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French Resistance hero who saved hundreds of Jewish children dies aged 108 French Resistance hero who saved hundreds of Jewish children dies aged 108
(about 5 hours later)
A French Resistance hero who used his ingenuity and athleticism to save the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during the second world war has died at the age of 108. Georges Loinger used all his skill and cunning – and a large dash of chutzpah – to rescue Jewish children from deportation and near certain death during the second world war.
Georges Loinger, a talented athlete and cousin of the famous mime artist and fellow Resistance member Marcel Marceau, smuggled small groups of children across the Swiss border by throwing a ball and telling them to run after it. The French Resistance hero – who has died at the age of 108 – would set up ball games for children along the Swiss border in France. Having trained them to run like the wind, he would throw the ball over the border, telling them to chase after it – and then run for their lives.
In an interview published this year, Loinger said he had used the lightly-guarded border as a life-saving escape route during the earlier part of the war.
“I threw the ball 100 metres towards the Swiss border and told the children to run and get the ball. They ran after the ball and this is how they crossed,” he told Tablet magazine. “After that, the Italians left France and the German came in. It became too dangerous to play ball with the children like this. With the Germans we didn’t play these games.”
Using this method, and a variety of other ruses, Loinger personally saved at least 350 children, for which he was awarded the Resistance Medal, the Military Cross and the Legion of Honour.
Honouring his life, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust Karen Pollock said on Sunday that he was an “amazing” man. “Georges Loinger was a French Jewish resistance fighter who saved hundreds of Jewish children during WWII. He passed away yesterday at the age of 108. Hero. May his memory be a blessing,” she wrote on Twitter.
France’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation said Loinger died on Friday. It described him as an “exceptional man” and said his efforts would live on in their memories.
Born in Strasbourg to a Jewish family in 1910, Loingner was a talented athlete and cousin of the famous mime artist and fellow Resistance member Marcel Marceau. While serving with the French army, he was taken prisoner by German forces in 1940 and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. But as a result of his blond hair and blue eyes his captors did not realise he was Jewish, and he managed to escape, return to France and join the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, (OSE) a Jewish children’s aid society founded in St Petersburg in 1912.
Between April 1943 and June 1944, OSE workers and other rescuers helped hundreds of children escape to Switzerland across the border. Following negotiations with the Swiss authorities for the arrival of unaccompanied children, those who made it over the border were sent to new homes.
Another ruse involved dressing children up as mourners and taking them to a cemetery whose wall abutted the French side of the border. With the help of a gravedigger’s ladder, the “mourners” clambered over the wall and headed for the border just feet away.Another ruse involved dressing children up as mourners and taking them to a cemetery whose wall abutted the French side of the border. With the help of a gravedigger’s ladder, the “mourners” clambered over the wall and headed for the border just feet away.
The children he saved, whose parents had been killed or sent to Nazi concentration camps, were under the responsibility of the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, (OSE) a Jewish children’s aid society founded in St Petersburg in 1912. The OSE ran children’s homes in France, often housing children whose parents were in Nazi concentration camps or who had been killed. According to the OSE, Loinger trained a team of monitors, organised intra-house sporting competitions and then inter-house competitions to prepare children for the future and prevent them from developing disorders caused by confinement.
France’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation said Loinger died on Friday. It described him as an “exceptional man”. He told the Tribune Juive that he was successful in his endeavours to save children “because I did not look Jewish”.
Loinger was born in Strasbourg in 1910. In 1940, while serving with the French army, he was taken prisoner by German forces and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. Due to his blond hair and blue eyes, his captors did not suspect that he was Jewish and he managed to escape and return to France and join the OSE. “Sport made me the opposite of an anguished Jew,” he said.
Between April 1943 and June 1944, OSE workers and other rescuers helped hundreds of children escape to Switzerland across the lightly guarded border. Loinger alone is credited with saving at least 350 children. He was awarded the Resistance Medal, the Military Cross and the Legion of Honour. “I walked with great naturalness. Besides, I was rather pretty and therefore well-dressed.”
Recalling his wartime efforts in an interview published this year, Loinger said he would train the children to run before telling them they were going to play ball near the border. Some 75,000 Jews, including many children, were deported from German-occupied France during the second world war, in most cases with the active co-operation of the French authorities. Nearly all died in extermination camps at Auschwitz and elsewhere.
“I threw the ball 100 metres toward the Swiss border and told the children to run and get the ball. They ran after the ball and this is how they crossed,” he told Tablet magazine.
“After that, the Italians left France and the German came in. It became too dangerous to play ball with the children like this. With the Germans we didn’t play these games.”
Some 75,000 Jews, including many children, were deported from German-occupied France during the second world war, in most cases with the active cooperation of the French authorities. Nearly all died in extermination camps at Auschwitz and elsewhere.
Second world warSecond world war
FranceFrance
SwitzerlandSwitzerland
EuropeEurope
HolocaustHolocaust
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