Debidour Antonin & Madeleine (Chambon)

Debidour, Antonin Debidour, Madeleine Mathès, Joséphine During the war, Dr. Antonin Debidour and his wife Madeleine resided in their country home in La Roque-Gageac, near Sarlat (Dordogne). Antonin was a surgeon, who had spent his internship at the Necker hospital in Paris, under the direction of Dr. Anselme Schwartz. Schwartz was only the second Jewish doctor to reach such a prestigious position. He was married to Claire Debré (the aunt of former Prime Minister Michel Debré). The family had its roots in Alsace-Lorraine, and had opted for French citizenship when the region was annexed to Germany in 1871. At the outbreak of WWII, the Schwartzes retreated with their three children to Toulouse, where Anselme continued to practice as a surgeon, albeit unofficially. In 1943, one of their sons, Bertrand, decided to join the Free French Forces in North Africa. Before leaving, he traveled to La Roque-Gageac to ask the Debidours to offer a safe haven to his parents. Despite belonging to the upper-middle class and defending right-wing opinions often tainted with antisemitism, the Debidours agreed to hide the Schwartzes in their home. However, since Dr. Debidour received patients at his home clinic, the house soon became unsafe. The Debidours Introduced the Schwartzes to an acquaintance of theirs, Joséphine Mathès. Mathès sheltered them in her farmhouse in Gaillardou, a small village in the Dordogne. Although the region suffered frequent round-ups of Jews and members of the underground by the SS and French militia, Josephine Mathès sheltered the Scwartzes until liberation. On 22 September 2009, Yad Vashem recognized Antonin and Madeleine Debidour and Joséphine Mathès as Righteous Among the Nations.