In Besançon, a tribute to the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, recalling the dates, places, events and key figures of those who faced the persecution of the Jews in France, offering them refuge and protection.

On the initiative of the Department for Relations with Judaism of the diocese of Besançon, the exhibition was inaugurated by Father Christophe Le Sourt, head of relations with Judaism for the Church of France, and Sister Isabelle Tremiot, diocesan delegate for relations with Judaism. The exhibition is open at the Diocesan Centre from 11 to 29 March 2025.

‘The exhibition,’ writes Sister Isabelle, ‘was created jointly by the Conference of Bishops of France and Yad Vashem, the international institute for the memory of the Holocaust based in Jerusalem.

This exhibition aims to pay tribute to the French people recognised as ‘Righteous among the Nations’. Among them are diplomats, politicians, soldiers, policemen, teachers, artists, families, religious people of all faiths and Christians, including bishops, who contributed significantly to raising awareness of the persecution suffered by the Jews. And let’s not forget the anonymous ‘righteous’ who saved Jews at the risk of their own lives.

In 1953, the young State of Israel decided to create the Holocaust Martyrs‘ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. This Jewish memorial centralises research, documentation, commemoration and the transmission of the memory of the Holocaust. One of Yad Vashem’s tasks is to pay tribute to non-Jewish people who, at the risk of their own lives, helped Jews who were persecuted, threatened with deportation or death by the Nazi occupiers. It is a question of honouring those who were a light in the night of the Holocaust.

Thanks to QR codes, it is possible to listen to the testimonies of the survivors and the Righteous, as well as read the pastoral letters that denounced the Nazi atrocities and urged solidarity.

A sign recalls that on 30 September 1997, in Drancy, sixteen bishops from dioceses where there were internment camps under the Vichy regime, recognised, officially and publicly, that in the face of the extent of the Nazi crime, too many pastors of the Catholic Church had remained silent. This word of repentance, which was an essential step in the renewal of the brotherhood between Jews and Christians, allows us today to pay homage, together with these Christians who have been recognised as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’.

Since 1963, a commission presided over by a judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Israel has been responsible for awarding the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ to those who saved Jews.

People recognised as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ receive a medal and an honorary diploma. They are granted honorary citizenship of the State of Israel and their names are engraved in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. The medal is engraved with a passage from the Talmud: ‘Whoever saves a single life, saves the entire world’. Furthermore, in their memory a tree is planted ‘in the Valley of the Righteous’.

4150 French people have received this honour from the Supreme Court of the State of Israel, out of a total of 27921 worldwide.

The homage paid to the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ has an educational and moral significance: educational, because the righteous remember that, even in situations of intense physical and psychological stress, resistance is possible and that evil and barbarism can be opposed in a collective context or as individuals; moral, because recognising those whose behaviour is exemplary is a duty.

This exhibition is also intended to be a simple and comprehensive tool to enable teachers and educators to help the younger generations learn about and understand the horrific genocidal mechanisms that led to the death of six million Jews, the disappearance of thousands of communities and the destruction of an entire cultural heritage.

This article is inspired by the editorial of Father Christophe Le Sourt, director of the National Service for Relations with Judaism at the Bishops’ Conference of France.

Sister Isabelle Tremiot, SdC

Diocesan delegate for relations with Judaism.