Fonds Alice Ferrières (MDXXXIII)

Alice Ferrières (1909-1988), was born in Paris in a Protestant family. She grew up in Ganges, in Hérault. Graduated in mathematics, she obtained a position as professor at the École primaire supérieure of young girls of Murat in 1938. In 1941, when Nazi occupiers seized French Jewish businesses, Ferrières began helping Jews in any way she could, eventually rescuing around 50 adults and children, despite having no special power, financial resources, or influence. Ferrières kept full records of her correspondence and other documents from this era. She was the first woman in France to be recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" by the Yad Vashem Memorial. Alice Ferrières was a sister-in-law of the resistant philosopher Jean Cavaillès, who was murdered by the Gestapo in 1944. Copyright Holder: Mémorial de la Shoah, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine Diary, correspondence,and testimonies from the archives of Alice Ferrières, who ran a network (“Roseau Ferrières”) in WWII to save children. The collection includes a list of people with whom Alice Ferrières corresponded as well as testimonies of former hidden children. In the summer of 1943, as the situation for Jews in France worsened, the leaders of the Jewish Scout movement decided to close the children’s home in Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, in southwestern France, and disperse the girls living there. Some of the girls were housed in a private girls’ school in Murat, in the département of Cantal, where they pretended to be Protestants. Alice Ferrières taught mathematics at the school and protected fifteen Jewish youngsters in the town, including the Jewish girls who attended the school. In her home, she supplied food, privacy, and a genuine refuge. Before the Germans encircled Muret, she was able to deliver the Jewish youngsters to peasants in the vicinity, who sheltered them in their homes. Her apartment also served as a temporary refuge for several adult Jews until she could arrange permanent shelter for them in a nearby village. She was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.