Zemmour Hélène (Cornu)

Zemmour, Hélène Maurice and Penny Mendelsweig lived in Villiers sur Marne with their two children, Georges (b. 1931) and Jeannine (b. 1939). In 1942, the danger to Jews in the area increased, and in July French police arrested Maurice and Penny. They were sent to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. The two children were taken in by Maurice’s brother, Jacques. He first placed them in a Catholic institution in Villiers, but soon understood that they need to find a safer place to hide. In the summer of 1943, arrests became a daily occurrence, and through a mutual friend Jacques brought Georges and Jeannine, along with his mother, Léa Mendelsweig, to Hélène Zemmour in Massoeuvre (Cher). Zemmour was raising her own five children, and was also pregnant at that time. She was married to an active member of the resistance who was half-Jewish, who was barely at home. When asked to take the three Mendelsweigs into her care Zemmour didn’t hesitate, even though her income was very modest and she already many mouths to feed. Zemmour lived in a small three-bedroom house with no inside plumbing. The bathroom was situated in the backyard, and they needed to pump water from a mutual well in the neighborhood. Georges and Jeannine stayed with Zemmour, while their grandmother was given a room at the Martin family, who owned the local coffee house. Nevertheless, the grandmother spent her days at Zemmour's home with the children, and helped her rescuer with her daily tasks. The two women soon became good friends. The children did not attend school for fear of being discovered. Although the entire village knew that they were at Zemmour's house, no one bothered them. Georges Mendelsweig later recalled that Zemmour treated them like members of her own family. She gave them shelter, cooked for them and shared everything she had with them. She acted, he said, out of conviction in the importance of helping those in need, even though she knew the great risk in whichshe was placing her entire family. The fact that her husband was an active Jewish resistance member further increased the risk of her being arrested. Georges kept in close contact with Zemmour and her children after the war. On May 13, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Hélène Zemmour as Righteous Among the Nations.