Daigueperse Henri

Daigueperse, Henri Henri Daigueperse was an insurance agent, a profession that required him to travel frequently. In 1942, he met 32-year-old Myriam Lévy in Bordeaux. Her family was living in Livourne, in the occupied zone. The Lévy family included a widowed mother, two daughters, and two sons, one of whom was married and had two children. That made six adults and two children between the ages of 3 and 5 who wore the yellow star in accordance with the anti-Jewish legislation. In July 1942, Henri helped them to secretly cross the partition line, making several trips back and forth under perilous conditions. He then found them three rooms to live in at the farmhouse of Fernand and Aurélie Cenou in Boé (Lot-et-Garonne), near Agen. Fernand was a self-employed wheelwright and threshing contractor of about 60 years of age. The Cenous lodged the fugitives and used every means to alert them in case of danger, as their farm was located on the main road to Toulouse, which was heavily traveled by the Germans. The Cenous were motivated by a spirit of resistance to the occupier and the Vichy government. Their son, a police officer, had been dismissed from his post in 1941. Henri Daigueperse and Myriam Lévy were married in 1943. Afterward, Myriam accompanied Henri on his travels, even though she did not have false papers. He took enormous risks to ensure that she and her family were saved. On November 4, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Henri Daigueperse as Righteous Among the Nations.