Vovard Alphonse & Berthe (Launay)

Vovard, Alphonse Vovard (Launay), Berthe Alphonse & Berthe Vovard lived in Couterne in Normandy with their four children. Alphonse Vovard was a mailman, and his wife worked as laundress. In mid 1943 they agreed to take in two Jewish boys, Jacques Barszcz and Bernard Aisenberg, from Paris and hide them from the German roundups. Jacques Barszcz was 7 years old when his father was arrested in August 1941. Bernard Aisenberg’s father was arrested in July 1942 – he was aged 10. Both fathers were sent to the east where they were murdered. The two mothers remained in their Paris apartments with their children, but in mid 1943 the situation became untenable and they brought them to the Jewish children’s home in Rue Lamarck. From there they were taken to be placed with a family in Normandy by Lucienne Clément L’épine, a social worker who worked for the underground and was awarded the title of Righteous for having saved a great number of children. The Vovards took to the two children into their home. Lucienne Clément L’épine paid them a small stipend to cover the costs and would come and check that the children were well treated. The Germans had a command post in the vicinity of the Vovard home, and German military would come regularly to fetch food or get their laundry washed. Jacques Baraszcz told Yad Vashem that he knew some German, but that Mr. Vovard warned him not to speak the language with the soldiers, lest they would become suspicious about his origin – after all, children in Normandy had no knowledge of the German language. Baraszcz says he knows that his sister was with another family in the same village, but that he has no memory of ever seeing her during the war. As strange as this may seem, it is probably due to the terrible fear and the need to hide their Jewish identity, that any feelings towards his sister were repressed during that time. The danger in this area of France was certainly enhanced by the fact that it was to become the frontline inthe final stages of the war. On 31 May 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Alphonse & Berthe (Launay) Vovard as Righteous Among the Nations.