Report on the ceremony awarding the Righteous medal to Pastor Pierre Gagnier and his wife Hélène
January 18, 2012
Testimony of Denise Rouire (read by Hadrien, great-grandson of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier)
When the German occupation spread to the whole of France, including the Nice area, which had been occupied by the Italians, we had been in Nice since October 1940. Many Jews had taken refuge in the region, since the Italian occupier made no attempt whatsoever to persecute Jews, unlike what was happening in Italy.
As soon as the Germans arrived, Jews were arrested. Some arrests were made on the basis of appearance. The Gestapo cars drove very slowly. As soon as the men inside spotted someone who looked suspicious to them, the car stopped and took the person away. When you left home, you did not know if you would come back.
After my sister and brother left around September 15, 1943 for Valence, to stay with the pastor there, my parents and I left Nice for Vence, about twenty kilometres away. I was 19.
My family had long had ties with the Protestant youth movements. My brother was a Protestant Scout, and my sister and I belonged to the “Fédé” group, a study and discussion group close to the Reformed Church of Nice. Pastor Gagnier and his wife knew me.
While I was looking for work in a Protestant home for the disabled, Pastor Gagnier suggested that I come and live with his family as an au pair from mid-October 1943.
I lived in a presbytery and went to see my parents in Vence two or three times a month. In this way I was, so to speak, blended into the Protestant parish. I was not safe from being denounced, and I was well aware that my arrest would have led to that of the pastor and his wife.
Never, at any time, did I hear this couple make the slightest allusion to the danger I represented for them.
It was only after the Liberation that I learnt a little about Pastor Gagnier’s clandestine activities.
During the occupation, the rule was to ask no questions – the less you knew, the better.
When I think of that period, 1943–1944, I cannot separate Pierre and Hélène Gagnier. Their roles were not the same, but their commitment was, and the risks they took were identical. To welcome, feed, hide and comfort people, Pastor Gagnier had to rely on his wife. She knew how to help, without ever showing fear or weariness. She knew how to say nothing of her constant anxiety, she who knew the risks her husband was taking. In my memory I cannot separate the two members of this couple. I have the same admiration and the same gratitude for each of them. Their faith made them strong and confident, and clear-sighted too.
Denise Rouire-Kont (May 18, 2007)
Denise Rouire died in 2008