Report on the ceremony awarding the Righteous medal to Pastor Pierre Gagnier and his wife Hélène
January 18, 2012
Speech by the Gagnier children (read by Daniel Gagnier, eldest son of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier)
It is with great emotion that we are gathered here today for the presentation of the Righteous Among the Nations medal to Hélène and Pierre Gagnier, our parents, who died 23 years ago. First of all we would like to thank Madame Blumenthal, her deputy Monsieur Moulin, and the staff of the town hall of the 12th arrondissement for their welcome and for organising this ceremony.
We would especially like to thank Madame Poch-Karsenti, President of the association of the Friends of Odette and Moussa Abadi, who initiated the application for this medal.
Our thanks also go to Yad Vashem France and its representative Monsieur Victor KUPERMINC, and to the Embassy of Israel in France.
In our sincere thanks, we do not forget those who were hidden and protected by our parents and who agreed to testify to Yad Vashem:
The DOHAN family and Doctor ISSERLIS, who are here with us
Monsieur Michel PICARD and his sister, who unfortunately could not join us today for health reasons
and Madame Denise ROUIRE, who passed away in 2008, represented here today by her daughter Nelly.
A big thank you to all of you who are here: relatives and friends who have come from different parts of France, and especially from the United States.
In putting together this file, our research allowed us to learn more precisely what our parents did in Nice in 1943–44, but other things will remain unknown.
Indeed, like many people of that generation, our parents spoke little about that time. We had heard only a few anecdotes, mentioned in the collection our father wrote for his grandchildren under the title “50 ans de rencontres” (Fifty years of encounters).
In his speech at the Panthéon during the ceremony for the Righteous – also on January 18, but in 2007 – Jacques Chirac spoke of “thousands of French women and men who, without asking themselves questions, chose to do good. What courage, what greatness of soul they needed! They all knew the risks: the brutal arrival of the Gestapo. Interrogation. Torture. Sometimes even deportation and death.” Our parents were among those French people.
They were guided by a single principle, quoted by our father in his writings and shared by our mother, who was his unfailing support:
“I believe that we Christians should say nothing of what God allowed us to do for our neighbours in distress. It was a privilege for us to be able to act and fight against that anti-Christian force, German racism.”
How many people were hidden in the church and in the presbytery? We will never know.
Unlike the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church had no hostels, schools or associations, so our parents had to find families to shelter Jews for longer or shorter periods, with all the risks involved.
As early as September 1941, our father and a dozen Protestant theologians meeting at the Pomeyrol community spoke out against the treatment of Jews in Vichy France, declaring in the eighth thesis that “the Church considers resistance to any totalitarian and idolatrous influence to be a spiritual necessity”.
Refusing injustice, he did not hesitate to go to the Kommandantur to voice his disapproval or to seek information. Nor did he hide his convictions in his sermons, which was an additional risk.
Driven by the same faith in the fight against injustice, our mother knew about everything her husband did and acted at his side when necessary.
Our parents did not act alone: they were helped by others, in particular by a team that came from the Scout movement. Several of these Rover Scouts are with us today, and we would like to pay tribute to them.
When Madame POCH-KARSENTI told us of her wish to apply for the Righteous medal, we hesitated, because our parents would never have accepted the slightest honour during their lifetime. In the end, we agreed that the recognition of Righteous Among the Nations should be awarded to them, because we believe it will be a landmark for future generations, and in particular for our children and grandchildren.
Let us share this medal with all the families whose members were saved.
Thank you.
Daniel, Alain, Jean-Marc and François Gagnier