by Dr. Israel Jamitovsky
George Garel Grigori Garfinkel was born on March 1, 1909 in Vilnius. When he was three years old, his family moved to kyiv, in 1924 he emigrated to Berlin and two years later, in 1926, he settled in Paris. In France, he obtained a baccalaureate in Letters and Sciences and later earned the title of Electrical Engineer at the prestigious Zurich PolytechnicHaving obtained this title, he began to work at the Electro-Mechanical Company of Lyon (known by the acronym CEM) and in 1934 he obtained French nationality.
As a reservist in the artillery sector, he was mobilized in 1939, serving in Dauphine on the border with Italy. He was demobilized in 1940, and returned to work at the CEM company.
In the same year he made contact with Abbé Alexander Glasberg, Nina Gourfinkel and Raymond Winter - all representatives of the Organisation for the Safety of Children (OSE) and underground fighters - and the sequel was his incorporation into the Fort de Vénissieux which had become a camp that held 1200 Jews who had been arrested on 26 August 1942 and destined for deportation. Garel was part of the commission destined to "investigate" the 1.200 prisoners for racial reasons and played a leading role in the commission's decision to exclude 80 adults and 120 children, thus avoiding their deportation.
The Garel Network
The situation for Jews living in France worsened. On 11 November 1942, the "free zone" was abolished and placed under the administration of the German army. A month later, Joseph Weill, director of OSE, asked Georges Garet to set up a clandestine network to hide and protect children under 16, provide them with false identities and distribute them in different areas of the French population and, if possible, evacuate them to Switzerland. Unquestionably, his success at Fort Vénissieux led to him being given a task that was as complex as it was risky.
Thus, in January 1943 the Red Garel (the French labeled it Garel circuit) with the support of OSE for their task, namely illegal printers, liaison officers, property owners, etc. As far as was feasible, nothing was left to chance. The members of the network did not know the identity of the members of other networks, so that if they were caught, they were not in a position to reveal their identity.
The danger faced by the members of the network was enormous. According to the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, of the initial 33 activists, only four survived the war. Members who joined later were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where they perished.
Georges Garel was able to obtain effective support from Catholic, Protestant and secular organisations and even private families. The network spread its activities throughout the South of France and around 1600 Jewish children were distributed in this area, specifically around Toulouse and Lyon as well as in Valence and Limoges. His task was arduous and he always kept in touch with the children, concerned about their fate and well-being, tirelessly aiming at the growth of the network, which operated until the autumn of 1944.
Faithful companion and member of the Resistance
In 1943, Garel married Lili Tager in Lyon, colleague and member of the Resistance. Lili was born in Paris in 1921 to a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia to France in 1919. In November 1940 she took part in a student demonstration on the Place de L'Etoile and was subsequently arrested for three months in Fresnes.
At the end of 1941, she moved to Lyon, joining the Resistance and collaborating with the work carried out by her husband. On a more concrete level, she moved three groups of minors and adults to hidden places and was detained for a time in Fort Montluc in Lyon. The Garel family residence was a meeting place for the members of this network and a place where false documentation was issued.
The Garels had seven children, all of them distinguished academics in different fields.
After the war, Georges Garel was appointed director general of the Organisation de la Securité de la Enfants (OSE). In 1948 he resumed his position as engineer at the Compagnie Electro-Mechanique de Lyon and from 1951 to 1978 he was president of OSE. He died in Paris in 1979 at the age of 69 following a heart attack. Lili Garet died in Paris in 2013 at the age of 93.
Main recognitions
- The volume Georges Garel, The Salvation of Children by OSE, 1938-1944, Testimonies of the Shoah Collection, Le Manuscrit Editions, 2012.
- The historian Valérie Perthuis-Portheret made a film labeled The night of Vénissieux in which he addresses the life of Lili Garel and in particular her role on 28 and 29 August 1943, when 108 Jewish children were evacuated from the Vénissieux camp and saved from deportation. Two years later, Lili Garel noted that despite the passage of time, she could not forget the nightmare she had experienced at the Fort de Vénissieux.
- The OSE headquarters in the synagogue located at 11 rue Fauborg, Paris, was originally called Georges Garel Center and was later labeled Georges and Lili Garel Center.
- Finally several months ago Georges and Lili Garel They deservedly received the Order of Salvation of Jews within the framework of the valuable undertaking promoted years ago by the Bna'i Brith and Israel Agricultural Fund, which pays tribute to all those Jews who risked their lives and those of their families to save the lives of their brothers during the Holocaust. The ceremony took place in the Martyrs' Forest near Jerusalem and one of the couple's sons received the award. (Denis Garel) and one of his granddaughters (Noemi Garel Dumond).
Another Holocaust story marked by the heroism and selflessness of its protagonists.