THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
40 Friday, July 18, 1980
French Mayor Who Saved Jews Honored in Avenue of Righteous
By SANDRA COHEN
World Zionist Organization
JERUSALEM — An el-
derly man is handed a
shovel, and bending down,
he scoops up some earth,
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SAM FIELD
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399-1320
slowly covering the roots of
a Tiny, newborn sapling.
The air tingles.
The moment swells with
emotion. We are at Yad
Vashem. But today not to
remember and mourn six
million. Today to remember
and honor the heroism of
one man, brought to public
attention by an American
writer, Peter Hellman,
whose book "Avenue of the
Righteous" will appear in
the fall.
Raoul Laporterie was in
his 40s during World War
II, mayor of Bascons, a vil-
lage in the southwest of
France, and owner of a
men's clothing store. What
was significant was the
shop's location. It was 10
kms. north of the Vichy
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The Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem.
Line which separated
France's two zones.
In the southern zone, the
Jews had some chance of
avoiding the death camps,
at least in the early part of
the War.
Because his home was
south and his business
north of the line, the Ger-
mans gave"Laporterie a spe-
cial pass to cross daily. As
mayor, Laporterie was re-
sponsible for stamping
identification cards, and
with the data so easily
available, he began forming
his own reservoir — iden-
tification cards of those
people of Bascons already
deceased, lacking however
in one vital item: photos.
Word filtered through the
Jewish communities north
NABLUS (JTA) — Mayor
Bassam Shaka, who lost
both legs in the June 2 bomb
attacks on West Bank Arab
mayors, came home last
week to a hero's welcome
after undergoing treatment
for more than a month in
Amman, Jordan.
•Thousands of people
jammed the streets to cheer
as Shaka arrived with his
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wife in an ambulance which
picked him up at the Al-
lenby Bridge across the Jor-
dan River.
Heavily armed Israeli
troops were also visible in
evidence of the tight secu-
rity clamped on this town to
forestall possible extremist
demonstrations. Shaka
himself was forbidden to
speak to reporters.
Meanwhile, Sulieman
Hirbawi, a Druze border
police sapper who was
severely injured on June
2 while dismantling a
bomb intended for the
-Mayor of E1-Bireh, re-
turned to his home in the
Western Galilee village of
Jullis on a temporary
leave from Hadassah
Hospital in Jerusalem.
He is due back at the hos-
pital shortly for plastic
surgery and further at-
tempts to save what re-
mains of his eyesight.
South American
Revolutionaries
Backed by PLO?
WASHINGTON — The
Palestine Liberation
Organization has offered
weapons, military training
and a cadre of Palestinian
troops to the leftist guerril-
las who are trying to seize
control of El Salvador, re-
ported Newsweek maga-
zine.
The PLO concedes that it
supports the Latin Ameri-
can revolutionaries "politi-
cally," but denies that it has
been a supplier of arms and
men.
planting of a tree and the
Medal of Honor.
The Avenue of the Right-
eous, Israel's living memo-
rial to those who risked cer-
through
death
tain
courageous deeds, was orig-
inally a small area of land
set aside at Yad Vashem. It
has now blossomed to cover
a whole slope overlooking
the beautiful village of Ein
Karem. And here, he who
is honored plants the tree
himself, having been in-
vited to visit Israel and pre-
sented with a medallion
which is engraved the
brew proverb, "Whosoever
saveth a single soul is as the
saviour of all mankind."
Here, over 500 carob trees
have been planted, the
carob chosen because its
leaves do not wither. The
righteous is thus compared
to a tree, as in Psalms 1:3,
"and he shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of
water . . . his leaf also shall
not wither .
- r
I )
ARRY FREEDMAN
rchestra and Entertainment
647-2367
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PARTY PLANNING
CENTERPIECES Originally Designed
(fresh or artificial)
Injured Nablus Mayor Shaka
Returns to Hero's Welcome
SHASOT
SHALOM
EMPIRE
BBQ CHICKENS
of the line that their free-
dom could be realized via a
men's clothing store. The
mayor welcomed the Jews,
matched their char-
acteristics as closely as
possible with those on the
cards, then filled the empty
spaces with their photos.
They proceeded to cross the
border, soon stopped by the
Germans for the customary
check. As residents of Bas-
cons, they were waved
through.
Laporterie was alert to
possible complications. He
planned each crossing just
five minutes before the
changing of the guards, a
time when the men were
tired and impatient for their
shift to end, a time when
they would be least likely to
scrutinize each individual.
Sheltered in his home, or
placed in hotels, these Jews
were given everything they
needed till their departure
for the south. Hundreds
were saved. And the
heroism of Raoul Laporterie
was not left unacknowl-
edged.
Soon after Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem was established,
it was decided to honor
those gentiles who had put
their own safety aside to
ensure the freedom of Jews
from the hands of the Ges-
tapo. A committee of 25
people, all volunteers, meet
monthly to discuss the
merits of every case under
consideration for the award,
The Righteous — those
non-Jewish men and
women from towns and vil-
lages in the occupied areas
who at personal peril helped
Jews escape Nazi massacre.
Though letters are often
received from friends or
relatives of a gentile who
did save a Jew, testimonies
are taken only from those
Jews who were actually
saved.
Approximately 3,000
people have been honored
through three kinds of
awards — citations, the
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