Belgian Righteous Among the Nations to be Posthumously honored at Yad Vashem

 

The Rescue Story:

 

Hersch & Esther Lowenbraun emigrated from Poland to Belgium. They settled in Charlerio together with their three daughters; Sala (born 1925), Matylda (born 1929) and Theresa-Tova (born 1938). Sala was arrested and was deported with the first transport from Belgium to Poland in 1942. In an attempt to save their two remaining daughters Esther brought both Matylda and Theresa-Tova to the Saint Joseph Hospital and Convent. There, she asked the Mother Superior , Sister Julienne Aneuse, to hide the girls. Before leaving she asked Matylda to recite the Shema prayer with her younger sister Tova in order not to forget their Jewish heritage. In 1943 Esther decided to move the girls to a safer location. Tova was taken to the farm of Angele Larose in the village of Villers-Poterie. The Larose family treated Tova very well and Tova benefited from the quiet life of the village, enjoing the animals. Occasionally, Esther would visit but, as Tova told Yad Vashem, "I didn't remember her as my mother, just a woman who visited and brought me a doll". Tova would accompany the Larose family to church every week and at a certain stage asked the Priest to convert to Christianity. The Priest told her she would be able to do so only once she was old enough. At the end of the war Esther came to get her daughter and together the family immigrated to the United States.

 

On March 16, 2015, Yad Vashem recognized Ms. Angele Larose and Sister Julienne Aneuse as Righteous Among the Nations.