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God's counterfeiters

2020-08-09T16:29:02.077Z


Four Spanish Claretians helped save between 1940 and 1944 in Paris a hundred and a half Jews, most of them Sephardic, from Nazi persecution. A false baptism provided the opportunity to escape the horror and flee France. A story of solidarity that has remained in the most absolute secret. Until now.


The small Spanish community of Claretian missionaries in Paris sealed their lips for 80 years and kept a secret that helped save the lives of 155 people during the Nazi occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. Located in the narrow street of Pompe, number 51 bis, half an hour walk from the Eiffel Tower, the church of the Spanish Catholic Mission treasures in a tiny closet hundreds of false baptism certificates that four priests of the order wrote and signed to prevent the Vichy Government from arresting dozens of Jewish families. Impregnated with an intense smell of dust and neglect, these volumes are proof of how Gilberto Valtierra, Joaquín Aller, Emilio Martín and Ignacio Turrillas put their lives in danger after taking in these people and facilitating that, with these new documents, they could flee from the country or guarantee them some protection against frequent deportations to concentration and extermination camps. Eight decades later, the secret of God's counterfeiters breaks the chains of silence and finally sees the light.

Witnesses to what happened are only the stone walls of the church and the intricate corridors that still connect the parish with the convent. When one walks through that place, crosses the wide nave of the parish, observes the statue of Saint John of the Cross or rummages through the books in the library, one cannot help but imagine the journey that these Jewish families had to take with these priests to get a role that would serve as a shield against persecution. Did they enter through the small green side door on the façade that leads directly to the convent? Did they do it at night? Did they sign the items on the large wooden table in the sacristy? Or, on the contrary, did they hide in the crypt chapel to do it? When those who inhabit the mission today are asked, the answer is repeated: “We don't know. All those of that time have already died ”. How then did you manage to awaken this history of oblivion?

It was a small confession in a cafeteria in the center of Paris in 2018 that led a 26-year-old historian, Santiago López Rodríguez, to pull a fine thread and search the past to find out what actually happened in that church of Spanish priests. “I was researching for my doctoral thesis the work of Spanish diplomacy during the Holocaust in the archives of the consulate and doing interviews with survivors and relatives of victims of the Nazi extermination. While having a coffee with Alain de Toledo, the son of a deportee from the Royallieu-Compiègne camp, he told me that his parents were forged baptism certificates in a Spanish church in Paris to help them flee to Spain, ”explains López, professor at the University of Extremadura. De Toledo did not specify anything more and, hungry for curiosity, the historian went to the Rue de la Pompe.

In the first place, details of the false baptism certificates of the Saporta family; Tobes, together with the historian Santiago López, observes the only photograph in which the falsifiers of God appear together. Below, a record of those games.

After knocking on the door of the mission, a Claretian with a Burgos accent, Carlos Tobes Arrabal, led López down the corridor that flanks the patio of the geraniums to the small cupboard where these baptismal certificates rest. In an adjacent office, by the light of a flexo and guarded by a carving of the Virgin of Fatima, López inspected page by page the baptism certificates registered between 1940 and 1944. There they were, annotated in blue and black ink, dozens of names of people with Jewish surnames, of adult age and born abroad, the majority in Thessaloniki (Greece) and Istanbul (Turkey). “It is clearly seen how in that period of time the baptisms grew up to 200% in this parish. Conversions were made to entire families on the same day, even in some cases, the marriage certificate was also falsified at the same time [22 in total] ”, López emphasizes while pointing at the evidence with his index finger. The 155 forgeries are distributed over five years, between October 3, 1940 and July 12, 1944. Distributed weekly, we find 4 in 1940, 68 in 1941, 30 in 1942, 45 in 1943 and, already at end of the Nazi occupation, 8 in 1944.

After dusting off the volumes and deciphering the handwriting of all the signatories, he crossed the mission data with those he found in other French archives and found that up to 60 of these items corresponded to Jews registered as Spanish and 19 protected, that is, people who they had the protection of the consulate. This discovery is part of the Foreign Service of Spain during the Holocaust in occupied France (1940-1944), a doctoral thesis that he hopes to publish in the coming months.

