Pradaude Eugène & Raymonde (Cuisinaud)

Pradaude, Eugène Pradaude, Raymonde The Ségal brothers, Joseph, Samuel and Herman, emigrated from Romania to France in the 1930s, settling in the city of Épernay (Marne). Joseph was a biologist, Samuel a doctor and Herman an oral surgeon. When the war broke out, Samuel Ségal was drafted into the French army, eventually becoming a prisoner-of-war in East Prussia. Their mother, who was living in Samuel’s empty apartment, was arrested in October 1942 and sent east to the camps, where she was murdered. As arrests and deportations of Jews reached their height in late 1942, Joseph, his non-Jewish wife Edmonde and their son Daniel were forced to leave Épernay and head south toward Royère de Vassivière (Creuse), joined by a relative of Edmonde’s. Through this same relative, Joseph met Eugène and Raymonde Pradaude, who owned a farm in the remote village of Saint-Dizier Leyrenne. The Pradaudes agreed to house the Jewish family on their property in Planchat. Eugène offered Joseph work on his parents’ farm in nearby Fort Léon; Joseph rode his bike to work each day, ate with Eugène’s parents, and returned home to his family every evening. In 1943, Joseph’s brother Herman and Herman’s wife Sylva joined them. At first they lived in a small shack in Planchat, but later moved to a storage room near a barn on the Pradaudes’ farm. They never left the storage room; either Raymonde or her father would provide them with food. Eventually they moved to a shack at the family’s Fort Léon farm, and Eugène’s parents looked after their basic needs. In the summer of 1944, Herman Ségal had a narrow escape: Eugène Pradaude warned him that German armed forces were making their way to Saint-Dizier Leyrenne, and told him he must flee immediately. He did so, and as a result was spared the fate of 37 underground members who were murdered in nearby forests the following day. On 16 March, 2011, Eugène and Raymonde Pradaude were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among theNations.