewish family from Zhitomir (Ukraine), who had converted to Catholicism. They immigrated to France in 1931 and devoted themselves to helping refugees and victims of any discrimination. Ordained as a priest in 1938, Abbot Alexandre Glasberg was named vicar of the Notre-Dame-de-Saint-Alban parish, which was in an underprivileged neighborhood of Lyon. Speaking Yiddish, fond of Jewish-style stuffed carp and a connoisseur of Jewish tradition, he used his relations in the Church to help rescue Jews during the Occupation. Named as a representative of Cardinal Gerlier*, Bishop of Lyon, Primate of the Gauls, on the committee to aid refugees, he went on to create the Main Office for the Shelters (DCA). With the help of a team from the Children’s Relief Organization (OSE) and the Christian Fellowship (Amitié Chrétienne), of which he was a founding member, he obtained the provisional liberation of camp internees and in 1941, took charge of accommodating them in five centers located in La Roche-d’Ajoux (Rhône), Rosans (Hautes-Alpes), and in the Drôme and Cantal regions. His brother, Vila Glasberg, alias Victor Vermont - his Frenchified clandestine name - became director of the reception center at the Château du Bégué in Cazaubon (Gers). He had the support of Monsignor Théas*, the bishop of Montauban, who renewed his relations with his comrades-in-arms from the 1914-1918 War, including Fernand Sentou*, mayor of Cazaubon, and Laurent Talès, the parish priest in Panjas. Vermont accommodated more than a hundred Jews and non-Jews who had been spirited out of camps in France and were being hunted. Provided with false identity papers from Fernand Sentou, they subsisted by working at the château and neighboring farms. Vermont was assisted in his task by social workers Nina Gourfinkel, Ninon Hait-Weyl, alias d’Harcourt, and Miss Schram, as well as Mrs. d’André, ownerof the estate, who hosted them. On August 26, 1942, Abbot Glasberg organized the escape and dispersal of 108 Jewish children from the Vénissieux camp in Lyon. Sought by the authorities, he went underground and became Elie Corvin, parish priest in the village of Honor-de-Cos (Tarn-et-Garonne), where he continued his rescue efforts. On August 19, 1943, following a denunciation, the police went to arrest Vermont in Cazaubon, mistaking him for his brother Alexandre. He was deported and murdered in the East. Abbot Glasberg survived the war and tirelessly continued his efforts to help refugees and the poor. He was actively involved in the clandestine immigration from Europe and Iraq to the British Mandate Palestine, including the saga of the ship, “Exodus.” Hundreds of Jews were saved thanks to the combined efforts of the Glasberg brothers. On June 17, 2003, Yad Vashem recognized Abbot Alexandre Glasberg, along with his brother Vila Glasberg (Victor Vermont), as Righteous Among the Nations.