The Modiano family was the first to be baptized. Mauricio Modiano, 65; his wife, Eda María, 51 years old; his son René, 20, and his niece María Francisca Hasson, 9, lived at 134 Avenue de Malakoff. Except for little Maria Francisca, all were born in Thessaloniki (Greece). There is no evidence if Father Valtierra, the priest who signed the certificate, dropped the baptismal water on their heads or if he simply took them to an office to sign the documents. What does appear marked on their files is the date of October 3, 1940, the same day that the Statute of the Jews came into force, the anti-Semitic laws signed by Marshal Philippe Pétain that led to the creation of a census of Jews and, later, in the well-known deportations to concentration and extermination camps. It is estimated that more than 75,000 people died. "These forgeries served to apparently become Catholic and have the possibility of deceiving the persecutors," says López.

In clear handwriting, the priests alternated to falsify the documents. In these records they wrote down relevant data that, analyzed today, allow us to glimpse what the baptized were like. The vast majority were Sephardim and the average age was 33 years: the youngest was only a few months old, and the oldest, 75 years. Almost all of them had their names made Spanish with the aim that, when they presented all the documentation to the French authorities to flee to Spain, they would not be linked to their possible registration in the Jewish census. Thus, Levy became Luis, Jacobo in Jaime and Moisés in Mauricio.

It is also relevant to see how some of them, weeks after appearing in the volumes as baptized, appear on the files of other Jews as godparents. The Modiano marriage, for example, appears with this category in the baptism certificate of Victor Gomerzano, 20 years old and a native of Constantinople (modern Istanbul). What one might think is that, in many cases, those enrolled were related to each other and used word of mouth and family relationships to learn about the possibility of help offered by Spanish missionaries.

Four priests against anti-Semitic laws

In those years, collaborating with these people was a serious crime, especially if relevant documentation was falsified, such as visas, passports and baptismal certificates. “These priests were not only breaking ecclesiastical law by making false conversions, but they were taking on the French state. If this had been uncovered, it could have meant, without a doubt, his expulsion from France and a great detriment to Spanish diplomacy, ”says López while reviewing the Claretian archive in search of any paper that sheds more light on what happened. But who were these four priests and how did they manage to build this network of salvation?

Of these, only a dozen photographs remain stored in a cardboard box in the Rue de la Pompe mission. A few people remember by hearsay what happened to their lives. At that time, these priests lived in the mission together with a dozen other Claretians, and everything indicates that their relevance had to be remarkable. In the fresco of the altarpiece that crowns the altar of the parish, a priest appears portrayed who, after comparing his face with other paintings of the time and corroborating it with Father Tobes, represents Father Joaquín Aller. Born in 1897 in Campo de Villavidel (León), Aller was then superior of the Claretians. The local Asturian press at the time reported that he had collaborated with an exiled Asturian communist to return to Asturias the carving of the Virgin of Covadonga, who spent part of the Civil War in the Spanish Embassy in Paris. He died in Bilbao in 1964.

  • Joaquin Aller
  • Ignacio Turrillas
  • Emilio Martin
  • Gilberto Valtierra
  • Little else is known about the rest. Gilberto Valtierra was born in 1889 in San Martín de Humada (Burgos, 22 inhabitants) into a family of five brothers, three of whom became Claretians. His great-nephew, Luis Peñas Valtierra, still lives there. But what do you say? That happens? The truth is that he was a good man. I remember sometime he came to town to see my mother. But, as far as I know, here he never said anything about this that you tell me, "says Peñas by phone after learning about his uncle's secret work. However, he emphasizes, the day of his death is burned into his memory. “It was November 1, 1953. A few days later we received a letter from France. In it, a family we did not know told us: 'The poor of Paris cry at the grave of Father Valtierra.' I don't forget that ”, he tells with emotion.

