SISTER THOMASINE

In 1932, the order of la Charité de Notre Dame du Bon et Perpétuel secours appointed three nuns, including Sister Marie Thomasine, as managers of the new hospice in Peille to help the sick of Nice. The management of the hospice and the presence of the nuns were highly appreciated by village residents and patients alike. But war broke out in 1939 and the commune found itself on the second line of fortifications facing Italy.

In 1943, the patients said their goodbyes to the sisters and the hospice was converted into a health colony for the children of prisoners of war.

Officially founded by the Vichy government, the small boarding school, posturing as a holiday camp, was turned into a convenient and discrete shelter for Jewish children, who were placed under the exclusive care of the nuns, assisted by a decorated military nurse and her husband and two young girls of the village who were tasked with protecting them night and day. Arrests and roundups were multiplying in Nice. But the nuns ensured the children’s safety. Some of these, such as Edouard Konopnicki, René Cappelletti, or Jacques Morgenstern, spoke of their time at the Peille boarding school and remember in particular Sister Thomasine who made sure there was warmth and love in their lives. So, it was with courage and devotion that Sister Thomasine, the two other nuns, and the staff of the hospice were able to protect, for nearly a year, this small group of Jewish children, just 25km away from where mass deportations were being carried out. The danger was becoming too great, the children and their families were sent to the centre of France.

At the initiative of Eddy Konopnicki, the Righteous Among the Nations department of “Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem gave Sister Thomasine the title of Righteous Among Nations for her role in protecting the Jewish children from Nice.