A French hospital director who hid Jewish children during World War II was honored by Yad Vashem. Justinien Blazy, former director of the La Roche-Guyon hospital in the Seine Valley, north of Paris, began hiding Jewish children in the hospital under false identities in 1940 and continued throughout the war, even when Nazi Gen. Erwin Rommel set up military headquarters in a nearby chateau that dominates the village. In the presence of four survivors who were hidden in the hospital, Blazy’s daughter accepted Righteous of the Nations status on behalf of her late father Thursday from Dina Sorek, an official at the Israeli Embassy in Paris.Around 2,300 French citizens have been honored as Righteous of the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.
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