    Emilio Martín was one of the founding fathers of the Claretian mission. He arrived there in 1913 with the aim of helping Spanish immigrants who lived with difficulties. Born in Segovia in 1869, Martín taught and directed the Claretians who passed through Rue de la Pompe until his death in 1951. Still today, before entering the church sacristy, on the left hand side, a portrait of him hangs made with charcoal.

    Tobes, superior and current director of the mission, only knew Ignacio Turrillas (born in Monreal, Navarra, in 1897), whom he cared for during the last years of his life. “He was the one who was left alive of the four and he died in my arms in 1979. He never told me about this. But one day, years after his death, back in 2008, a woman came to the door saying: 'I come to thank you. You saved my parents 'lives.' Nobody knew what she was referring to and we took her to Father Miguel Ángel Chueca, our superior at the time, ”says Tobes sitting on the threshold of the convent door. When the woman left, he continues, Chueca told the whole story to the rest of the missionaries, without much detail, and asked them to be silent.

    “I think it was a story that the order lived in its privacy. Now, knowing more about what our brothers did, fills us with pride and happiness ”, passionately affirms the current superior. More than a century after its inauguration, the mission continues to dedicate itself to helping those most in need: they teach French to Spanish-speaking immigrants and offer the services of a social educator for free, among other charitable work. But they are few. Of the twenty Claretians that existed in the past forties, only three remain. Along with the superior is Father Tomás Tobes Agraz and Father Arturo Pinacho. “The vocation never goes away. You have to serve because many people need it, ”explains Father Tomás, 81, smiling, sitting at the table. While eating a humble stew and drinking water with a splash of tetrabrik wine, they talk about the great deficiencies that many people continue to suffer.

    The main altarpiece of the church of the Bclaretian mission, where it is believed that the Virgin appears, in the center to the right, portrayed Father Joaquín Aller, one of the falsifiers of God.

    The help of the consul Bernardo Rolland

    No one yet knows why Father Chueca was reluctant to make such a discovery public. He also insisted that De Toledo did not want the story to be released when he went in search of the documents showing that his parents had been baptized there. “He did not give me reasons. I would have liked to honor the mission, but he didn't want to ”, says De Toledo. The secret of the Claretians was also respected by the majority of those registered. De Toledo, for example, his parents never told him anything. The news came to him while he was investigating how the then-consul general of Spain in Paris, Bernardo Rolland, known for secretly saving more than 80 Jews, freed his father from the Royallieu-Compiègne camp in 1942 and later helped his parents flee. to Spain in 1943. “A cousin of my mother, Enrique Saporta y Beja, knew the consul very well. He had lent him an office in the consulate to help the Sephardim. He told me that Rolland was the one who advised these Jews to go see the priests [to falsify the games], ”he reveals in an email interview.

    The figure of Rolland as a link between the persecuted and the priests, until now unknown, shows that he participated in the salvation of a hundred more people and that he possibly involved workers of the Official Chamber of Commerce in Paris, who appear in some false entries as godparents. “Without their action, my parents would not have survived and I would not have been born. For this reason, I have been trying for 15 years to get the Righteous Among the Nations medal awarded. But for me, without or with her, he is a Justo ”, writes De Toledo, also president of the association Muestros Dezaparecidos (translation from Ladino into Spanish as Our Disappeared), which works to recover the memory of deported Spanish Sephardim in France.

    Open questions

    When one reviews the history of the forgers of God, a question arises: Weren't the French authorities suspicious when they saw in these documents Jewish surnames and late conversion dates? Did these baptisms really help save the lives of most of these families? López does not doubt it. "These documents were a perfect tool to hide their faith and give more credibility to the certificates of Spanish nationality or other papers issued by Rolland," says the researcher. On the one hand, these documents accredited by the Church could free them from appearing in the census of Jews that the authorities later used to locate and arrest thousands of them and deport them to concentration and extermination camps. And on the other, according to the historian, with these documents the chances of getting a visa to leave France increased. Also, although counterfeiting to save Jews was not very common, there were similar proven episodes that spared thousands of people from being killed by the Nazis. An example was Operation Baptism, in which Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, future Pope John XXIII, forged baptism records during World War II to save 24,000 Jews from Istanbul (Turkey).

