Morin Gabrielle

Morin, Gabrielle Gabrielle Morin was the director of a Catholic boarding school for girls in Bonnétable (Sarthe). Although most of the students lived at the institution, Morin also accepted girls who came to study during the day and then returned off-campus to their families in the evenings. One such student was Clairette Vigder, an eight-year-old Jewish girl who was living with a Catholic family in Bonnétable under an assumed identity. Morin accepted other Jewish girls to the boarding school as well, including the two Benveniste sisters, Aline and Nicole, despite the risk of denunciation and arrest or even deportation to a concentration camp for these acts. Years later, Vigder discovered that the Jewish girls had found refuge in the town through the efforts of Father Théomir Devaux* head of a Catholic rescue network in Paris, and his local representatives, farmers Albert and Germaine Guilmin*. The Guilmins’ farm, located only a few kilometers from Bonnétable, served as a transit point for Jews until they were transferred to shelters elsewhere. On June 16, 2009, Yad Vashem recognized Gabrielle Morin as Righteous Among the Nations.