Jean-Claude Dreymann

Maurice Dreymann (b. 1909) emigrated from Poland to France in 1933, and settled in Metz. There he married Hélène Lilienbaum, who had emigrated with her family from Krakow in 1913. The couple moved to Lille and in December 1937 their daughter Cécile was born.

In 1939, Maurice was drafted to the Foreign Legion, but was released the following year after the capitulation of the French army to the Germans. The Dreymann and Lilienbaum families both moved to the unoccupied southern zone of France in 1941, settling in Savigny sur Seine (Vienne).

In 1943, after Hélène had given birth to a son (Jean Claude), her father and brothers were arrested by French police and sent to Majdanek. They never returned. Maurice and Hélène decided to flee with their children to the region of Saint Martin Vésubie, which was under Italian rule and where more than 1,200 refugees had arrived in the knowledge that the Italians and local citizens would treat them fairly. The couple's families joined them, and they moved into an apartment opposite the local police headquarters, where the chief of police, Landry Jules Magnon, and police officer Joseph Fougère lived with their families.

In September 1943, after they learned of the upcoming retreat of Italian forces from the southern "free zone," Maurice Dreymann decided to flee to Italy. Hélène, who was in her eighth month of pregnancy with another son, stayed in Saint Martin Vesubie with her mother, Rose, her sisters, Liliane and Berthe, and her two children. Policemen Magnon and Fougère took the Dreymann and Lilienbaum women and children into their homes on the grounds of the police headquarters. They provided them with false papers in the name of Fougère's late mother-in-law, and Rose Lilienbaum and her daughters Hélène, Liliane and Berthe all changed their surnames to Lafont.

In order to avoid the mass arrests that began in September 1943, Joseph Fougère decided to take the women to a safer hiding place – an isolated forest-keeper's hut on Mt. Piagu, across the border. There they lived in very difficult conditions. Dressed as a shepherd, Fougère would leave his home at night to bring them food. When the danger passed, the women returned to Saint Martin Vesubie. Nevertheless, they felt it was too risky for them to remain there, and decided to leave the children while they sought another place of refuge. Fougère offered to accompany the four women to the train station. On the way they passed through the town of Vic sur Cère (Cantal), where they met a relative, Sally, by chance, and decided to stay, given Hélène's advanced stage of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, the children's rescue had been meticulously planned. It was decided that Cécile, who was darker in complexion like the Fougères, would move in with them, and Jean Claude, who was blonder like the Magnons, would stay with them. In order not to arouse suspicion by adding another child to their home, Yvonne Fougère took her baby daughter to stay with her mother, thus making room for six-year-old Cécile. Landry Jules and Adrienne Magnon had no children, but they took in Jean Claude, then 15 months old, calling him Georges. Three other policemen – Emile Cornillion, Jean Petit and Jean Castaignos – also lived in the complex, and they were all aware of the great danger they had taken upon themselves giving refuge to the Jewish children. While they were determined to keep the secret, Castaignos and Cornillion later decided to return to their families in Landes and Vence.

The Magnons and the Fougères looked after the children with great love until December 1943, when Liliane Lilienbaum, who was active in the OSE, came to collect them. The separation was difficult for both sides: the children had become very attached to their "new parents" and vice versa. Cécile was taken to a children's home in Argonex (Savoie), where she remained until 1945. Jean Claude went back to his mother in Vic sur Cère, where his younger brother Gérard had been born that October.

The rescue story was documented in a book by Danielle Baudot Laksine entitled La Vallée des Justes. In the book, Laskine wrote: "To give when one can is a good thing, but to give even when one is unable – to share – that is the richness of the heart. These people are a treasure for the next generations… the legacy of their great deeds will never be lost. For the descendants of the Righteous Among the Nations, the memory of loving-kindness will remain forever."

On 22 September 2009, Joseph and Yvonne Fougère and Landry Jules and Adrienne Magnon were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.