    However, it cannot be proved that the salvation of these families is due exclusively to the action of the Claretians. What is proven is that throughout the Nazi occupation the priests continued to sign items. The false baptism was not enough to save eight-year-old Rogelio Samuel Benarrosch and 16 other enrollees from death in the concentration camps. But the rest, 138 people, did manage to outwit the Nazis.

    Facade of the Church of the Catholic Mission of Paris, located at 51 bis Rue de la Pompe.

    On some occasions, the movements of the counterfeiters of God aroused the uneasiness of the French ecclesiastical hierarchy. In a correspondence located as a result of this report between the Archbishop of Paris Emmanuel Suhard and the superior of the Claretians, the former asked the director to appear at the episcopal see to inform him about said baptisms. In a letter dated February 12, 1942, Suhard insisted: “I told you, the last time I saw you, that the Archbishop's Council needed an explanation about another Israeli convert whose documentation has not reached us. It is about Miss (Mme.) Saporta [and Beja], who would have been baptized and briefly married in the Spanish chapel. I would appreciate it if you would come to see me on Saturday morning, February 14 at 10 o'clock, and give me any documentation you have gathered. "

    The opposition of the archbishopric of Paris to the Vichy Government and the deportations is well known, so it is possible to think that these letters were intended to ask the mission for prudence and deliver some type of documentation that would argue the urgency of said conversions so as not to raise suspicions within of the French Church that supported Hitler. However, no evidence has been found of the archbishop's position on these forgeries. The current superiors of the order in Spain, who were also unaware of the history, affirm that in all probability the forgeries were made with all kinds of precautions. "The years have passed and it is likely that if other brothers of ours, or the superiors of the congregation, learned of these actions, they would die without commenting on them," says a spokesman in Madrid.

    Among the straw-colored papers that the mission still conserves from that time, there is a copy of another letter that Father Valtierra wrote to justify the baptism of the Sevi family, made up of Alberto, Matilde and the children Jacqueline and Claudio. “I have no reason to doubt Mr. Sevi's good faith regarding his conversion. Now he behaves like a Christian, he comes every Sunday to Mass (…) ”, the priest wrote.

    Clearly Valtierra lied to protect said people. The proof of this is in the archives of Yad Vashem, the official Israeli institution in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. There it is recorded that, years after being baptized, the Sevi gave their daughter to their neighbors, the Saulniers, a Catholic couple, to protect her. "They were not afraid of the bombings, but of being arrested and deported because they were Jews," says the text. Fortunately, we know that the little girl was reunited with her parents after the war.

    More than 100 names, more than 100 stories

    Finding and interviewing the protagonists of this story is very complex, especially since so much time has passed that it is difficult for someone to remain alive. After an intensive search in family blogs and genealogical trees, in addition to more than half a thousand calls, it has been possible to locate a score of descendants. Interestingly, none of them knew anything about this story.

    “My skin is getting goose bumps. I can not believe it. It's like he's talking to me about someone I don't know. I don't understand why they never told me anything, ”says Karine Saporta, a baptized daughter, niece and granddaughter. He learned the news after returning a missed call to his mobile from this journalist. "I thought it was a joke," he says. The case of the Saporta stands out from the rest for its protagonists. The youngest of the family was called Raimundo, he was 16 years old and decades later became the vice-president of Real Madrid, right-hand man of Santiago Bernabéu and architect, among other things, that the player Alfredo Di Stéfano ended up wearing the white jersey of Por lifetime. A relevant figure in Spain, also linked to the leadership of the International Basketball Federation.

    I cannot imagine the suffering my family had to go through. It is a story that must be known

    Karine Saporta, daughter, niece and granddaughter of baptized people, upon hearing the story from the author of this report.

    Her brother, Karine's father, was called Marcelo, he was 19 years old when the false baptism certificate helped him go into exile in Madrid with his entire family. After the war, he changed his name to Marc and returned to Paris. His name gained relevance as a translator, editor and close friend of Jean-Paul Sartre. All, like many baptized, hid what happened to their relatives and took the secret of the Claretians to the grave.

