Henri Schilli, the courageous rabbi of the French internment camps

"In the painful darkness of the Agde internment camp, he was my first ray of sunshine since we left Germany." This is how the late writer Ida Akerman described her first meeting with Rabbi Henri Schilli in 1940. 

Akerman was just 14 years old then. Her parents, originally from Berlin, had fled Germany in 1938 and settled, first in Belgium, before arriving in France in May 1940 after the collapse of the French army. Like tens of thousands of German and Austrian Jewish refugees, they had been interned by the French police in the Agde camp, one of the internment sites erected by the Daladier government in 1938 for the fighters of the Spanish Civil War. 

Henri Schilli, with his friend Rabbi René Kappel, was the first French rabbi to enter these internment camps constructed near the coast of Languedoc Roussillon in July 1940. 

Schilli had a great asset at his disposal: born near Strasbourg in 1906, he spoke German perfectly and could therefore communicate with Jewish refugees. Moreover, he was fully capable of sharing their pain: losing his father at the age of 6, he had treated his mother with care before she succumbed to the Spanish flu in 1918.

The father of the philosopher André Neher, who knew Schilli, said of him: "At barely ten years old, he had already earned his place in Paradise." At the age of 12, Schilli was discovered at an orphanage, yet he distinguished himself to such an extent that he received a scholarship to study at the Rabbinical Seminary in France, without even knowing how to speak a word of French.

Appointed rabbi of several Parisian communities before the war, he was mobilized in 1939 as chaplain of the second French army deployed in the Ardennes. He was later demobilized and sent by the Central Consistory to Montpellier, where thousands of Jews had retreated from the Nazis. It was there that he helped organize the community, developed activities, and reassured the most worried Jews. 

Schilli devoted most of his time to helping Jewish refugees from the large internment camps located in Agde, Rivelsaltes or Gurs. Jewish refugees had been interned there by the French government, under the pretext of a 1939 law which mandated for the internment of all nationals of countries at war.

Historian Denis Peschanski deplored "the absurdity of a situation that sees the fiercest opponents of Nazism incarcerated in these camps." Even after the armistice of Rethondes on June 17, 1940, the Vichy government maintained the use of the internment camps. 

In February 1941, there were 40,000 Jewish refugees in the internment camps in the south of France. Schilli did not spare his efforts to bring maximum comfort to the unfortunate Jewish refugees and put himself in danger by intervening with the local and medical authorities to get the children, like Ida Akerman, released, and attempted to help the refugees who were sick.

Yet, despite his dedication and that of his fellow rabbis, his help proved insufficient. Between July and September 1941, sixty children interned in Rivesaltes died due to the diseases that plagued the camp.

After the roundup of the Vel d'hiv in July 1942, the situation of the Jewish refugees in the internment camps worsened.  In August mass deportations of Jewish refugees from the south to Drancy began, and from there to the death camps. 

Raymond Heyman, an Alsatian Jew who accompanied Rabbi Schilli on his visits, recalled: "We were standing facing the open door of a freight car where a neighbor of our synagogue was standing, Mr. Orenstein, wearing his prayer shawl and tefillin. He was praying. We knew he was leaving and would not return." 

As part of his work, Schilli was in close contact with resistance networks, in particular with the 'Sixth,' a group of Israelite scouts in France. During these meetings, he met Alice Ferrières, who was the first "Righteous Among the Nations" to have been designated as such by Yad Vashem after the Holocaust. 

Even when the Germans occupied Montpellier and then Valencia, where he was transferred, Schilli continued to help refugees and saved many lives.

In 1943, after the denunciation and deportation of the Chief Rabbi René Hirshler, who had become the General Chaplain of the internment camps, Schilli assumed his role which exposed him to multiple dangers. The internment camps, little by little, were emptied of their occupants, who were deported to the east. 

In the south of France, thousands of families were hidden either in private homes or in places kept secret by the locals helping. Schilli helped as much as he could, even managing to provide them with matzot (unleavened bread) for the holiday of Passover.

"On the occasion of this Remembrance Day, it is important to recall the memory of this frail-looking man, who was so strong in his convictions"

During the second part of the war, Schilli and his wife Simone were separated from their three daughters who settled in Savoy and were sheltered and protected, thanks to the dedication of Jeanne Brousse. Throughout the war, the Schilli family was accompanied and supported by its "guardian angel" Suzanne Aron, the sister of a well-known director before the war.  

At liberation, Schilli felt invested in a "sacred" mission to restore French Judaism, which had lost a quarter of its members during the years of the war. He became Chaplain General of the EIF, and taught rescued children collected by the OSE (Children's Rescue Organization). 

He was appointed acting chief rabbi of France at the beginning of the 50s with his friend Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan, where he played a decisive role in the famous Finaly Children's case. 

From 1950 until his death in 1975, he was the director of the rabbinical seminary of France. He helped form two generations of French rabbis in the mold of religious Judaism, and tolerance, openness, and dedication. A Zionist from the beginning, he remained attached to the State of Israel, whose birth he saw and which "dazzled" him.

Chief Rabbi Henri Schilli was one of the major figures of French Judaism in the twentieth century. 

On the occasion of this Remembrance Day, it is important to recall the memory of this frail-looking man, who was so strong in his convictions and knew how to be ever-present in the risks of life, wherever he was needed!  

This article originally appeared in i24NEWS' French website, and was written by Daniel Haik, a news anchor and policy analyst.