Girousse Gaston

Girousse, Gaston During the war, Gaston Girousse was the head of a private electricity company in France. He lived in Paris, and through his work became acquainted with Léon Netter, a lawyer who represented large French companies in court, including Girousse's. Netter was a French Jew from Alsace; his family has chosen French nationality over German nationality in 1870. On August 21, 1941, Léon Netter was arrested and sent to Drancy. As soon as he heard about the arrest, Girousse went to Léon’s wife and offered to give her a large sum of money to liberate her husband. He also made sure that contact between Léon and his wife continued as long as he was in the camp. In October, Léon managed to leave Drancy with the help of electric company workers. Girousse then gave him a false identity card, presenting Léon as one of his workers. He then assigned him a chauffeur-driven company car so Léon could get to the demarcation line with the southern "free zone". Girousse made sure there was an "electric failure" that day, and sent Léon as a "senior engineer" to take care of the fault. As soon as Léon crossed the line, he was met by a prearranged group of workers from the company, who took him to a safe place. Finally, Girousse made sure that Leon’s wife was reunited with her husband. They both survived the war. Gaston Girousse also saved another Jewish refugee during the war. Jacqueline Durkheim, a pediatrician at the Rothschild hospital in Paris, helped transfer a Jewish man who had arrived at the hospital from Drancy. After she was denounced, Durkheim found refuge with her best friend, Simone Girousse – Gaston’s daughter. A few days later, Durkheim made her way to Vercors, where she joined the resistance until the end of the war. Besides his aid to persecuted Jews, Gaston Girousse was also active in the resistance, helping many POWs cross the demarcation line, providing false identity cards to those in need, and aiding anyone he could. On August 19,2008, Yad Vashem recognized Gaston Girousse as Righteous Among the Nations.