Hero Who Saved Hundreds Of Children During World War II Dies At Age 108
Jan 21, 2019 by apost team
World War II will forever be remembered as a real-life struggle between good and evil. As Allied soldiers fought Germany through the cities of Europe and braved the fierce island fortresses of the Empire of Japan, Axis forces slaughtered millions of civilians in occupied territories.
In these terrible acts, millions of men, women, and children were deemed undesirable and killed without any regard for their innocence.
To combat these atrocities, brave men and women stood up to the might of the vicious conquerors. One man was Georges Loinger.
Loinger was a soldier in the French Army when Hitler unleashed the blitzkrieg on his unprepared home. Unable to overcome the might of the German war machine, Loinger was taken captive by the Germans when France capitulated in the summer of 1940. Unwilling to standby while his nation suffered under the boots of Nazi occupation, Loinger escaped and rejoined the war against the Germans.
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When Loinger learned of the mass killing of Jewish civilians by the Wehrmacht, he knew he had to do everything he could to prevent the murder of innocents. The atrocities committed against Jewish people hit Loinger especially hard as he was himself Jewish. Having blonde hair and blue eyes, Loinger’s captors never thought the French soldier was Jewish. Loinger joined the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, also called O.S.E., which worked in conjunction with the French Resistance to save hundreds of Jewish children.
Working with the O.S.E. from April of 1943 to the Allied invasion of Normandy in June of 1944, Loinger helped over 350 Jewish children escape to Switzerland. Many of the children Loinger saved were orphans or were separated from their parents by the horrors of the war. Speaking with reporters from Tablet magazine, Loinger told of the many inventive ways he was able to smuggle children into Switzerland. One time, Loinger dressed some of the children as mourners, bringing them to a cemetery near the Swiss border. Another time, Loinger and the children played in a wooded area near the border, sneaking into the country.
Sadly, Georges Loinger died in Paris last week at the age of 108. For his heroic actions in saving so many innocent children, Loinger was awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest distinction awarded by the French government. Loinger’s actions also earned him the Resistance Medal and the Military Cross.
What do you think of Georges Loinger? Do you know anyone in your life who behaved heroically in spite of terrible conditions? Let us know - and pass this along to your friends and family!