Baron Suzanne (Morand)

Baron Morand, Suzanne Suzanne Morand lived alone on a remote farm on the outskirts of Saint-Gaultier (Indre) in central France. She raised rabbits and pigs and grew vegetables in a small plot next to her house. In 1943, she gave shelter to two young Jewish children – nine-year-old Yvonne Hirsch and her five-year-old brother René. The Hirsch children were born in Paris; their parents, Konrad and Edith Hirsch, were German immigrants who had moved to France in 1933. In Germany, Konrad had been a university lecturer but in Paris he opened a photography studio, mainly for children’s portraits; his wife created a home-based chocolate business. In 1939, Konrad joined the Foreign Legion and was stationed in Algeria. In June 1940, Edith decided to abandon Paris. She sold what few possessions she had and, with her two children, joined the masses streaming southward, eventually reaching Saint Gaultier. There they were housed in a building prepared for the many refugees. At the end of the year, Konrad was demobilized and joined his family. On February 24, 1943, two gendarmes arrived at their doorstep to arrest Konrad. At first he was interned in Gurs and then transferred to Drancy, from where he was sent to Majdanek, never to return. Fearing that she too would be arrested, Edith Hirsch decided to go into hiding. She asked a Jewish organization to arrange shelter for her children and then joined her husband’s brother, Hans, who was hiding in Lyon under an assumed identity. The two children were first sent to a foster family, but were not treated well there. When Edith became aware of the situation, she insisted that the children be moved elsewhere. Thus they arrived at the home of Suzanne Morand. Edith made Suzanne promise that she would not give them to anyone else. Suzanne treated the children with motherly devotion and shared what little she had with them. They loved living on a farm and being surrounded by farm animals. Yvonne attended school regularly. Thechildren remained with Suzanne for 18 months, when Edith, fearing that perhaps their host planned to convert them, sent her brother-in-law to retrieve them. Suzanne refused to hand them over because of her previous promise to Edith. But three days later, upon receipt of a telegram from their mother, she relinquished the children into their uncle’s care. Meanwhile, Edith had moved to a small town outside of Lyon, where she had found a job caring for two Jewish elderly women in their home in exchange for room and board. The children joined her there for a time, and then moved with her to a children’s home run by the OSE. After the war, Suzanne married M. Baron, a widower with two children. She lost touch with the Hirsch children, who immigrated to Israel with their mother in 1948. In 1977, Suzanne met her former protégés, when Yvonne (now Miriam Rosen) and René (now Mordechai) came to visit her at the farm. On October 10, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Suzanne Morand Baron as Righteous Among the Nations.