Quatrefages Marie (Egrefeuille)

Quatrefages, Marie Laurence Chaim Widerspan immigrated to Czechoslovakia from Poland to study engineering as a result of the numerus clausus restricting the number of Jewish students in his own country. Because of his communist sympathies, he was placed under house arrest at the home of Madeleine Zillich’s sister. Chaim and Madeleine moved to France in 1937 and married soon afterward. Shortly after the occupation of France by German forces, Chaim moved to the southern unoccupied zone of the country, to the town of Séte (Hérault). Madeleine, who was Catholic, and their son joined Chaim in November 1940. Chaim worked as a farm laborer for two years, until the German invasion of southern France in late 1942. His search for a new hiding place brought him to Saint-Jean-du-Bruel, and his wife and son joined him there shortly thereafter. In late 1943, local militias were formed, and Chaim was compelled to find a new place of refuge. One of the families with which he had become acquainted was the Quatrefages. Marie Quatrefages had eleven children, the oldest of whom was a priest in a neighboring town. She agreed to hide Chaim in a second-story room of her house, formerly used by her husband as a storeroom for the barrels he built. Only Marie’s elder children knew of Chaim’s presence in the upstairs room, which they referred to as "the prison." He left his room in the late evenings, when he sat with Marie and her elder children in their dining room, listening to BBC radio broadcasts. When Chaim went out to the front yard late at night for fresh air, he did so wearing the priestly robe of Marie’s son to avoid suspicion. Madeleine, who lived nearby in a rented apartment, worked as a seamstress. Under the pretense of mending clothes or purchasing fabric, she would sometimes visit Chaim at the Quatrefages’ house. Chaim had suffered for many years from stomach pains, but once he regained his health he joined the French underground. In 1947 Marie-LaurenceQUATREFAGES was elected mayor of Saint-Jean-du-Bruel en 1947 and served her community until 1965. The Widerspan family changed their name to a French sounding name and stayed in close contact with the Quatrefages. This strong connection extended to the time when Chaim turned to Yad Vashem and asked that his rescuer be recognized., and is maintained by their children and grandchildren. On 25 May, 2011, Marie Quatrefages was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.