Fournier Henri & Lydie (Issartial)

Fournier, Henri Fournier, Lydie Henriette In 1932, when Itshak Michaeli was 10 years old, he moved with his mother, Malka (née Rosenburg, b. 1884), and brother from Stryków, Poland, to Paris. There they reunited with Itshak’s father, Yisrael Yehuda Michaelowicz (b. 1899), who had moved there three years earlier in search of economic opportunity. When war broke out seven years later, Itshak and a friend traveled to the Normandy region to help on a farm because the military draft had drained the local labor force. This effort was in the framework of a Hashomer Hatzair group; the goal of their agricultural training was to help them acclimate to life in Eretz Yisrael, where they planned to immigrate. But the war went on far longer than Itshak had anticipated. In June of 1940, France was routed in battle and the group scattered. Itshak ended up in the Moissac region of southern France, where he worked in a Jewish orphanage, both as a laborer and as an instructor of Yiddishkeit. In the summer of 1942, the orphanage was raided by French police who were seeking men over the age of 16 who did not have French citizenship. With the help of the orphanage heads, he managed to escape, and for the next few months he wandered from hideout to hideout, helped by a local underground movement of Jewish Scouts (EIF). In his travels he reached the Swiss border, where he met a former teacher from Paris who encouraged him to help smuggle groups of children to Switzerland. In the course of one such mission, he was arrested and sent to the Rivesaltes camp. A month and a half later he was released, thanks to a forged telegram sent by the Jewish underground to the head of the camp. In 1943 the Jewish underground sent Itshak to Midreshet HaNevi’im, an institute dedicated to the revival of Jewish life, situated on a farm in the town of Istor, near Chaumargeais. Itshak and three of his friends were able to survive until the end of the war. Their survival was due to the efforts of the owners of the farm, Henri and Lydie Henriette Fournier, who kept them safe for a year and a half, providing food and shelter. Their farm had several geographic advantages: it was isolated, covered with snow in the winter, and close to forests where Itshak and his friends could hide when necessary. Itshak lost touch with his rescuers, but later renewed contact in 1980 during a trip to France. Itshak’s parents survived the war hiding in Paris and then Lyon, as did his brother, who managed to immigrate to Switzerland. On July 3, 2012, Henri and Lydie Henriette Fournier were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.