Andrée Geulen-Herscovici was a Belgian teacher who hid hundreds of Jewish children during the Holocaust, saving them from concentration camps.
- Died: May 31, 2022 (Who else died on May 31?)
- Details of death: Died at a nursing home in Brussels at the age of 100.
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Holocaust hero
Geulen-Herscovici was teaching at a girls’ school in Brussels when the Nazis invaded Belgium. Her Jewish students were forced to sew yellow stars on their school uniforms – and she soon noticed those same girls beginning to disappear from school. Aware that the Jewish girls were being deported to concentration camps, Geulen-Herscovici became involved with the Committee for the Defense of Jews. Through the committee, she worked to find hiding places with sympathetic families for more than 300 Jewish children, many of whose parents were captured shortly after their children were hidden away. She put herself at great risk to do so; at one point, her school was raided, and the headmistress was sent to a concentration camp, where she was later killed. After the war, Geulen-Herscovici worked to reunited as many of the hidden children with their families as possible. She later became a social worker. Geulen-Herscovici was named Righteous Among the Nations, an honor given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust, and she was made an honorary citizen of Israel.
Notable quote
“What I did was merely my duty. Disobeying the laws of the time was just the normal thing to do.” —from a 2007 speech upon being given honorary Israeli citizenship
Tributes to Andrée Geulen-Herscovici
Full obituary: The New York Times
