Ellul Jacques

Ellul, Jacques Jacques Ellul, a university professor of Roman law, had withdrawn in 1940 to Clermont-Ferrand with much of the faculty of the University of Strasbourg. Protestant and an advocate of Judeo-Christian dialogue, he was one of the first French intellectuals to oppose Nazism and Vichy’s anti-Semitism. When he stated his position publicly, he was dismissed from higher education under the pretext of the English nationality of his father, who had been born in Malta. Without resources, he turned to farming. He took a small property that lay fallow in Martres (Gironde) near Bordeaux, and with the help of his family made it productive. His house became the center of a Resistance network composed of former leaders from the Protestant Scouts (Eclaireurs Unionistes) and the Reformed Church of France. With his wife, he took in Resistance members, Spanish refugees, escaped prisoners of war and Jews being pursued. In collusion with Germaine Courtiaux, a secretary at the Prefecture in Bordeaux, he was informed of impending raids while Hélène Schweitzer*, another important figure in the network, produced false papers. The Elluls were neighbors of the Hertz family, Jews who had fled Strasbourg. The Elluls had known them before the war. In April 1943, Jacques Ellul went to warn them that they were threatened with arrest and that they should run away. He gave them false papers and escorted them to Lezay (Deux-Sèvres) where Pastor Pierre Fouchier*, a member of the same network, hid them at his place, thus saving their lives. Jacques Ellul, visiting Paris the same year, went to meet cousins of the Hertz family to convince them to also go into hiding. He obtained false papers for them and offered them a safe haven but they opted for a hiding place right in Paris. Jacques Ellul then joined up with the underground movement Combat, and served with it in southwestern France. On August 29, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Jacques Ellul as Righteous Among the Nations.