The commune of Beuil, in the hinterland of Nice, will become a member of the “Towns and Villages of the Righteous of France” network. Beuil owes this distinction to the discoveries of a retiree.
It was while organizing an exhibition for the 70th anniversary of the resistance in 2014 that Michel Remy discovered that the commune of Beuil had hidden Jews, reports Nice Matin. He estimates that around a hundred Jews were saved between 1943 and 1944, as they passed through Beuil.
The “Towns and Villages of the Righteous of France” network gathers the communes that have named a place of remembrance to perpetuate the memory of the “Righteous of France,” the men and women who saved Jews during the Second World War, at the risk of their own lives.
Thus, Beuil will become the 140th member of this network and the third in the Alpes-Maritimes after Nice and Saint-Martin-Vésubie, which became a “Village of the Righteous” in 2016.
The ceremony marking Beuil’s membership in this network will take place this Sunday, November 14, at Joseph Garnier Square in Beuil, at 11 a.m. The ceremony will be overseen by the departmental council and Yad Vashem, the institution responsible for transmitting the memory of the Holocaust. The survivors who were hidden in Beuil during the war will also be present. Finally, a tribute will be paid to the families of Beuil who welcomed refugees, as well as to the families of these refugees who will also be present on that day.
