Bouffa Marie

Bouffa, Marie Rachel Marie Rachel Bouffa owned a large estate in La Reid. Although she was already 58 years old when the Germans occupied Belgium in 1940, Bouffa became active in the Belgian resistance organization, Armée Secrète. Bouffa, who lived on her own, used her estate to shelter Belgian fugitives, downed Allied pilots and Jews. The seven-member Sluchny family – Shaya, Gella, their children and their granddaughter, Anny Augusta – had fled from their home in Antwerp when the deportations of the Jews began. They were sheltered by Bouffa for almost two years. On one occasion, a neighbor warned Bouffa that the Germans were coming to search her home, and the Jewish family hid in the nearby village of Queue du Bois. When the danger passed, they returned to her estate. Evelyne Delhez-Garson’s parents worked for Bouffa and lived on the premises. In her statement to Yad Vashem, she said described the compound where Bouffa hid the fugitives surrounded by a high wall. Curious about what lay beyond the wall, she, her brother and her sister climbed over it, and saw an old man in a wheelchair with a woman. When “Mademoiselle Rachel” caught them, she warned their mother not to let the children snoop around her home. It was only after liberation that Evelyne learned that Jews were hidden on the estate. Maurice Sluchny came to visit several times after the war. Mariette Lambert lived in the nearby village and worked for Rachel Bouffa. She recalled bringing coal and lighting the fireplaces in the rooms in the house occupied by the Sluchnys. At one point, Mme. Sluchny asked her to take Anny with her, but Mariette's priest advised her not to. In February 1944 the house was raided again, and this time Bouffa was arrested. She was deported to the Ravensbruck camp in Germany, where she died. The Sluchnys managed to escape, and went to find other hiding places. On July 30, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Marie Rachel Bouffa as Righteous Among the Nations.