February 28, 2012: A nun and a deceased priest were honoured as “Righteous Gentiles” for saving three Jewish children in France during the Holocaust. Last year, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad VaShem decided to award Father Joseph Caupert, Sister Marie-Emilienne and Mother Marie-Rose Brugeron the title of Righteous Among the Nations. The ceremony recognizing Mother Marie-Rose Brugeron will take place in France.

Sister Marie Emilienne received the medal and certificate of honor as did the nephew of the late Father Joseph Caupert at a ceremony at the French embassy and in the presence of Gabrielle Hochman, who survived the Holocaust in hiding at a Catholic orphanage.

Gabrielle Hochman’s family’s story began in 1923, when David and Hella-Zyssa Hochman emigrated from Poland to France and settled in the city of Metz. They bore two children, Annie and René, and after the German invasion in 1940, they moved to Nice, where Gabrielle was born.

Three years later, Italian forces ruled the region after the Nazi occupation, and the Hochmans turned over their three children to the French Jewish humanitarian organization, Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). The OSE saved approximately 5,000 children, including non-Jews, during the war.

The father, with the help of his Catholic brother-in-law, hid the children in a convent in Mende under the supervision of Father Joseph Caupert and Mother Superior Marie Rose Brugeron. They and Sister Marie-Emilienne kept the girls’ Jewish identity secret, and the nun took it upon herself to protect Gabrielle whenever there was danger from the Nazis. She did not even disclose the girl’s Jewish identity to the nun who was taking care of her.

The Hochman parents went into hiding elsewhere, but the mother was sent to Auschwitz by the Nazis after the Gestapo caught her on her way to visit her children. She was murdered by the Nazis on November 2, 1942. After the war, the father and his two girls were reunited but never discussed their experiences of the Holocaust. The fate of her brother Rene remains unknown.

Gabrielle Hochman began inquiries in the 1990s with the Association of Jewish Children Hidden during the Holocaust. The OSE found her name on a list of children who were secretly hidden. She traveled to France in 1994 to meet Sister Marie-Emilienne, who was honored three years later in Mende.

French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was attacked by a mob in Gaza on Friday morning. Her attackers were enraged over statements she had allegedly made the day before supporting human rights for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Alliot-Marie was mobbed as she entered Gaza, with a crowd surrounding her car, pounding on its windows, and throwing shoes at the vehicle. One person jumped on the car. Two children were pushed in front of the first car in Alliot-Marie’s convoy, forcing the convoy to a stop while the attack continued.

One sign at the rally had a picture of Alliot-Marie with a red cross over her face. Others called on the foreign minister to leave Gaza.
Hamas police eventually stopped the furious protest and allowed the convoy to continue. Hamas leaders expressed sympathy with the rioters, saying Alliot-Marie’s comments regarding Shalit reflected a “total bias toward Israel.”

She had met Thursday with the parents of Gilad Shalit. The kidnapped soldier, who Hamas claims to have in custody, holds French citizenship. Alliot-Marie assured his parents that “France has not forgotten Shalit,” and said she would insist that the European Union ask Hamas to allow Red Cross representatives to visit Shalit, as required by international law.

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A Muslim Frenchman cited by officials as a reason behind a crackdown on polygamy has been charged with aggravated rape, on August 08, 2010 at Nantes, France. The state prosecutor Xavier Ronsin stated Lies Hebbadj, who lives in the Nantes region of western France, was charged with aggravated rape based on a complaint from a former companion. Hebbadj, who was detained contested the charge, but there was “sufficient reason” to file preliminary charges which triggers a full investigation. Hebbadj’s ex-companion claims she was repeatedly raped from 2003-2007.
The Algerian-born Hebbadj made headlines for purportedly being a polygamist, but because his reported four companions and up to 15 children live under separate roofs investigators could not prove polygamy as defined by law. He was charged in June with fraud for allegedly collecting too much state aid for the women and children. The case became public last April when his veiled wife was issued a traffic citation for driving with apparel that hinders vision. Hebbadj, who wears a back and white head covering, caused a media storm when he first appeared before TV cameras to discuss the case.

On Saturday, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux referred to Hebbadj before announcing plans to include polygamy and female genital mutilation on a list of practices that could lead to revocation of French citizenship from immigrants. He went beyond President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to strip the French nationality of foreign-born people who endanger police. Hortefeux stated he would formally submit the plan, by the end of the month.