Ducommun Marcel & Hélène (Alquier)

Ducommun, Marcel Ducommun (Alquier), Hélène Marthe The Grubstein family had immigrated to France from Poland. In May 1940 the five members family had been forced to leave their homes in the District of Moselle. They moved from one place to the other, and managed to slip across the demarcation line into the unoccupied zone, where they settled in June 1942 in the District of Haute Vienne. The family father was soon arrested and imprisoned in the camp at Saillat-sur-Vienne. In September 1942 he managed to escape and found shelter in Limoges. The son Jacques managed to join his father in Limoges. Mrs. Grubstein and her son Maurice and daughter Nadia were also arrested, were sent to the camp at Nexon, but were released some two months later, thanks to the intervention of Rabbi Deutsch of Limoges. Having been reunited, the five members of the family continued their wanderings, finally arriving in the town of Castres, in the District of Tarn, where they applied to the heads of the Jewish community, who referred them to the Righteous Among the Nations, Pastor Robert Cook. A large number of Jews had found refuge in the District of Tarn, particularly in 1942. The region also served as a centre of Underground activity against the German Occupation and French collaborators. The local population was mainly Protestant and many members of the Church helped both Jews and members of the Underground. Nevertheless, many Jews in the area were imprisoned and were deported to their deaths in camps in the east. Pastor Robert Cook took the members of the Grubstein family in his car to Pastor Marcel Ducommun in Sénégats. The latter never hesitated and agreed to shelter the Jewish family in the presbytery that consisted of the church, the priest’s home and the classroom of the local school. The Grubstein family were accommodated on the first floor of the living-area of the complex. They stayed there for nearly two years - from November 1942 until the liberation of thearea at the beginning of the summer of 1944. The Ducommuns and their children lived in the village of Lacaze, some 11 kilometres away from Sénégats. Madame Ducommun served as the teacher in the one classroom school of Senegats. At a certain point the Grubstein children, Jacques and Nadia, also attended the school. Abraham Grubstein worked as a tailor for the local people and in return received food for his family. He also prepared uniforms for the local members of the Underground. Pastor Ducommun was also a member of the Underground and in many cases received information of impending arrests, or of the expected arrival of German forces or members of the militia. He would then warn the Grubstein family, who would hide in huts in the hilly, afforested region of Montagne Noire. There they were immediately protected by members of the Underground. The villagers, who had implicit faith in the righteousness of their cause and of the moral standing and consciences of the Ducommuns, protected the Jewish family, who were thus able, during periods of quiet, to walk freely around the neighbourhood. When there were sudden searches for Jews by the Germans or by members of the militia, the Jews would remain in the parish house, and the local population never divulged the secret. The Grubstein children testified that the Ducommun couple were "exceptional people. We owe them so much, for they saved our lives. Both greatly encouraged us, all the time. They showed an unusual greatness of spirit and courage and they exposed themselves and their family to indescribable dangers, in order to save us". After the war the contact between the two families was discontinued due to tragic circumstances. When in 1946, a 4-year old child of Ducommun died, the parents decided to leave France and to return to their native Switzerland. Evelyne Ducommun Jacobson, another daughter of the courageous couple, remembered the Jewish family and recalled that she used to play with theirdaughter, but she did not remember their family-name. It was only sixty years later, when she moved to another house that she found an old photo with the name Grubstein inscribed on the back. She searched the Internet and found a picture of Nadia Grubsten singing in the synagogue choir. It was by contacting the synagogue, that she was able to locate Nadia herself. A moving ceremony was held on 27 April 2010 in the garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. Two daughters of Ducommun received the awards in honor of their parents, and Maurice Groubain (Grubstein) and Nadia Rosenblum (Grubstein) came to Jerusalem to attend the ceremony. At the ceremony Dr. Lazar, a member of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous who, during the period of the Holocaust had been a member of the Jewish Underground in the Tarn region, shared an anecdote with the audience. "I sat in his presence many times and witnessed the help which he dispensed to all”, said Dr. Lazare, “In addition, he sometimes came to visit our camp in the hills. He would come on a Saturday ("Shabbat") and take part in the reading of the weekly portion of the bible. At one period the Germans destroyed our camp and desecrated volumes of the Bible. I found my own copy covered with faeces. Some two years later, after the War, when I was already a student, I one day received a parcel from Pastor Ducommun. He had sent me a Bible to replace the one which had been desecrated. He wrote that he felt himself responsible, since he had received the same education as the persons who had desecrated my Bible!". As he was speaking, he took the very same Bible, which he still has, out of his bag and showed it to the audience. On 21 December 2009 Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Marcel Ducommun and his wife Hélène Marthe as Righteous Among the Nations.