    A year after hanging up the phone, Karine visits the Paris mission to see the famous tomes. Trembling and apparently incredulous, she goes up the wooden stairs that lead to the library, at the top of the convent, accompanied by Father Tobes. Between two walls lined with books and the occasional mousetrap, a table awaits her with an open book. When she read her parents' names, she took in a deep breath. "Here they are," he said.

    There he learned that his parents, in 1949, were also married. Father Valtierra, the same one who signed his false certificate, was the priest who officiated the celebration. “I cannot imagine the suffering my family had to go through. It is a story that must be known. That it should come to light, ”says Marc's daughter excitedly as she fixes her gaze on Father Tobes.

    The Sephardim of the Toledo File

    For Eliazer Carasso; his wife, Matilde Amarigio, and his daughter Alegra, the flight of the Nazis did not end with their departure from France. The journey to his new home, Casablanca, Morocco, would take almost one more year. Like so many Jewish returnees, the Francoist authorities distributed them to Spanish cities, in their case Toledo, waiting to deliver the respective visas. Along with them, six other Jews arrived in the Castilian-La Mancha capital, among them Edith María Esther Nahamías, also baptized. The steps of his odyssey are collected in a police file in the Provincial Historical Archive of Toledo.

    The documents, typed and annotated in ballpoint pen by the civil governor of the province of Toledo, report the residences that the returnees would occupy from August 1943 until their departure, finally in December of that same year. The Carassos lived together with neighbors from Toledo on Calle de la Escalerilla de la Magdalena, number 2. Justa Córdoba, at that time 13 years old, still remembers them as “educated people”, “well dressed” and that “they only talked to each other” . The years have passed and for Córdoba, now in her nineties, it is difficult to remember. “It was very small. In the neighborhood it was said that they were Jews that Franco had taken in as refugees, ”he says by phone.

    Telegram from the civil governor of Toledo to the chief commissioner of the city informing him that nine Sephardic Jews, including several of the "baptized", have left France on August 14, 1943, bound for the Castilian-Manchegan city. TOLEDO PROVINCIAL HISTORICAL ARCHIVE

    What happened to them after leaving Spain is not entirely clear. The Carassos managed to embark in December from Malaga to Casablanca. A month earlier, Nahamías obtained a safe conduct to Barcelona to meet her husband, Jacob Faraggi. Shortly after they settled in Madrid, where they opened a fashion boutique near Plaza de la Independencia. Anne-Marie Rychner Faraggi, a relative of both, says that in 1945 they returned to the Gallic country. “They returned to France after the Second World War. We don't know much more about them in the family, ”explains Rychner.

    The search for each of the names leads to discovering multiple stories that shed light on one of the blackest pages of the 20th century: the war and the Holocaust. Despite having awakened from oblivion, the case of the counterfeiters of God is made up of fragments that remain clearly unsolved. Did they take the initiative to save these people or was it the consul who knocked on your door asking for help? Did the bishopric support his actions or was he simply unaware of the reality of the matter? And more importantly, were Claretian forgeries the key to preventing most of the baptized from dying at the hands of the Nazis?

    After analyzing the games, letters and other reports over and over again, there is no doubt that the Spanish missionaries on Rue de la Pompe exposed themselves to the Nazi authorities. As his accurate handwriting shows, their pulse did not tremble when they signed those one hundred and a half false conversions to try to save these people's lives.

    God's Counterfeiters List

    This is the list of the 155 people who tried to escape the Nazis with the help of God's counterfeiters. If you are a family member or acquaintance of one of these people and want to contact us, you can write to elpaissemanal@elpais.es.

    Credits

    • Coordination: Brenda Valverde
    • Art direction: Fernando Hernández
    • Design: Ignacio Povedano
    • Front-end: Alejandro Gallardo
    • Video editing: Álvaro Rodríguez de la Rúa and Carlos de Vega

    Source: elparis

    All news articles on 2020-08-09

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