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NEWS
France Pays Homage to Saviors of Jews During Nazi
Occupation
By Arnon Yaffeh, Paris
"During periods of darkness there were also moments of
light," French President Jacques Chirac said as he posted a
memorial plaque at the Pantheon for 2,693 French citizens who
saved Jews from arrest and deportation to Nazi concentration
camps during the Vichy Regime. At the official honoring
ceremony, the President and government ministers honored
Frenchmen whom Yad Vashem has designated as "Righteous
Gentiles" for risking their own lives to save Jews without
prospect of financial gain or religious conversion.
Photos of the honorees were on display in the entranceway to
the cemetery for national heroes; most of the honorees are no
longer alive and the awards were received by their family
members.
A number of the recipients recounted taking entire Jewish
families into their homes and hiding them from Vichy police,
collaborators and the Gestapo. Some arrived together with the
Jews they had the merit to save. All of them said they don't
consider themselves heroes.
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