Gabriel Piguet (born 24 Feb 1887 at Mâcon, died 3 July 1952 at Clermont-Ferrand) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Involved in Catholic resistance to Nazism, he was imprisoned in the Priest Barracks of Dachau concentration camp in 1944. He has been honoured as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial.[1]
During the Second World War, Piguet allowed Jewish children to be hidden from the Nazis at the Saint Marguerite Catholic boarding school in Clermont-Ferrand. He was arrested by German police in his Cathedral on 28 May 1944 for the crime of giving aid to a priest wanted by the Gestapo. Imprisoned first in Clermont-Ferrand, he was deported to Dachau concentration camp in September.[2]
At Dachau, Piguet presided over the secret ordination of Blessed Karl Leisner, who died soon after the liberation of the camp.[3][4] He survived his imprisonment, though physically diminished - he had lost 35 kg. He died seven years later.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Martin Gilbert; The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p.238
- ^ Martin Gilbert; The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p.238
- ^ Paul Berben; Dachau: The Official History 1933-1945; Norfolk Press; London; 1975; ISBN 0-85211-009-X; p.154-5.
- ^ Karl Leisner; German Resistance Memorial Centre, Index of Persons; retrieved at 4 September 2013
- ^ Martin Gilbert; The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p.238
External links
edit- Gabriel Piguet at Yad Vashem website