B'nai B'rith Honors a Hero

The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust recently presented their joint Jewish Rescuers Citation in honor of 18 heroes at a virtual ceremony.

Bar-Ilan University Prof. (Emeritus) Simon Raymond Schwarzfuchs, who rescued Jews and fought the Nazis as a member of the Jewish underground in France, was among the honorees.  The recommendation to honor Schwarzfuchs was submitted by Dr. Tsilla Hershco, a member of the Committee, historian, and expert on the Jewish resistance in France, as well as a senior research associate at Bar-Ilan's Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies and fellow at the University's Finkler Institute for Holocaust Research.

Prof. Schwarzfuchs was born in 1927 in Bischheim, France. With the German occupation of Alsace and Lorraine, the Jews were expelled from the area and his family moved to the city of Limoges. There he became active in numerous branches of the Jewish Resistance Movement from 1942-1944.

In the period before the June 1944 invasion, the Maquis groups of the Jewish Resistance provided a hiding place for young Jews who escaped the Nazis and especially the Jewish Resistance members the Gestapo sought. According to Schwarzfuch's testimony members of the group used their connections in the area to find local hiding places for Jews, including children without parents, and Schwarzfuchs also participated in an Allied parachute collection operation.

On August 19, 1944, Schwarzfuchs took part in an attack on a train in southern France loaded with German soldiers and weapons. He was with the Maquis forces who entered the city of Castres after the German garrison surrendered. Liberation of the city and its entire area allowed the Jews to emerge from hiding. 

In 1948 Schwarzfuchs was ordained a rabbi. He later completed his doctoral studies in the US city of Philadelphia. In 1964 he immigrated to Israel with his family. He taught history at Bar-Ilan University, and served, among other positions, as head of the Department of Jewish History, and as dean of the Faculty of Humanities. He received the Legion of Honor Medal from the French authorities.

The Jewish Rescuers Citation was established in 2011 by the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem – B'nai B'rith International's permanent presence in Jerusalem and its public affairs arm in Israel - and the committee to rectify the historical record regarding Jewish rescue and offer long overdue recognition to Jewish heroes. To date 344 Jewish rescuers who risked their lives to save fellow Jews in Germany and Austria, and across Nazi-allied and occupied Europe and North Africa have been recognized through the citation
  
Many who could have tried to flee preferred to stay and rescue others; some paid for it with their lives. With great heroism, Jews in every country in occupied Europe employed subterfuge, forgery, smuggling, concealment, and other methods to ensure that Jews survived the Holocaust, or assisted them in escaping to a safe heaven, and in doing so foiled the Nazi goal of total genocide against the Jews.