From Educator to Savior: The Extraordinary Story of Lois Gunden
Lois Gunden (February 25, 1915 – August 27, 2005) was the fourth of five Americans to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Shoah Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority of Israel. She helped establish an orphanage and rescue mission for children in Southern France during World War II. She rescued some children directly from Camp de Rivesaltes, an internment camp.
Gunden remained in France after having been considered an enemy alien. The Germans arrested her in early 1943 and treated her like a diplomat until early 1944. She was held in hotels until a prisoner exchange allowed for her release. She returned to the United States in March 1944, and by the fall she returned to her position as a French professor at Goshen College, and later at Temple University. She died on February 27, 2005, in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
In 1941, twenty-six year old Lois Gunden, an American French teacher from Goshen, Indiana, traveled to southern France at the request of the Mennonite Central Committee with the hope of being able to improve the lives of Spanish child refugees. Following the Spanish Civil War of 1937 through 1940, Spanish refugees had fled to Southern France and were unable to return to Spain without reprisal from Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain. Far from home, Lois could not have imagined that she would soon be thrust into a position to save another group of child refugees: Jewish children who were in danger of being deported and murdered at Auschwitz.
From saving the lives of children to being arrested and held prisoner by Nazi Germany for over a year, it was Lois Gunden's faith in God that gave her the strength and courage to do what many others wouldn't. In a letter she wrote home in October 1942, Lois made it clear that without God, she would have been lost in her mission in France. And had she been lost, who knows how many Jewish boys and girls would have been sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Lois' story, hidden history that has remained long forgotten, is the story of a young American woman’s journey to Europe in the midst of a global war & a German dictatorship set on the physical annihilation of every single man, woman and child of the Jewish faith.
For the rest of Lois' story, please check out the audio link provided for EPISODE TWENTY of our podcast, Hidden History: An Odyssey Through Time
LISTEN NOW: From Educator to Savior: The Extraordinary Story of Lois Gunden
Tune In With Your Favorite Platform!
The Gunden family in the 1920 U.S. Census: Christian, Agnes, Elva, Lois, Orville and Cleland (courtesy of familysearch.org)
The Gunden family in the 1930 U.S. Census: Christian, Agnes, Elva, Lois, Orville, Cleland, Elton, Ralph, Donald and Doris (courtesy of familysearch.org)
The Gunden family in the 1940 U.S. Census: Christian, Agnes, Elva, Lois, Orville, Cleland, Elton, Ralph, Donald, Doris and Ruth (courtesy of familysearch.org)
Lois, left, and Helen Penner set out on the American Export Lines' ship, Excambion, in early October 1941 (courtesy of Gunden-Clemens family).
A postcard of Villa St. Christophe, Canet-Plage, France, ca. 1940 (courtesy of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
A group of girls living at the Villa St. Christophe children’s home, where they were cared for by Lois Gunden, ca. 1941 (courtesy of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Lois Gunden (center right) with other members of the Villa St. Christophe staff, ca. 1941-1942 (courtesy of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Girls in the dining room of Villa St. Christophe children’s convalescent home in Canet-Plage 1942 (courtesy of the Mennonite Central Committee).
The older girls prepare string beans for the cook at Villa St. Christophe. The girl farthest left is Ginette Drucker Kalish, one of the Jewish girls that Lois saved (courtesy of Mennonite Church USA Archives, Goshen, Indiana).
A photo of Lois in the South Bend Tribune after her return to the United States, March 23, 1944.
Lois Gunden, 1945 (courtesy of Goshen College).
Marriage announcement of Lois Gunden and Ernest Clemens, the Mennonite Weekly Review, May 8, 1958.
74 year old Lois Gunden featured in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 1989.
The final resting place of Lois Gunden Clemens in Plains Mennonite Cemetery, Hatfield, Pennsylvania.
Holocaust survivor testimonies about deportation to concentration camps in France and conditions in the camps of Pithiviers and Drancy. This video contains excerpts from the Holocaust survivor testimonies of: Mirka Mora, Jaques Graubart, Michael Zylberberg and Rosette Fischer.
The experiences faced by the French during World War II when the Germans occupied the country seem unfathomable to many of us today. Lack of heat, electricity, and adequate food were only a few things that impacted those under German occupation. As an adult, Janine Simone Hopkins was encouraged by her family to record her experiences and reflections of her life in Paris during the German occupation.
Read more below:
On the morning of December 7, 1941, at 7.48am local time, aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Their intention was to destroy and damage as much of the US Pacific Fleet as possible, before it could respond to Japanese operations taking place on the same day against British, Dutch and U.S. territories in southeast Asia.
Read more below:
Add comment
Comments
Very good john great job, very interesting story about her such a wonderful woman