WW2 French Resistance hero who saved hundreds of Jewish children dies, aged 108

[Borealis]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/french-hero-who-saved-hundreds-of-jewish-children-dies-aged-108/

PARIS, France — French Resistance hero Georges Loinger, who used his ingenuity and athletic prowess to save the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during World War II, has died at
the age of 108.

A talented athlete and cousin of the famous mime artist and fellow Resistance member Marcel Marceau, the Jewish Loinger would smuggle the children in small groups across the
Franco-Swiss border.

Loinger died on Friday, France’s Holocaust Memorial Foundation said on its website, describing him as an “exceptional man.” 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.

Loinger, who was awarded the Resistance Medal, the Military Cross and the Legion of Honour, 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.

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.

[Loth]

A real hero. May we never forget him and all the others who risked their lives to do the the right thing.

[Shift28]

To be perfectly honest I cant be sure I would be as brave as him in that situation. wow

[GrizzlyBear]

Most people wouldn't.