Bernard Albert

Bernard, Albert-Louis Alfred Feldman (b. 1923, Hamburg, Germany) grew up in Antwerp, Belgium with his parents and three sisters. In May 1940, shortly after Germany invaded Belgium, the Feldman family moved to the unoccupied zone of France, settling in the southern city of Montagnac (Hérault). On 25 August, 1942, Alfred heard several rumors of impending arrests, and turned to a neighbor, Mlle. Granal, to help him hide. She placed him the top compartment of a massive wine barrel which sat outside her home. Upon emerging, he was informed that his mother and three sisters had been arrested; they were later sent to camps and murdered. Because of illness, his father had not been taken. Alfred realized that could no longer stay where he was, but had nowhere else to turn. Alfred's friend, Jacques Blum, and Jacques’ older brother David were in a similar predicament, as were Léon Roche and Léon Kowarski, young Jewish men from families ripped apart by persecution. Into the void stepped Albert-Louis Bernard. Bernard managed several vocational schools for young men who lived on the margins of society. Supported by Scout movements, these schools provided skills training and employment in public works projects such as road repair. A Jewish organization based in Montpellier (Hérault) helped Alfred and other Jewish young men obtain forged documents and places of refuge. Through this connection, they reached one of Bernard’s schools in Épinay-Saint-Marcel, called the Hermitage. The school gave shelter to the men from August 1942 until the spring of 1943. Tensions often ran high between the non-Jews and Jews at the institution, sometimes culminating in violence, but none of the Jews was ever denounced. In the spring of 1943, rumors spread that the Hermitage was to be shut down and its residents sent to work in Germany. In response, Bernard found alternate hiding places for the Jewish youths nearby. To ensure that they could be near the local train station if aquick escape was needed, he often hid the boys in his own home when necessary. Under trying circumstances, he worked quietly and behind the scenes, using his connections to maximize the safety of the Jews in his care. Later that summer, Alfred reunited with his father and moved to Nice, which was under Italian occupation. Following the German invasion of the area in September 1943, Alfred and his father escaped to Italy. After the war, they returned to Antwerp. On 10 July, 2011, Albert-Louis Bernard was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.