Élise Rivet
Élise Rivet (born January 19, 1890 in Draria, Algeria , † March 30, 1945 in Ravensbrück ) was a French , Catholic nun and member of the Resistance .
Life
After the death of her father, the daughter of a French naval officer moved with her mother to Lyon in 1910 , where she joined the convent of Nurses Notre Dame de Compassion (“Our Lady of Pity”) and in 1913 made her vows . In the monastery , she dealt with the upbringing and vocational training of girls from disadvantaged families and half-vagabond women. In 1933 she became Superior General of her order under her religious name Mère Marie Élisabeth de l'Eucharistie ("Mother Marie Élisabeth of the Holy Eucharist").
She was committed to expanding her educational facility, for which she received official approval in 1937. After France's defeat at the start of World War II , she decided to fight the evil and began hiding refugees from the Gestapo . In collaboration with Cardinal Gerlier , the Order hid Jewish children in its various monasteries. In 1941 she came into contact with Albert Chambonnet (code name: Colonel Didier) from the Resistance group Combat , who asked her to use her monastery to store weapons and ammunition, which she allowed him to do.
On March 24, 1944, she and her assistant were arrested on the basis of a denunciation by the Gestapo and taken to Fort Montluc prison near Lyon. The stash of weapons was quickly discovered by the Gestapo, but the Resistance archive, which they hid in their monastery, was not. She was taken from Fort Montluc to Romainville, near Paris . With Transport I.246 from Paris, Gare de l'Est, she was deported to Saarbrücken to the Neue Bremm camp (arrival on July 14, 1944) before she was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women on July 28, 1944 (registration no. in this concentration camp: 46921). Stripped of her habit, she was forced to work hard. Towards the end of the war, the Nazis increased the number of mass murders in the gassing facilities. Rivet was "selected" with 1500 other women in the Uckermark in the selection for death. On Good Friday, March 30, 1945, the weakened and starving Élise Rivet sacrificed herself for a mother and entered the gas chamber in her place - a few weeks before the liberation at the end of the war on May 8, 1945.
On November 10, 1945, the French government posthumously awarded her the Croix de guerre with a star . In 1961 the French government honored her with a portrait on a stamp and on December 2, 1979 a street in Brignais (Lyon) was named after her. In 1997 she was posthumously honored with the Médaille des Justes . In 1999 the “Salle Élise Rivet” was named after her at the Institut des Sciences de l'Homme in Lyon.
See also
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rivet, Élise |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mère Marie Elisabeth de l'Eucharistie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French nun who hid refugees and helped the Resistance |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 19, 1890 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Draria , Algeria |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 30, 1945 |
| Place of death | Ravensbrück |